Still
riding high on last week’s blockbuster run of “The Book of Mormon,” the
Rochester Broadway Theatre League announced its 2013-14 season Wednesday night.
The big news is that the subscription series has been increased to six shows
from five. The line-up includes a new production of a modern musical classic,
several new musicals, a beloved holiday classic for the family, and a critically
acclaimed drama featuring some eye-popping puppets. It’s a Hollywood-heavy
season, including the three special shows that were announced separate from the
subscription series.
“Ghost The Musical” will open the new season
October 8-13. The show adapts the Oscar-winning 1990 Patrick Swayze/Demi
Moore/Whoopi Goldberg film and features music by Dave Stewart (one half of 80’s
electro-pop duo The Eurythmics) and Glen Ballard
(co-writer of Alanis Morissette’s “Jagged Little Pill”
album). The clips from the London production included some eye-popping sets.
“War Horse” is the rare non-musical
show to appear on an RBTL season, and it will run November 5-10. The
award-winning production takes place during World War I, and the main protagonist
is a horse named Joey. At the season presentation the actual Joey puppet –
manned by three actors – came out for a demonstration. It is an amazing piece
of theatrical magic, as the actors believably brought to life a full-sized
horse’s mannerisms and noises, everything from ear flicking to hoof stomping to
tail swishing, and some astonishing man-made noises. If all the puppets in this
show are this extraordinary, they will be worth the ticket price alone.
“Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch
Stole Christmas! The Musical” arrives in time for the
holidays, running December 10-15. The show includes the classic songs from the
animated film.
“Sister Act” is the musical adaptation
of the 1992 Whoopi Goldberg comedy (between this and “Ghost,” it’s a big season
for Whoopi fans). The story of the lounge singer who poses as a nun while on the
run from a hitman will feature music by Alan Menken (“Newsies,” “The Little Mermaid,” “Little Shop of Horrors”)
and the clips showed costumes with a LOT of sequins. The show runs February
11-16, 2014.
“Once,” which will run March 18-23,
2014, is another adaptation of an Oscar-winning film. This one elicited actual
squeals of delight from the audience at the season announcement. The
emotionally stirring show tells the story of a musician and a girl, and all of the
actor/musicians in the cast play their own instruments on stage throughout the
show.
Closing
the season will be the 25th anniversary production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “The Phantom of the Opera,” which has
an extended engagement April 16-27, 2014. This production will feature new
costumes, set design, and choreography for what has become the longest-running
show on Broadway.
In
addition to the regular season, RBTL also announced several “special” shows,
which are not included in subscriptions. They are:
–“Rock of Ages,” the musical featuring
hit rock songs from the 1980’s that was recently
adapted into a movie
–“American Idiot,” the musical based on
the music of political rockers Green Day
–“Disney’s Beauty and the Beast,” the
live musical version of the groundbreaking animated film
Season
ticket packages for the 2013-14 line-up are now on
sale for renewing and new subscribers. Get more information by call
585-222-5000 or visiting the RBTL website.
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This article appears in Mar 13-19, 2013.
This season sure is great! I went to the announcement event and could not help but wonder why we are losing RBTL to the suburbs? I rarely agreed with Bob Duffy, but he wanted to keep them, then, later, Mayor Richards did not care. But, even he was at the announcment event. It looks like they are in growth mode while arts organizations are in trouble here,
I guess Rothchild was right in his comments that night…RBTL recognized the change in what was happening in the arts and responded years agoand approached things differently. Now, they are leaving downtown and our city is the loser!
I realize that the goal of the RBTL is to make money, not promote art or originality, but my god, ANOTHER run of Phantom? Isn’t the 4th., or 5th. or 5th. road show of Les Miz in May bad enough?
MJN,
At the event, they said that 5 shows are brand new to the market (in their season, with more as “specials”). And, by the way, Les Miz is a huge movie hit, so timely…and Phantom is a new version (as Nocciolino explained during the roll out event). RBTL brings popular entertainment, they are not trying to say they do anything else.
With popular entertainment events, the marketplace determines what works and what does not…guess I do not have a problem with that.