Slings and Arrows

Geoffrey gets a permanent posting as the New Burbage artistic director after his triumphant Hamlet, but major challenges loom ahead. Richard must keep the festival from going broke, and Geoffrey must stage the cursed Scottish tragedy, Macbeth.

Christmas comes to New Burbage and so do the interns, who are part of the new austerity program. Richard raises begging to new heights and hires Sanjay Ranier of the hip and edgy marketing firm Frog Hammer.

The curse of Macbeth kicks in when the director of Romeo and Juliet breaks her neck, forcing Geoffrey to invite show-dog Darren Nichols back from Berlin to fill in. Juliet meets her Romeo and sparks do not fly. Ellen and Geoffrey' brief experiment in domesticity ends. Badly.

With subscribers canceling en masse since the launch of Frog Hammer' campaign of alienation, Sanjay counsels Richard to embrace the left side of his brain. Now living in a storage room in the theatre with Oliver' ghost as a roommate, Geoffrey reaches a breaking point with his Macbeth.

Ellen confuses her auditor with a confessor but graduates to adulthood with the final tally of her back taxes. The police have developed a keen interest in Sanjay, whose real name is not Sanjay. With the veteran actor playing Macbeth dismissed for having a bloated ego, his understudy preps for the spotlight.

Youthquake-the magic of rebranding kicks in! Geoffrey works on his own brand of explosive magic, Oliver returns to the stage, Richard upgrades his dream quest to include Gilbert & Sullivan, and love conquers all.