Musical Theatre West Adds REINER READING SERIES to 2012-13 Season

Paul Garman, Executive Director/Producer, along with Michael Betts and David Lamoureux, producers of the REINER READING SERIES, are proud to announce the 2012-2013 season at the University Theatre on the campus of California State Long Beach.

MTW’s REINER READING SERIES is produced by Michael Betts with associate producer David Lamoureux. The series focuses on staged readings of classic musicals and forgotten gems, and maintains MTW’s commitment to celebrate and preserve musical theater as an art form by exposing audiences to works that might not otherwise be produced on a larger scale. Through the minimalism of the staged reading format, we invite the audience to use their imaginations to explore and enjoy the diverse range of musical theater, both in style and era, including lesser-known shows by noted composers as well as noted shows by lesser-known composers.

This series is generously underwritten by long-time Long Beach residents and Musical Theatre West donors Ken and Dottie Reiner, Ackerman Family/Evalyn M. Bauer Foundation with additional funding from a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts

The season schedule includes staged readings of:

LEGS DIAMOND (December 2, 2012)

This notorious flop from the late ’80s has never been seen since it closed on Broadway. The effervescent musical is about gangster Jack “Legs” Diamond, whose great ambition is to see his name in lights as a song-and-dance man on the Great White Way. MTW favorite David Engel (MTW’s Forbidden Broadway, GREATEST HITS, VOLUME 1 & 2, THE PRODUCERS) is set to star as the gangster turned hoofer.

110 IN THE SHADE (January 20, 2013)

Based on the classic drama THE RAINMAKER, this musical from the creators of THE FANTASTICKS is set in a town desperate for a deluge. Enter self-named Starbuck, the man to make it all happen – at least for a price. He sweeps the town away with his promises of precipitation and the town spinster with his promises of romance.

THE SECRET GARDEN (March 17, 2013)

Mary Lennox, newly orphaned, comes to England to live with her reclusive Uncle Archibald and his sickly son, Colin. While roaming the grounds, Mary discovers a long-forgotten door that leads to the garden her late Aunt Lily reveled in. Based on the novel, the show’s lush score will carry you away with the passions of lost loves and the possibilities of what a bit of earth can do.

KISMET (June 30, 2013)

“Stranger in Paradise,” “Baubles, Bangles and Beads,” and “Not Since Nineveh” grace the score of this Middle Eastern-flavored tale with music based on the scores of Borodin. Hajj, the beggar and poet, spins his rhymes in the court of the Wazir and catches the eye of the Wazir’s mistress, LaLume, while Hajj’s daughter Marsinah, unbeknownst to her, has turned the head of the young Caliph.

CITY OF ANGELS (August 25, 2013)

This Tony-winner is arguably the jazziest score from the pen of Cy Coleman. Close-up: Hollywood in the 1940s. Styne, the writer of a popular detective series, has moved out west to provide the script for an adaptation of his works for the silver screen. Cut to: The film unfolding before your eyes with inspiration from Styne’s life directly influencing the world of private eye Stone.

Musical Theatre West presents the REINER READING SERIES in a staged reading format. All readings are on Sundays at 7:00 p.m. The one night only performances take place at the University Theater on the CSU Long Beach campus at the 7th Street entrance. Pre-purchased general admission tickets start at $25.00 ($30 day of at the door) and are available now through the MTW box office at 562-856-1999, x4 or at www.musical.org. Season tickets for the REINER READING SERIES are still available. Pick any four for $85 or all five for $100. Contact MTW box office for more details.

 

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