PlayhouseSquare Announces New 2013-2014 KeyBank Broadway Series

PlayhouseSquare revealed its 2013-2014 KeyBank Broadway Series yesterday evening in the State Theatre. The exciting seven-show Series was announced by Senior Vice President of Theater Operations, Gina Vernaci, and the evening was capped off with a special performance from Anne Brummel, star of the 2nd North American Tour of Wicked, which will be delighting Cleveland audiences once again with its return in December of 2013.

The Series includes an assortment of fan-favorites and some fresh award-winning works which will be making their Cleveland debuts. Prior to the announcement, Vernaci noted "PlayhouseSquare is delighted to present these seven exquisite productions to Northeast Ohio. Due to the commitment of our season ticket holders and generous support of our donors and KeyBank, Cleveland audiences will once again experience the wonderment of the Great White Way in their own backyard. With an incredible line-up that includes some of the most beloved music ever produced for Broadway, breathtaking and innovative dance, and whimsical story-telling, this Series is bound to delight one and all!"

Season tickets to the 2013-2014 KeyBank Broadway Series at PlayhouseSquare are now available by calling 216-640-8800 or online at www.PlayhouseSquare.org/broadway. Seven-show KeyBank Broadway Series season ticket packages range from $110-$565 per seat. Ticket plans can start under $10 per month, when you use the 12-month payment plan and purchase by June 30, 2013.

The seven-show 2012-2013 KeyBank Broadway Series at PlayhouseSquare includes:

Matthew Bourne's Sleeping Beauty
October 1-13, 2013
Website Under Construction

New Adventures' 25th birthday culminates with the world premiere of Matthew Bourne's latest re-imagining of a ballet classic. Sleeping Beauty sees Bourne return to the music of Tchaikovsky to complete the trio of ballet masterworks that started with Nutcracker! and the international smash hit, Swan Lake. Our story begins in 1890 at the christening of Princess Aurora, a time when fairies and vampires fed the gothic imagination, before moving forward in time to the modern day.

Featuring designs by Olivier Award winners Lez Brotherston (Set and Costumes) and Paule Constable (Lighting) with Sound Design by Paul Groothuis, which will take the audience into the heart of Tchaikovsky's magnificent score in specially recorded surround sound. Matthew Bourne's haunting new production is a Gothic Romance for all ages; a supernatural love story that even the passage of time cannot hinder.

Once
November 12-24, 2013
http://www.oncemusical.com/

Winner of eight 2012 Tony Awards including Best Musical and winner of the 2013 Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album, ONCE is a truly original Broadway experience. Featuring an impressive ensemble of actor/musicians who play their own instruments onstage, ONCE tells the enchanting tale of a Dublin street musician who's about to give up on his dream when a beautiful young woman takes a sudden interest in his haunting love songs. As the chemistry between them grows, his music soars to powerful new heights... but their unlikely connection turns out to be deeper and more complex than your everyday romance. Emotionally captivating and theatrically breathtaking, ONCE draws you in from the very first note and never lets go. It's an unforgettable story about going for your dreams... not living in fear... and the power of music to connect all of us.

Wicked
December 4 - January 5, 2013
www.wickedthemusical.com

Back by "Popular" demand. Variety calls WICKED "a cultural phenomenon," and every time it plays Cleveland it breaks records and sells out in record time. Winner of 35 major awards, including a Grammy and three Tony Awards, WICKED is "Broadway's biggest blockbuster" (The New York Times).

Long before that girl from Kansas arrives in Munchkinland, two girls meet in the land of Oz. One - born with emerald green skin - is smart, fiery and misunderstood. The other is beautiful, ambitious and very popular. How these two grow to become the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda the Good makes for "the most complete - and completely satisfying - new musical in a long time" (USA Today).

The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess
February 4-16, 2014
www.PorgyandBessTheMusical.com

See what Time Magazine exclaims is, "A don't miss theatre event! The #1 Broadway musical of the year." Winner of the 2012 Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical, The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess is hitting the road in a stunning and stirring new staging, including such legendary songs as "Summertime," "It Ain't Necessarily So," and "I Got Plenty of Nothing." The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess features one of Broadway's most accomplished creative teams, led by Tony-nominated director Diane Paulus (Hair), Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Suzan-Lori Parks (Topdog/Underdog), and two-time Obie Award-winning composer DIEDRE L. Murray (Running Man), bringing George and Ira Gershwin's legendary masterwork to the Broadway stage for the first time in more than 35 years.

Praised by the New Yorker as, "A great achievement!" and hailed by the Associated Press as, "a Gorgeous version of the Gershwin masterpiece," the classic story of The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess is set in Charleston's fabled
Catfish Row, where the beautiful Bess struggles to break free from her scandalous past, and the only one who can rescue her is the courageous Porgy. Threatened by her formidable former lover Crown, and the seductive enticements of the colorful troublemaker Sporting Life, Porgy and Bess' relationship evolves into a deep romance that triumphs as one of theater's most exhilarating love stories.

The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber
March 4-16, 2014
Website under construction

Since bursting onto the Broadway scene some thirty years ago, Tony, Grammy and Academy-Award-winning composer Andrew Lloyd Webber has brought to the stage a host of musical blockbusters that have taken the theatre world by storm. Now, the biggest hits from these inspirational and diverse works have been fashioned into a theatrical evening of music that is, like the songs themselves, unforgettable. Included in The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber are the great songs and musicals excerpts from The Phantom of the Opera, CATS, Evita, Jesus Christ Superstar, Starlight Express, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Song and Dance, Requiem, Aspects of Love, Sunset Boulevard, Whistle Down The Wind and, for the first time in the U.S., Love Never Dies.

Experience the power and diversity of his music in one spectacular evening!

Flashdance - The Musical
April 1-13, 2014
http://flashdancethemusical.com/

Celebrating its 30th Anniversary, the pop culture phenomenon of FLASHDANCE is now live on stage. With electrifying dance at its core, FLASHDANCE-THE MUSICAL tells the inspiring and unforgettable story of Alex Owens, a Pittsburgh steel mill welder by day and a bar dancer by night with dreams of one day becoming a professional performer. When romance with her steel mill boss threatens to complicate her ambitions, Alex learns the meaning of love and its power to fuel the pursuit of her dream.

FLASHDANCE-THE MUSICAL features a score that includes the biggest hit songs from the movie, including the Academy Award-winning title song "Flashdance - What a Feeling," "Maniac," "Gloria," "Manhunt," and "I Love Rock & Roll." In addition to these hits, 16 brand new songs have been written for the musical with music by Robbie Roth and lyrics by Robert Cary and Robbie Roth. FLASHDANCE-THE MUSICAL features a book by Tom Hedley (co-writer of the original screenplay), and Robert Cary with direction and choreography by Sergio Trujillo (Jersey Boys, Memphis).

Jersey Boys
May 6-18, 2014
www.JerseyBoysTour.com

More than 105,000 theatergoers cheered when JERSEY BOYS made its sell-out premiere in Cleveland at PlayhouseSquare. Worldwide, more than 13 million people have seen JERSEY BOYS. And now, the show that made critics and audiences cheer is "Working Its Way Back" to Cleveland where it broke the worldwide box office record for any production of JERSEY BOYS.

JERSEY BOYS, is the Tony, Grammy and Olivier Award-winning Best Musical about Rock and Roll Hall of Famers The Four Seasons: Frankie Valli, Bob Gaudio, Tommy DeVito and Nick Massi. This is the story of how four blue-collar kids became one of the greatest successes in pop music history. They wrote their own songs, invented their own sounds and sold 175 million records worldwide - all before they were 30! JERSEY BOYS features their hit songs "Sherry," "Big Girls Don't Cry," "Rag Doll," "Oh What a Night" and "Can't Take My Eyes Off You." "IT WILL RUN FOR CENTURIES!" proclaims Time Magazine.

The JERSEY BOYS creative team comprises two-time Tony Award-winning director Des McAnuff, book writers Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice, composer Bob Gaudio, lyricist Bob Crewe and choreography by Sergio Trujillo.

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