Is there still Sex in the City? No, we aren’t talking about the show (‘Sex and the City’) which is filming a reboot currently for HBO Max, but we are talking about the woman who started it all, Candace Bushnell.
The critically acclaimed, international best-selling author and creator has brought her one-woman show to the Bucks County Playhouse, which is currently playing now until July 18. The Playhouse’s trio of Tony Award winning producers – Alexander Fraser, Robyn Goodman and Josh Fiedler — officially announced that Bucks County Playhouse will present a workshop of the show, produced by Marc Johnston, for a month-long engagement. The production will play in front of a limited live and socially distanced audience.
“We are so proud to present this show and have Candace, Marc and Lorin here working on something new,” says Executive Producer Robyn Goodman in a statement. “Women of all generations can empathize with Candace. When my female friends and I read Candace’s columns and books we not only wanted to be her, but she freed us to talk honestly about sex and gave us the confidence to be ourselves and pursue our dreams.”
Candace first made her appearance this month in the City of Brotherly Love not on the stage, but at a bar, and instead of reciting lines from her new show, she was sipping cocktails in search of the best cosmo in Rittenhouse Row, all using Crystal Head vodka. The bartender competition titled ‘Philadelphia’s Ultimate Cosmo’ featured entries from a few notable spots that call that area of the city home including the new fried chicken and champagne concept Bar Poulet and Rogue, where the event was held. Outside in the restaurant’s garden oasis, across from the picturesque Rittenhouse Park, Bushnell sipped the different cosmos and then answered questions from fans and reporters who were wondering about the evolution of her book turned show, and where she lies now in the world with Carrie, Charlotte, Miranda and Samantha.
‘Is There Still Sex and the City?’ is based on Bushnell’s 2019 book by the same name. The author and real-life Carrie Bradshaw goes into three periods of her lifetime with the book and show: Her childhood, her years as reality’s Bradshaw, and her time after her divorce from New York City Ballet dancer Charles Askegard almost a decade ago, which she notes as curative.
But the new show sheds light on everything that fans might have been wondering about the birth of the series that sparked not just a show, but a whole following.
Bushnell is celebrating the 25th anniversary of the publication of her first book, “Sex and the City,” which grew out of her popular column in the New York Observer. As the release states, the book was subsequently picked up as a television show and the character of Carrie Bradshaw is a stand-in for Bushnell. Audiences will get a front seat from her arrival in New York City alone with $20 in her pocket, to working her way up the ladder, to secrets behind the creation of Sex and the City and finding herself single again in her 50’s.
“I’m so excited to share the story of how it all began… How a young woman reinvented her life and in the process created a cultural phenomenon,” says Bushnell in a statement. “Working with a company like Bucks County Playhouse and creating a show has been a dream of mine since I first arrived in New York, back in the late 70’s. I’m thrilled to be working with such an amazing group of people.”
The production will play Tuesdays through Sundays. Tickets are now on sale for $45 and a Girls Night VIP Package tickets are $125 on Tuesdays and $150 on Thursdays. For complete details, and to purchase tickets, visit buckscountyplayhouse.org.
