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2013-2014 Audience Survey

Below are two lists of titles that we are considering for the upcoming season. These include both MUSICALS and PLAYS.

We are not listing any new plays that are under consideration, as the titles and in most cases the authors will be completely unknown to our audience. But we do appreciate your input in the selection process and we take that input seriously. 

Please visit our survey at https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/HW9QHVC to record your choices! (Vote only once, please!)

Musicals

HELLO, DOLLY! – Adapted from Thornton Wilder’s "The Matchmaker." The musical has a classic score by Jerry Herman, with such favorite songs as “Hello, Dolly!,” “Before the Parade Passes By” and “It Only Takes a Moment.” Set at the turn of the 20th century it is the story of Dolly Gallagher Levi, a meddlesome matchmaker, who is in New York to find a wife for the famous “half-a-millionaire” Horace Vandergelder.  Fabulous costumes, terrific dance numbers and a happy ending for all make this a fun filled evening for the entire family.

GEORGE M! – The story of the Broadway Yankee Doodle Dandy, songwriter and impresario George M. Cohan traces his life from his childhood in vaudeville through his days on the Great White Way. Cohan wrote such Broadway favorites as “Yankee Doodle Dandy,” “You’re a Grand Old Flag,” “Over There” and “Give My Regards to Broadway.” There isn’t a song in this show you won’t be humming when you leave the theatre!

WILL ROGERS FOLLIES – This musical subtitled “A Life in Revue” blends the story of the plainspoken cowboy and newspaperman who was most famous for saying “I never met a man I didn’t like” into a Follies style review. A real-life folk hero, Rogers’ personal philosophy, which espouses his respect and confidence in the goodness of his fellow man, is explained through song, dance, and rope tricks. The original Broadway production won the Tony Award for Best Musical.

HAIRSPRAY – Set in 1962, Hairspray is the story of loveable Tracy Turnblad, a plus-sized sweetheart, who wants nothing more in life than to dance on the local television dance show, “The Corny Collins Show.” When her dream comes true she is transformed from outcast to celebrity. Based on a film by John Waters, the musical was made into a motion picture. Big hair and big entertainment!

THE DROWSY CHAPARONE – This incredibly clever show is the story of a die-hard musical theatre fan who brings to life the musical he is listening to on his turntable…literally: the characters burst through walls, and out of closets, enacting the show in our storyteller’s apartment. If you have ever sat in the darkened theatre before the show starts and thought, “Please let it be good!” THIS is the show for you.

ELF – based on the film of the same name this is the charming tale of Buddy the Elf, who mistakenly crawled into Santa’s sack and was transported to the North Pole. Now as an adult he returns to New York to try to find his father – who, along with much of New York, is lacking the Christmas spirit. Needless to say, Buddy finds his Dad, instills the holiday spirit into all of New York, and a Christmas is saved! This is fun holiday entertainment that enjoyed extremely successful limited engagements on Broadway in the last few years.

GRAND HOTEL – It is 1928 and we are in the most opulent hotel in the world! A slice of life in post World War I Germany, following the lives of the visitors to the hotel over a weekend. The characters include a Prima Ballerina, a destitute Baron, a fatally ill Jewish bookkeeper who wants to spend his last days in luxury, and a typist dreaming of fame in Hollywood. Perhaps they will find love, or make their fortune, perhaps their dreams will come true….Originally directed and choreographed by Tommy Tune and based on the MGM movie of the same title.

MOVIN' OUT – The highly successful collaboration between Billy Joel and Twyla Tharp, featuring a top-ten list of musical favorites, including “Uptown Girl,” “Just the Way You Are,” “Movin’ Out” and “Big Shot” (to name just a few) and spectacular dancing. Theenergy just pours off the stage!

KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN – Twenty years ago this Kander and Ebb gem won the Tony Award for Best Musical. "Kiss of the Spider Woman" revamps a harrowing tale of persecution into a dazzling spectacle that juxtaposes gritty realities with liberating fantasies. Cellmates in a Latin American prison, Valentin is a tough revolutionary undergoing torture, and Molina is an unabashed homosexual serving eight years for deviant behavior. Molina shares his fantasies about an actress, Aurora (originated on Broadway by Chita Rivera) with Valentin. One of her roles is a Spider Woman who kills with a kiss.

SWEET CHARITY – Have you ever known a girl who wanted something so badly that she tried too hard to get it? Meet Charity, the girl who wants to be loved so much that she has lost sight of who she is. The score is by Cy Coleman with such hits as “If My Friends Could See Me Now,” “Where Am I Going,” “I Love to Cry at Weddings” and, of course, “Big Spender.”  The book is by Neil Simon and it was originally directed and choreographed by Bob Fosse and starred Gwen Verdon.

THE FULL MONTY – Six unemployed steelworkers in Buffalo, New York come up with a novel way of making money: they decide to produce and star in a male burlesque show in which they promise to bare “the fully Monty.” Of course, one of them is a little overweight, another has a chicken chest, a third is a tad past his prime, but hey, that’s half the fun. SPOILER ALERT: They don’t reveal “the full Monty,” but they do put on a good, old-fashioned, and slightly naughty, show. Funny, heartwarming with a lovely musical score and plenty of laughs for, if not the whole family, then at least all the female members of your household. A perfect “ladies night out” musical.

FIDDLER ON THE ROOF – Tevye the milkman and his five daughters living in a little village in Czarist Russia – based on the short story by Sholom Alcheim, steeped in Jewish heritage but universal in its message of faith, family and tradition. The score by Jerry Back and Sheldon Harnick is brilliant.

SOMETHING'S AFOOT – But the butler didn’t do it! That is the title song of this fabulous whodunit, Agatha Christie’s "Ten Little Indians," set to music. Ten people are stranded in an isolated English country estate during a raging thunderstorm. One by one they are killed in mysterious (and hilarious) ways as they try to discover the murderer’s identity. Can you solve the mystery before they are all gone?

THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE – This is the stage version of the 1967 movie. In the fast-paced 1920s, a girl from Kansas moves to New York City to marry a rich man. She samples the “thoroughly modern” flapper life, makes friends, finds unexpected romance and nearly gets caught up in a white slavery ring. Tap dancing and fun abound!

Plays

ARSENIC AND OLD LACE – Best known to us as a film starring Cary Grant, this crazy comedy is the story of the charming and innocent (but slightly sinister) Brewster sisters, who populate their cellar with the poisoned remains of their boarders; the antics of their brother who thinks he is Teddy Roosevelt, and their two nephews. Set in the early 1940s in New York, this is fun for the entire family.

DEATHTRAP – One of the best theatrical thrillers of all time! Ira Levin (author of "Rosemary’s Baby") combines true suspense with genuine comedy. Sidney Bruhl, a successful writer of Broadway thrillers, is struggling to overcome a “dry spell.” A possible change in his fortune occurs when he receives a script from a student in the seminar he has been conducting at a nearby college—a thriller which Sidney recognizes immediately as a potential Broadway hit. Sidney’s plan to offer collaboration to the student results in a multitude of plot twists and turns right up until the final, startling moments.

THE FARNSWORTH INVENTION – It’s 1929. Two ambitious visionaries race against each other to invent a device called “television” – and one of them, Philo Farnsworth, was born here in Utah! This is a fascinating play by Aaron Sorkin (known for the stage play "A Few Good Men" and the television series "The West Wing") who is a master at taking real life drama to the stage.

BOEING BOEING - This 1960s French farce adapted for the English-speaking stage features self-styled Parisian lothario Bernard, who has Italian, German, and American fiancées, each beautiful airline hostesses with frequent “layovers.” He keeps “one up, one down and one pending” until unexpected schedule changes bring all three to Paris—and Bernard’s apartment—at the same time.

MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING – One of my favorite Shakespeares!  Those bantering lovers Beatrice and Benedick, Claudio and Hero, love, war, happiness, scorn, a villain, lovers, and of course a happy ending for all.

TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA – Friendship, infidelity, and the foolish way people in love behave are the themes, in what some believe to be Shakespeare’s first play. I think he was on to something!

OTHER DESERT CITIES – In this recent Broadway hit by John Robin Baitz, Brooke Wyeth returns home to Palm Springs to visit her parents after a six-year absence. A once-promising novelist, Brooke announces to her family the imminent publication of a memoir dredging up a pivotal, and tragic, event in the family’s history—a wound that her parents don’t want reopened. The dialogue is biting, the characters intriguing, the story riveting.

THE PITTMAN PAINTERS – In 1934, a group of coal miners and a dental mechanic from Northern England hired a professor from Newcastle University to teach an Art Appreciation class. To everyone’s surprise, the “Pittman painters” in that class became, for a time, the hottest thing in the art world. Based on a true story, this play ran in New York a couple of years ago and I really enjoyed it—it is thought-provoking and heartwarming.

STEPPING OUT – This is not a very well-known play, but I saw it many years ago in London and completely fell in love with it. It is the story of an adult tap-dancing class – really a slice of life in working class London, a disparate group of people who come together to find success and happiness through tap dancing.

ONE MAN, TWO GUVNORS – The funniest show I have seen in years.  A fresh take on the classic farce "A Servant of Two Masters," "One Man, Two Guvnors" presents slapstick at its finest—with actors falling down stairs, slamming doors, making double entendre and interacting with the audience. This is not a particularly highbrow brand of comedy, full of silly alliteration and, yes, poop jokes, but I laughed so hard I cried.

THE ROYAL FAMILY – by George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber, loosely based on the theatrical Barrymore Family, is a look into the eccentric world of New York theatre of the 1920s. A family of theater stars go about their glamorous business: looking at scripts, running to performances, and even finding a little time for romance. But what will the family think when they find out that one of their own is thinking of giving up the stage for married life?

CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF — Undeniably one of Tennessee Williams’ great plays, the story of Maggie the Cat and her struggle to hold onto her husband Brick’s love. Immortalized by the movie starring Elizabeth Taylor and Paul Newman, this steamy Southern saga takes the stuff of nighttime soap opera—love, lust, money and secrets—and turns it into great drama.