Philadelphia Theatre Company presents 'Macbeth in Stride' through Nov. 19

PHILADELPHIA -- The Philadelphia premiere of Macbeth in Stride is rocking the stage at the Suzanne Roberts Theatre.

"It's a fantastic rock musical that takes on the iconic character of Lady Macbeth," says Taibi Magar, Co-Director of Macbeth in Stride and Co-Artistic Director of Philadelphia Theatre Company.

"It is a little bit like Lady Macbeth meets Tina Turner," adds Tyler Dobrowsky, Co-Director of Macbeth in Stride and Co-Artistic Director of Philadelphia Theatre Company.

Whitney White is both the creator of the show and its star. She performs as Lady Macbeth.

"I am her. I think for me, Lady Macbeth is any woman I've ever met that wanted something in her life," says White.

White flips the script of the Shakespeare classic.

"Macbeth is essentially a story about a couple that wants to get ahead in life by any means necessary," she says.

Here, the story is told from Lady Macbeth's perspective.

"It's a lot about what it is to be an ambitious woman, what it is to be an ambitious Black woman," says Magar.

White says the show looks at the implications it has for today.

"And the sort of complicated nature of what it gets into, once you are a woman with power," adds Magar.

Macbeth also has a role, along with the three witches who play backup singers.

"It's all original music. Whitney wrote the entire score," says Magar.

"The bulk of the music is really living in rock, soul and gospel," says White.

White says audiences will feel like they're at a "concert musical."

"We're on microphones, we're talking to the audience," she says.

"She has an incredible way of making Shakespeare extremely accessible; very, very modern," says Magar of White.

"The piece asks a lot of really good questions," says White.

Lady Macbeth kills herself at the end of Shakespeare's Macbeth, but she says with this show she's examining, "but why does it end that way?"

"It's a beautiful journey, really," says Magar. "At times really funny and then at times, incredibly moving."

"It's a really good introduction to the kind of work that we like to do, and the kind of work that we want to be doing here in Philadelphia," says Dobrowsky.

Philadelphia Theatre Company is staging Macbeth in Stride through November 19 at the Suzanne Roberts Theatre.

Macbeth in Stride | Philadelphia Theatre Company | Tickets

Suzanne Roberts Theatre

480 S Broad St, Philadelphia, PA 19146