Overture Center for the Arts 2017/18 Season Announced

Overture announced its 2017/18 Broadway and Overture Presents season, which features over 100 performances which have collectively garnered more than 25 Tony Awards® and 15 Grammys® and include Madison debuts, international stars and return favorites.

"We've got another incredible season lined up for 2017/18 at Overture Center, with five Madison debuts, including two Wisconsin premieres, as well as a continuation and growth of our free and low-cost community programs," said Ted DeDee, Overture's President and CEO. "As audiences grow for Broadway at Overture and Overture Presents, the quality and caliber of the programming follows suit. It wouldn't be possible without everyone who engages with us by attending, providing feedback and supporting the arts at Overture Center. We are proud to continue our mission of providing extraordinary artistic experiences - free, low-cost and ticketed - for Madison and beyond."

Broadway at Overture presented by Lexus:
· A Gentleman's Guide to Love & Murder | October 3-8, 2017 | Wisconsin premiere
o 2014 Tony Award® winner for Best Musical
o Nominated for Best Musical Theater Album at the 2015 Grammys®
· Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas! The Musical | November 21-26, 2017 | Madison debut
o "100 times better than any bedside story!" - The New York Times
o Originally created by 3-time Tony Award® winning director Jack O'Brien
o No Thursday (Thanksgiving) performance - second performance added Friday (2 p.m.)
· RENT | January 2-7, 2018 | 20th anniversary tour
o Original production received 4 Tony Awards® including Best Musical in 1996
o Reimagining of Puccini's opera La Bohème
· An American in Paris | February 27-March 4, 2018 | Madison debut
o Most award-winning show from the 2015 Tony Awards® including Best Choreography
o First national tour
· Les Misérables | April 3-8, 2018 | Worldwide phenomenon
o Original production won 8 Tony Awards® in 1987 including Best Musical
o Direct from an acclaimed two-and-a-half-year run on Broadway
o Newly imagined production by Cameron Mackintosh
· On Your Feet! | May 15-20, 2018 | Wisconsin premiere and only Wisconsin engagement
o Featuring the songs and stories of Emilio and Gloria Estefan
o Directed by two-time Tony Award® winner Jerry Mitchell
· Waitress | July 24-29, 2018 | Madison debut
o Created by an all-female artistic and creative team
o Featuring original music and lyrics by 5-time Grammy® nominee Sara Bareilles

Overture Presents features:
· In its second year, the Puppet Festival at Overture will run March 9-11, 2018, with an expanded number of professional performances and interactive activities for all ages:
o Shh! We Have A Plan, based on award-winning illustrator's Chris Haughton's book
o Guess How Much I Love You & I Love My Little Storybook, presented by Madison favorite Mermaid Theatre of Nova Scotia
o CIRCUS 1903 - The Golden Age of Circus, featuring Elephant puppets and circus acts
o Puppet Up! Uncensored, featuring Hensen puppets and improv
· Overture's Cabaret Series returns:
o Jeremy Stolle, known for his eight-year run in Broadway's The Phantom of the Opera
o Ken Page, who starred as Old Deuteronomy in the original Broadway production and filmed stage production of Cats
o Brandon Uranowitz, Tony Award® nominee for An American in Paris and straight from the Broadway revival of Falsettos
· Bernadette Peters, star of Amazon's Golden Globe®-winning Mozart in the Jungle and CBS' The Good Fight, will perform songs from her Grammy® Award-winning and nominated albums in An Evening with Bernadette Peters on November 10, 2017, is presented as a part of the Celebrity Series along with David Sedaris
· Mirror 34's Comedy Series welcomes back Madison favorites Reduced Shakespeare Company in William Shakespeare's Long Lost First Play (abridged) and The Second City's Look Both Ways Before Talking
· American Girl's Fund for Children Family Series presents:
o Mr. Popper's Penguins, based on the Newberry Honor-winning book by Richard & Florence Atwater
o Arch8's Tetris, an interactive and improvised experience
o My Father's Dragon, a stage adaptation of the Newbery Honor-winning book series by Ruth Stiles, celebrating its 70th anniversary this year.
· 2014 and 2017 Grammy Award® winner for "Best Jazz Vocal Album," Gregory Porter performs a one-night engagement in the Capitol Theater on November 16, 2017, sponsored by Investment Services of UW Credit Union, as part of the Jazz Series
· Shine United's Off-Broadway Series features:
o New York Gilbert & Sullivan Players' The Pirates of Penzance
o PostSecret: The Show, based off the PostSecret blog
o Off-Broadway hit Disenchanted! The Hilarious Hit Musical, called "a sassy take on Disney's Princesses" byNY1.
· Bell Laboratories' Dance Series includes:
o Cas Public: Symphonie Dramatique performs Capitol Theater on Friday, October 20
§ Overture's 2016 Rising Star winner Will Taylor will perform as the opening act
o MOMIX Opus Cactus returns after a ten-year hiatus
o Dance Theatre of Harlem, founded in 1969 by Arthur Mitchell and Karel Shook; considered "one of ballet's most exciting undertakings" (The New York Times, 1971)
· The Music Series returns:
o Straight No Chaser, all-male a cappella group
o La Santa Cecilia, Grammy®-winning Mexican-American band on Friday, October 6
§ Immediately following the fifth annual Latino Art Fair
o A Night with Janis Joplin, received a Tony® nomination for Best Performance by an Actress in a Musical in 2014
o GOBSMACKED! The amazing a cappella and beatboxing show, featuring reigning world champion beatboxer Ball-Zee
o Natalie MacMaster & Donnell Leahy - Visions from Cape Breton & Beyond, Fiddlers and Celtic music
o RAIN - A Tribute to The Beatles, celebrates the 50th anniversary of the release of Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
o Scrap Arts Music: Children of Metropolis, invented instruments and athletic multi-instrumentalists
o Black Violin, viola and violin duo blend of classical, hip-hop, rock, R&B and bluegrass
· The National Geographic Live! Series returns with four lectures sponsored by The Great Courses Plus and locally sponsored by Exact Sciences:
o Coral Kingdoms and Empires of Ice with David Doubilet & Jennifer Hayes
o Point of No Return with Hilaree O'Neill
o On the Trail of the Big Cats with Steve Winter
o A Rare Look: North Korea to Cuba with David Guttenfelder

Free and low-cost programs continue:
· Tommy Awards feature over 80 schools in southern and central WI
o Tommy Awards Ceremony on Sunday, June 11 at 6 p.m. at Overture
· Overture's Rising Stars
o Workshop - Saturday, July 15 at Overture Center
o Auditions - Saturday, August 5 at Full Compass & Saturday, August 19 at Overture
o The Finals - Saturday, September 9 at Overture
· Kids in the Rotunda, sponsored by American Girls' Fund for Children and MG&E Foundation, offers free performances most Saturdays between October - April
· Patrons can enhance their theater experience for select shows with:
o Pre-show Get Social mixers sponsored by Godfrey & Kahn, S.C.
o Post-show Meet the Artist (see attachment for details)
· Overture's Galleries, with quarterly local exhibitions featured
· Overture's Capitol Theater celebrates its 90th Anniversary and continues to host Duck Soup Cinema, sponsored by Goodman's Jewelers, and MadCity Sessions, sponsored by WISC-TV
· Fifth Annual Latino Art Fair - Friday, October 6
· Overture's Frostiball - Saturday, January 27, 2018
· International Festival - Saturday, February 24, 2018

Overture programming:
"This season's programming, more than ever before, reflects audience interest. Patron feedback has been an integral part of the direction of the shows we bring in," said Tim Sauers, VP of Programming and Community Engagement. "Rooted in dedication to arts education and making arts experiences accessible, our community programs and ticketed events at Overture Center are designed to educate, engage and entertain."

Overture Center partners with Broadway Across America (BAA) to bring touring Broadway productions to Madison. "It's been really rewarding to watch the growth of the Broadway audience in Madison. The ever-increasing subscriber base provides touring Broadway producers confidence that their shows will be successful, which ultimately helps to secure the hot titles people want to see," said Jim Sheeley, President - Upper Midwest Region & Historic Theatre Group at BAA. "When determining what will come to Madison, we [BAA] first see shows on Broadway, paying close attention to audience reaction, and then survey the Madison audience with potential titles. Together with the team at Overture, we'll look at the results and available touring productions to solidify the schedule."

How to get tickets:
The only way to get tickets to Overture shows now (and to get the best seats) is to renew or purchase a subscription. A Broadway subscription (starting at $125 for five shows) includes A Gentleman's Guide to Love & Murder, Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas! The Musical, An American in Paris, On Your Feet! and Waitress, with the option to make six and/or seven show packages with RENT and Les Misérables. Patrons can also make their own non-Broadway subscriptions by choosing any four or more non-Broadway performances, or subscribe by series. Purchase subscriptions before May 15, 2017, at overture.org, by mailing or emailing the order form in the center of the brochure, or in-person at the box office (201 State Street). Broadway show times are Tuesday-Thursday 7:30 p.m.; Friday 8 p.m.; Saturday 2 and 8 p.m.; Sunday 1 and 6:30 p.m. unless otherwise noted (see The Grinch).

Many shows offer discounted group tickets for orders of 10 or more tickets in the same show/performance. Group requests will be accepted beginning on April 10, 2017, by emailing groups@overture.org with seating reservations locked in during early July.

Single tickets for Overture Presents shows go on sale July 15, 2017. Broadway single tickets will go on sale throughout the season. Visit overture.org or call 608.258.4141 for more information.

OVERTURE CENTER FOR THE ARTS in Madison, Wisconsin features seven state-of-the-art performance spaces and five galleries where national and international touring artists, ten resident companies and hundreds of local artists engage people in nearly 700,000 educational and artistic experiences each year. Overture.org

BROADWAY ACROSS AMERICA is part of The John Gore Organization family of companies, which includes Broadway.comand The Broadway Channel. Led by 9 time Tony-winning producer John Gore (Owner & CEO), BAA is the foremost presenter of first-class touring productions in North America, operating in 41 markets with over 270,000 subscribers. Current and past productions include Beautiful, Cats, Chicago, Dear Evan Hansen, Fiddler on the Roof, Finding Neverland, Million Dollar Quartet, Hairspray, On Your Feet!, School of Rock and The Producers. Broadway.com is the premier theater website for news, exclusive content and ticket sales. For more information please visitBroadwayAcrossAmerica.com and Broadway.com.

 

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