Lyric Stage Adds Two More Productions to 2017-18 Season!

The Lyric Stage Company of Boston announces the final two plays to complete the 2017-18 Season, Spiro Veloudos' 20th Season as Producing Artistic Director.

See the full lineup below:

GYPSY

music by Jule Styne, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, book by Arthur Laurents

directed and choreographed by Rachel Bertone

September 1 - October 8

Featuring one show-stopping song after another - "Everything's Coming Up Roses," "You Gotta Have a Gimmick," "Let Me Entertain You," and more! - and based on Gypse Rose Lee's memoirs, Gypsy is the story of her rise to burlesque mega-stardom, with her stage-mother behind the curtain, the iconic Mama Rose. Continuing our string of presenting Sondheim's work, Gypsy showcases the burgeoning lyric-writing abilities of the young author. In the tradition of My Fair Lady, Avenue Q, and Into the Woods, Gypsy will once again prove that the intimate Lyric Stage is the perfect place to experience the very best of the American musical theatre.

SOUVENIR, A Fantasia on the Life of Florence Foster Jenkins

by Stephen Temperley, directed by Spiro Veloudos

October 20 - November 19

Reviving one of Spiro Veloudos's favorite productions from the last 20 seasons, Souvenir is a sweet and hilarious fantasia on the life of Florence Foster Jenkins, the passionate but self-deceiving music lover. Ms. Jenkins was one of the finest coloratura sopranos in history -- but, alas, only in her own mind! Despite being called "majestically awful," her concerts in the 1930s and '40s were not only sold-out but were attended by the crème de la crème of Manhattan society. Souvenir is the story of a woman who believed that "what matters most is the music you hear in your head." Featuring Leigh Barrett and Will McGarrahan in a command return performance.

HOLD THESE TRUTHS

by Jeanne Sakata, directed by Benny Sato Ambush

December 1-31

Hold These Truths is the true story of Gordon Hirabayashi, the American son of Japanese immigrants, who resisted internment during World War II, a policy which continues to be cited and debated today. Michael Hisamoto (Stage Kiss) plays Hirabayashi, a college student and a Quaker, whose hope and unquenchable patriotism over 50 years will leave audiences cheering.

ROAD SHOW

music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, book by John Weideman

directed by Spiro Veloudos

January 12 - February 11

On his continuing journey through the works of Stephen Sondheim, director Spiro Veloudos brings us Sondheim's latest work, Road Show, the true boom-and-bust story of two of the most colorful and outrageous fortune-seekers in American history. From the Alaskan Gold Rush to the Florida real estate boom in the 1930s, entrepreneur Addison Mizner and his fast-talking brother Wilson were proof positive that the road to the American Dream is often a seductive, treacherous tightrope walk. As the Guardian said, "Road Show is lyrically witty, musically rich, and has the sardonic satirical appeal of the Sondheim-Weidman Assassins."

Virgina Woolf's ORLANDO

adapted by Sarah Ruhl, directed by A. Nora Long

February 23 - March 25

Virginia Woolf's novel Orlando has been described as the most charming love letter in literature. Sarah Ruhl (Stage Kiss) brings the novel to life on stage in an epic theatrical adventure that transcends time, space, and sex. Born in the 16th century, Orlando, the handsome man, wakes up one day two centuries later later to find himself a beautiful woman! Orlando abandons herself to six centuries of change with an insatiable appetite to discover what it means to live fully in the present, in her own skin, and in her own time.

ANNA CHRISTIE

by Eugene O'Neill, directed by Scott Edmiston

April 6 - May 6

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, O'Neill's classic is a surprisingly contemporary play that crackles with fierce physicality, humor, and drama. After a 20-year separation, a coal barge captain (Lyric Stage favorite Johnny Lee Davenport) is reunited with the daughter he unknowingly abandoned to a life of hardship. When Anna falls in love with a shipwrecked sailor, her father and her suitor come to recognize their own culpability in her plight, and all three struggle in their own way for salvation. Following his acclaimed production of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Scott Edmiston takes a fresh look at the work of one of America's greatest playwrights.

THE WIZ

book by William F. Brown music and lyrics by Charlie Smalls

directed by Dawn M. Simmons

May 18 - June 17

Winner of 7 Tony Awards, including Best Musical and Best Original Score

A soulful retelling of L. Frank Baum's beloved The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, The Wiz combines fairy-tale glamour with street smarts to make a classic fantasy relevant for today. Winner of seven Tony Awards, including Best Musical and Best Score, The Wiz ingeniously mixes rock, gospel, and soul, and features hits like "Ease on Down the Road," "A Brand New Day," and "Home."

ABOUT THE Lyric Stage

The Lyric Stage Company of Boston is Boston's oldest resident theatre company. Founded in 1974 by Polly Hogan and Ron Ritchell, its mission is to produce a range of live theatre, reflecting the different cultures of the Greater Boston area, and providing an intimate home for established and emerging Boston-based artists. Since 1997, the Lyric Stage has been led by Producing Artistic Director Spiro Veloudos, and, with Managing Director Matt Chapuran, produces seven shows each season to an annual audience of over 35,000, including 2,200 season ticket holders, in an intimate 240-seat theatre, established in 1991 in the YWCA Building at 140 Clarendon Street. In addition, the Lyric Stage offers Lyric First Stage, an educational summer program for teens, and Lyric First Curtain, which offers theatre-based education in non-traditional learning environments. Its partnership with the Boston Dance Alliance offers subsidized rehearsal space, and through a partnership with Fresh Ink Theatre, it supports the development of new plays by local playwrights. Highly acclaimed for the breadth, excellence, and variety of its productions, the Lyric Stage is the recipient of 31 Elliot Norton Awards, and 64 Independent Reviewers of New England (IRNE) Awards.