Bucks County Bakeries in a Cupcake-Off at Bucks County Playhouse

It was Cupcakes Galore on August 16, 2016 when the best of Bucks County bakeries competed in a Cupcake-Off, the first ever cupcake competition at Bucks County Playhouse(BCP). Broadway, TV and Film star Justin Guarini, taking on the role of his character in Cake Off, the new musical at the Bucks County Playhouse opening this weekend, hosted the competition while the rest of the cast and the Alex Fraser, Producing Director of BCP, judged. The bakeries that competed include:

· Maryanne’s Pastry Shoppe

· The Lucky Cupcake

· Maison Blanc

Maryanne’s Pastry Shoppe and Maison Blanc tied for first place and won four tickets to see Cake Off with a refreshment package (or drink tickets). The Lucky Cupcake did not go home empty handed; their prize was two tickets to see Cake Off. Everyone who attended happily devoured all of the cupcakes.

About Cake Off:

Broadway, television and film star Justin Guarini returns to Bucks County Playhouse when he joins Tony-nominee Euan Morton, Barrymore winner Michele Ragusa and 14-year-old newcomer Aidan J. Lawrence at Bucks County Playhouse for Cake Off, a new musical by Sheri Wilner, Julia Jordan and Adam Gwon. Cake Off, directed by Gaye Taylor Upchurch, will preview on August 19, 2016 with opening night on Saturday, August 20. It will run through September 10, 2016.

Based on the original play Bake Off by Sheri Wilner, Cake Off features a book by Sheri Wilner and Julia Jordan and lyrics by Adam Gwon and Julia Jordan. Gwon has written the musical’s score. Cake Off received its world premiere last year at Signature Theatre in New York.

Perfect for summer theater-goers, New York Times theater critic Charles Isherwood said, “Mr. Gwon’s rippling, melodic music matches the show’s fluffy style.” The play follows the action at the 50th Annual Millberry Cake Off, where the stakes are higher than usual, as the prize for the best sugary delight has been raised to $1 million. For the first time, men are also allowed to enter and Paul, a starry-eyed, single Dad has risen to the top. He meets his match in Bake Off veteran, Rita, and soon they are thrust into the heat of competition. Forced to deal with the craziness, backroom politics and sugar high of America’s most famous baking championship, these two feisty contestants don their aprons, strap on their oven mitts and square off. A brand new musical, Cake Off is a tuneful, tasty good time!

About Bucks County Playhouse:

Bucks County Playhouse, a nonprofit 501(c)3 organization, is the oldest and largest professional Equity performing arts center in Bucks County. Under the direction of Tony Award-winning producers, Alexander Fraser and Robyn Goodman, the Playhouse provides first class professional theatrical entertainment as well as community events, partnerships and arts education programming for visitors and residents of New Hope, Doylestown, Lambertville and the Delaware Valley.

Located between Philadelphia and New York, Bucks County Playhouse opened in 1939 in a converted 1790 gristmill after a group of community activists, led by Broadway orchestrator Don Walker and playwright Moss Hart, rallied to save the building. The Playhouse quickly became one of the country’s most famous regional theaters, featuring a roster of American theatrical royalty including Helen Hayes, Kitty Carlisle, George S. Kaufman, Grace Kelly, Robert Redford, Bert Lahr, Walter Matthau, Angela Lansbury, Bernadette Peters, Alan Alda, Tyne Daly, Liza Minnelli and Audra McDonald and remained in continuous operation until December 2010. In 2012, the Playhouse re-opened thanks to the efforts of the Bridge Street Foundation, the nonprofit family foundation of Kevin and Sherri Daugherty, and Broadway producer Jed Bernstein.

Since its renovation, significant productions include Terrence McNally’s “Mothers and Sons” starring Tyne Daly, which moved to Broadway and was nominated for two Tony Awards, and “Misery” by William Goldman based on the Stephen King novel which also went on to a Broadway run in the 2015-16 season. Two of the Playhouse’s recent productions -- “Company” starring Justin Guarini, and William Finn’s “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” --were named by The Wall Street Journal to its “Best of Theatre” list for 2015.