Contra Costa Civic Theatre Sets 2016-17 Season

Contra Costa Civic Theatre (CCCT) today announced its 57th season, which features the diamond anniversary production of a true theatrical gem, a Pulitzer Prize-winning American classic, an East Bay premiere, and one of the most joyous musicals of the past decade.

Opening the season will be the 60th anniversary production of the beloved musical My Fair Lady, based on Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw, with book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner, and music by Frederick Loewe. This sharply witty tale of the cockney flower girl and the professor who tries to make a lady of her, called "one of the best musicals of the century" (New York Times) and "a miraculous miracle" (New York Herald Tribune), plays September 9-October 9.

For the holidays, CCCT is proud to present a true American classic: You Can't Take it With You, by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart. The Pulitzer Prize-winning comedy of the Sycamore family, their quirky determination to follow their bliss, and the impact it has on the straight-laced parents of daughter Alice's boyfriend, has delighted audiences for generations; the New York Times said of the 2014 Broadway revival, "It's the way we all like to remember our own crazy families, when enough time has passed to turn what might have once been painful into funny, affectionate anecdotes." You Can't Take it With You plays November 11-December 4.

Next up, from February 17-March 12, is the East Bay premiere of Well by Lisa Kron, author of the Tony award-winner Fun Home. Kron describes the play this way: "This play is not about my mother and me," begins the character of Lisa. But, of course, it is about her mother, and her mother's extraordinary ability to heal a changing neighborhood, despite her inability to heal herself. In this "solo show with people in it," Kron asks the provocative question: "Do we create our own illness?" The answers she gets are much more complicated than she bargained for as the play spins dangerously out of control into riotously funny and unexpected territory."

Rounding out the theatre's 57th season is In the Heights, the seminal musical by the genius behind the mega-hit Hamilton. Winner of the 2008 Tony for Best Musical and Best Score and 2009 finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, Lin-Manuel Miranda's exuberant celebration of family and community, with book by Quiara Alegria Hudes, plays at CCCT from June 9-July 16

The fifth production of the Main Stage season, along with production directors and casts, will be announced at a later date.

Season subscriptions for CCCT's 2016-17 season will be available online at www.ccct.org or by phone at 510.524.9012 beginning June 1, 2016; single tickets will go on sale August 1. All performances take place at CCCT's intimate and fully accessible theatre in the Flynn building located at 951 Pomona Avenue in El Cerrito. Free parking is provided in the adjoining lot. For more information, visit www.ccct.org.