Hampton Theatre Company Presents 'Clever Little Lies' from October 26–November 12

Clever Little Lies—an adult comedy by Joe DiPietro about love and marriage, in and outside the bonds of matrimony—will be the first play of the Hampton Theatre Company’s (HTC) 2017-2018 season, opening on October 26 at the Quogue Community Hall and running through November 12.

Sensing from her husband that something is wrong in their son’s marriage, Alice invites the young couple over for a cocktails and cheesecake interrogation. As one set of lies threatens to unravel a relationship in this comedy and drama about falsehoods and infidelity, Alice offers an object lesson by spinning a new web of fanciful deceit about her own marriage. Or is she telling the truth? 

The cast of Clever Little Lies features four Hampton Theatre Company veterans—Ed Brennan, Carolann DiPirro, Terrance Fiore, and Diana Marbury. The family matriarch, Alice, is played by HTC Artistic Director Diana Marbury, last seen on the HTC stage in 4,000 Miles last winter. Terrance Fiore, last on stage in Quogue in Other People’s Money in 2013, has the role of Alice’s husband Bill Sr.

Ed Brennan, last on stage in Quogue as Inspector Goole in An Inspector Calls in 2015, has the role of the couple’s son, Billy; his wife Jane is played by Carolann DiPirro, who played Anne Frank in the very first production of the company in 1985. More recently on the East End, she played Goodwife Doolittle in the 2016 Literature Live production of “The Scarlet Letter” at Bay Street Theater. 

Although he won the Tony Award for Best Book for a Musical in 2010 for Memphis, DiPietro is perhaps best known for writing the book and lyrics for the long-running Off-Broadway show I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change, which opened in 1996 and ran for 12 years (5,003 performances) Off-Broadway at the Westside Theatre. His 1998 comedy Over the River and Through the Woods played the John Houseman Theatre for 800 performances over two years.

DiPietro made his Broadway debut in 2005 with the Elvis Presley jukebox musical All Shook Up. With Bon Jovi’s David Bryan, he wrote The Toxic Avenger, which opened Off-Broadway on April 6, 2009, and won the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding New Off-Broadway Musical. He also wrote the book for Nice Work If You Can Get It starring Matthew Broderick and Kelli O’Hara, which opened at Broadway’s Imperial Theatre in 2012. 

HTC board president Andrew Botsford directs. Set design is by Sean Marbury; lighting design by Sebastian Paczynski; and costumes by Teresa Lebrun.

“Clever Little Lies” runs at the Quogue Community Hall from October 26 to November 12 with shows on Thursdays and Fridays at 7, Saturdays at 8 and Sundays at 2:30, with an additional matinee on November 11. For tickets and more information, visit hamptontheatre.org.