Theater Works to Open 2016-17 YouthWorks Season with LES MISERABLES

Theater Works 31st Season opens with the YouthWorks production of LES MISERABLES School Edition directed by original Broadway LES MISERABLES cast member, Kelli James, and features Musical Director James May, replacement conductor for the Broadway LES MISERABLES company and associate conductor for the LA and San Francisco companies.

The YouthWorks production will take place at the Peoria Center for the Performing Arts September 9 - 25, 2016.

Epic, grand and uplifting, LES MISERABLES School Edition packs an emotional wallop that has thrilled audiences all over the world. Set in early 19th-century France, it is the story of Jean Valjean, a French peasant, and his quest for redemption after serving nineteen years in jail for having stolen a loaf of bread for his sister's starving child. Valjean decides to break his parole and start his life anew after a kindly bishop inspires him by a tremendous act of mercy, but he is relentlessly tracked down by a police inspector named Javert. Along the way, Valjean and a slew of characters are swept into a revolutionary period in France, where a group of young idealists make their last stand at a street barricade.

"I think it's important for audiences to know that although this production is titled School Edition, the production has only slight differences and subtle changes from the original Broadway production," says newly appointed Artistic Director Chris Hamby. "The talent of the cast and the epic scale of the show will make you forget these are young performers." LES MISERABLES School Edition is recommended for Audience members 13 years and older.

LES MISERABLES is the first in the 2016-17 Theater Works Youth Works season showcasing books that have been adapted for the stage followed by In the Village of The Brothers Grimm, the telling of eight tales by the folklore storytellers on stage November 4 - 20, 2016. The new year begins with the classic story of switching places. The Pauper Princess takes a new twist on Mark Twain's 19th century novel March 3 - 19, 2017. The YouthWorks season concludes with Once Upon a Mattress, the whimsical musical spin on the familiar classic with a dash of side-splitting shenanigans on stage May 5 - 21, 2017.

Single tickets for Les Miserables are now on sale. General admission tickets are $16. The production takes place in the Gyder Theater of the Peoria Center for the Performing Arts (8355 W. Peoria Avenue, Peoria, AZ 85345). To purchase tickets or find out more about Theater Works and the Youth Works Productions, contact the Box Office at (623) 815.7930 or visit www.theaterworks.org.

Theater Works at the Peoria Center for the Performing Arts is entering its 31st season of providing exceptional theater to the West Valley. Theater Works is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization whose mission is to provide opportunities for children, patrons and artists to experience theater that inspires, enriches and enlightens through the experience of the performing arts. Theater Works acts as The Managing tenant for the Peoria Center for the Performing Arts which features more than 200 events a year including: live theater, classical concerts, jazz, popular music, dance, comedy, cultural events, festivals, youth and adult education classes and much more.