‘Field Hockey Hot’ lovingly satirizes high school sports

Let’s just say this about field hockey players — you better not mess with them when they have a stick in their hands.

It’s game on in Michael Ogborn’s new comedy “Field Hockey Hot,” which begins its run at the Mainstage of the Adrienne Theatreon Thursday throughMarch 22.

“There’s an absence of silliness,” says Philly native Ogborn of field hockey players. “They really seem to be able to retain their femininity, but they’re a force on the field. They’re not silly girls. They’re not silly about boys. When I was in high school they didn’t worry about their hair, but they were pretty, and they did wear makeup.”

In “Field Hockey Hot,” the star goalie of the fictional Applebee Academy is injured two weeks before the North American championship, but Coach Barnes (Jennie Eisenhower) will stop at nothing to win the title. Ogborn (“Baby Case”) wrote the book, lyrics and music based on ’80s hits. Megan Nicole O’Brien directs the 11th Hour Theatre Company production.

“We took the gameseriously, but it is so much fun to see it played onstage,” Ogborn says. “It’s all set to music, and we have an announcer doing the play-by-play. There are two Russian exchange students played by guys; that’s the comic humor there. There is a tough element.”

Will “Field Hockey Hot” do for the high school field hockey sub-culture what the 1999 women’s World Cup team and “Bend It Like Beckham” did for girls soccer or “Glee” and “Pitch Perfect” have done for glee clubs?

“The play brought back so many memories [for former field hockey players] and they brought their friends when we did the workshop,” Ogborn says. “We’re getting requests for groups of tickets for eight and 15 … something seems to be happening totally by accident.”

‘Field Hockey Hot’

Through March 22

Adrienne Theatre

2030 Sansom St.

$32 to $37, 267-987-9865

www.11thhourtheatrecompany.org