WHAT'S EATING GILBERT GRAPE

About the show

A new musical adaptation of Peter Hedges' 1991 novel brings a small-town family struggling against the tide of circumstance to the stage. With a book by the Academy Award-nominated author and music and lyrics by Adrian Enscoe, Christopher Sears, Sydney Shepherd, and Regina Strayhorn, the production examines the bonds that hold a household together when economic hardship and personal yearning test those connections. Directed by Anne Kauffman, the work offers a fresh perspective on themes of obligation, aspiration, and the complicated geography between staying and leaving. The musical explores how one person's dream of escape intersects with a family's need for him to remain.