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Theater Beat: New seasons; We the Detectives; Martha Graham Cracker sings!

It's season announcement season! As local theaters' 2017-18 lineups land in my in-box, these are some that have caught my eye. And that's just the froth on the wave. Riches to come.

It's season announcement season!

As local theaters' 2017-18 lineups land in my in-box, these are some that have caught my eye. And that's just the froth on the wave. Riches to come.

Guys and Dolls, July 21-Aug. 12 at Bucks County Playhouse.

Federico García Lorca's Blood Wedding, one of my favorites, Oct. 25-Nov. 19 at the Wilma Theater.

Copenhagen by Michael Frayn, often called the best play ever written about science (not that the list is long), Jan. 11-Feb. 11, 2018 at the Lantern Theater.

The Bluest Eye, an adaptation of Toni Morrison's novel, March 1-April 8, 2018, at the Arden Theatre.

The Free Library gets all theatrical

The Free Library and the Rosenbach Museum and Library are getting into theater. In a collaboration called We the Detectives, April 8-Sept. 1, the two libraries will run exhibits on the history of the detective genre, with a mystery to be solved, by you. At each exhibit, you can get a dossier and begin gathering clues - all revolving around the original manuscript of Edgar Allan Poe's

Murders in the Rue Morgue

.

Along with the exhibits, there's a free, 90-minute "immersive theater experience" at the library, titled Gumshoe and produced by the experimental theater ensemble New Paradise Laboratories. Seven actors playing "library agents" will guide audiences through the building, solving mysteries. Whit MacLaughlin, founder and artistic director of New Paradise, calls it a "toboggan ride" through the library's collections and secret corridors.

Six months in production, Gumshoe tapped writer Lauren Feldman and game-theory expert Tassos Stevens to bring the concept to life. The mystery involves Richard Gimbel (of the department-store Gimbels), who was a big Poe collector. You can reserve tickets now for Gumshoe productions at www.freelibrary.org. From the home page, search for "gumshoe."

Polyphonic musicals

Tuesday through Saturday at UArts, it's year three of Polyphone, a "festival of the emerging musical," with artistic director César Alvarez. Four productions are in rotation, off-book, stripped-down, with band:

Folk Wandering

by Jaclyn Backhaus and Andrew Neisler;

Normativity

, with book, music, and lyrics by Jaime Jarrett;

The Real Whisper

, with music and lyrics by Greta Gertler Gold; and

The Best Songs in the World Show

, by my idols Martha Stuckey and Red 40 & the Last Groovement.

Watch the shows during the week, or come Saturday starting at noon for a four-show marathon. Tickets: universityofthearts.ticketleap.com.

Can't wait to see

Martha Graham Cracker Sings Musicals

, April 3 at World Cafe Live. It's the latest in 11th Hour Theatre Company' Spotlight series of solo concerts by local stars of musical theater.

Recommendations? Comments?

Email me. Put "Theater Beat" in the subject field.

jt@phillynews.com 215-854-4406 @jtimpane