Photo by Amy Boyle
Disney’s smash hit Broadway musical “Beauty and the Beast” returns to the Fisher Theatre March 25 to 30 with Darick Pead (left) as the Beast and Hilary Maiberger as Belle. For tickets or more information call 800-982-2787 or go to www.ticketmaster.com or www.broadwayindetroit.com.
By SUE SUCHYTA
Southgate Community Players announced an exciting 2014-15 season last week featuring main stage musicals, drama, comedy and youth theater productions.
Three Jewish widows – Ida, Lucille and Doris – meet once a month for tea before visiting their husband’s graves. When they meet Sam, a butcher and a widower there, he and Ida hit it off, but Doris and Lucille try to prevent the romance.
The Young People’s Theatre will perform the non-musical comedy “Curiosity Cat” by Chris Grabenstein in the summer, with May auditions for July 15, 16, 22 and 23 performance dates.
The Young People’s Theatre will hold auditions in June for “Peter Pan,” with Sept. 19, 20, 26 and 27 performance dates.
August brings auditions for the Main Stage American musical “West Side Story.” The show features a libretto by Arthur Laurents, music by Leonard Bernstein and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. The production runs Nov. 14, 15, 21 and 22.
Based on Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet,” “West Side Story” is set in an Upper West Side New York City ethnic, blue-collar neighborhood in the mid-1950s, where two street gangs, the Polish-American Jets and the Puerto Rican Sharks clash. When Tony, a Jet, falls in love with Maria, the sister of a Shark leader, tensions erupt.
The show features sophisticated music, extended dance scenes and focuses on social problems, new at the time the musical debuted.
Songs include “Something’s Coming,” “Maria,” “America,” “Somewhere,” “Tonight,” “Jet Song,” “I Feel Pretty,” “A Boy Like That,” “One Hand, One Heart,” “Gee, Officer Krupke” and “Cool.”
Auditions for Robert Harling’s comedy-drama “Steel Magnolias” will be held in November, with Feb. 6, 7, 13 and 14, 2015 performance dates. The play centers on the bond among a group of women in northwest Louisiana. Like the title, the female characters are “as delicate as magnolias but as tough as steel.”
The show begins in Truvy’s beauty parlor on Shelby’s wedding day, and follows the six women as they gather over the next three years of their lives. Shelby, a Type I diabetic, risks motherhood despite the toll on her health. Annelle transforms from a shy newcomer to a party girl to a born-again Christian. Clairee and Ouiser argue and become friends, and M’Lynn, Shelby’s mother, completes the group. The bond of friendships of the six women is the cohesive thread that ties the story together.
The group’s youth wing will hold auditions for “Honk!” in December, with March 20, 21, 27 and 28 performances.
SCT’s closing adult musical is “Miss Saigon” by Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil, with lyrics by Boublil and Richard Maltby Jr. Based on Puccini’s opera “Madame Butterfly,” and set in the 1970s during the Vietnam War, “Miss Saigon” follows the tragic romance between an American GI and a Vietnamese bar girl he meets just before the fall of Saigon.
Auditions are set for February with May 8, 9, 16 and 17 performance dates.
For more information call 734-282-4727 or go to www.scponstage.com.
DISNEY’S ‘BEAUTY AND THE BEAST’ RETURNS TO THE FISHER
Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast” returns to the Fisher March 25 to 30 with a vibrant, toe-tapping score, beautiful costumes and big production numbers that bring the storybook characters to life on stage.
Belle, a young woman in a provincial town, meets the Beast, a young arrogant prince trapped by a spell who must find love, or he and his household are doomed to remain enchanted objects for all time and lose their humanity.
Tickets are available by calling 800-982-2787 or at www.ticketmaster.com or www.broadwayindetroit.com.
‘SISTER ACT’ COMES TO THE FISHER THIS SPRING
“Sister Act,” the high-energy musical, returns to the Fisher April 22 to May 4 for a limited engagement.
When a nightclub singer witnesses a murder and must go into hiding, she hides out in a convent, turning their lives upside down. She inspires the choir and revives the church, but blows her cover, enabling the hit squad after her to find her hideout.
“Sister Act” received five 2011 Tony Award nominations: Best Musical, Best Original Score for Alan Menken, music and Glenn Slater, lyrics, and Best Book of a Musical (Cheri & Bill Steinkellner and Douglas Carter Beane).
For tickets, call 800-982-2787 or go to www.broadwayindetroit.com.
BROADWAY IN DETROIT ANNOUNCES SHOWS
The Fisher Theatre brings a tempting array of shows to town for the 2014-15 season lineup.
“Motown the Musical” kicks things off Oct. 21 to Nov. 16, followed by “Kinky Boots” Jan. 15 to 25, a Tony Award-winning Best Musical and Best Score.
Another Tony Award-winning Best Musical, “Once,” runs Feb. 3 to 15, with a Dublin street musician who is about to give up his dream when a young woman discovers him and his love songs.
“Flashdance – The Musical” follows March 10 to 22 with the story of a female steel mill welder by day who is a bar dancer by night who dreams of becoming a professional performer.
“The Illusionists – Witness the Impossible” brings seven astonishing illusionists to the Fisher in May 2015, with thrilling and sophisticated magic.
Broadway in Detroit also brings off-subscription shows to town this year. “Book of Mormon” comes to the Detroit Opera House in July, with “Annie” in town Sept. 27 to Oct. 4 at the Fisher. “Menopause the Musical” comes to the Fisher Oct. 7 to 9, with “Wicked” in town Dec. 8 to Jan. 4 at the Detroit Opera House. The “Blue Man Group” is a hopeful booking for the Fisher at a to-be-determined date.
For more information, go to www.BroadwayInDetroit.com.