(HACKENSACK, NJ) -- The Company Theatre Group presents Over The River and Through the Woods across two weekends from March 7-15, 2026 at the Hackensack Performing Arts Center (HACPAC). With their return to the HACPAC for the first time since 2019, The Company brings Oradell native Joe DiPietro's touching, laugh-a-minute play to their audiences.
Nick is a single, Italian-American guy from New Jersey. His parents retired and moved to Florida, but that doesn’t mean his family isn’t still in Jersey. In fact, he sees both sets of his grandparents every Sunday for dinner. This is routine until he has to tell them that he’s been offered a dream job. The job he’s been waiting for – marketing executive – would take him away from his beloved, but annoying, grandparents. He tells them. The news doesn’t sit so well.
Thus begins a series of schemes to keep Nick around. How could he betray his family’s love to move to Seattle, for a job, wonder his grandparents? Well, Frank, Aida, Nunzio and Emma do their level best, and that includes bringing to dinner the lovely – and single – Caitlin O’Hare as bait.
The cast includes Teddy Coluca (Only Murders in the Building, The Blacklist), Paul Whelihan (Artistic Director of Pushcart Players), Andrea Prendamano (Founding Member of The Company), Actor/Singer Elizabeth Nicholas Synnott; and two newcomers to The Company: Joey Nasta and Veronica Shea (Artistic Director of Off-Brand Opera).
Performances take place Saturdays at 2:00pm & 7:00pm and Sundays at 2:00pm. Tickets are $40 and available for purchase online. The Hackensack Performing Arts Center (HACPAC) is located at 102 State Street in Hackensack, New Jersey.
Over the River and Through the Woods premiered off-Broadway at the John Houseman Theater on October 5, 1998. Directed by Joel Bishoff, the production featured Val Avery, Jim Bracchitta, Joan Copeland, Marsha Dietlein, Dick Latessa and Marie Lillo.
Joe DiPietro has won two Tony Awards, a Drama Desk Award and three Outer Critics Circle Awards. Broadway: Diana (also on Netflix), Nice Work If You Can Get It starring Matthew Broderick and Kelli O'Hara (10 Tony nominations, including Best Book and Best Musical), Memphis (4 Tony Awards, including Best Book, Best Score and Best Musical), All Shook Up, Living on Love (starring Renee Fleming). Off-Broadway: Ernest Shackleton Loves Me (Off-Broadway Alliance Award - Best Musical), Clever Little Lies (starring Marlo Thomas), The Toxic Avenger (OCC Award - Best off-Broadway Musical), The Thing About Men (OCC Award - Best off-Broadway Musical), the much-produced comedy, Over the River and Through the Woods, as well I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change (the longest-running musical revue in Off-Broadway history). His many regional credits include Conscience (George Street Playhouse), The Second Mrs. Wilson (Long Wharf Theatre), Chasing the Song (La Jolla Playhouse), The Last Romance (The Old Globe.) His musicals and plays have received thousands of productions across the country and around the world.
Founded in 2007, The Company Theatre Group is a non-profit, professional company of actors, writers, and directors in residence at The Hackensack Performing Arts Center. Drawing inspiration from the acclaimed Group Theatre, The Company is dedicated to developing and nurturing artists in an imaginative and safe setting, while at the same time pushing the boundaries of contemporary theatre with its non-choreographed style of production. Like the Group Theatre, The Company creates heightened authentic human behavior on stage. “Life in Fiction” we like to call it. Truly living in the moment. So, no two performances are ever the same.
The Company creates an entertaining environment and a thought-provoking experience where each audience member can feel like a ‘fly on the wall’, watching the lives and events of real people in real situations unfold and sometimes unravel right before their eyes.
