Bravo Productions Presents CINDERELLA and HAIRSPRAY, Jan. 2015

Bravo Productions presents two Broadway hits, Cinderella and Hairspray, at Randolph Road Theatre in January 2015.

Introducing new generations to the American art form we call musical theatre begins with the very young, and what better debut than with Rodgers and Hammerstein's CINDERELLLA, the classic that actually began as a 1957 television special starring Julie Andrews and became the most widely viewed program in the history of the medium.

BRAVO PRODUCTIONS has successfully worked with children in grades 1-6 to recreate the fairytale with great warmth and more than a touch of hilarity so that the hearts of children and adults alike will soar when "the slipper fits". Madison Sherman, a 4th grader at Rachel Carson Elementary School, leads the talented cast of 28, which includes veterans of past BRAVO PRODUCTIONS as well as first time young artists. The production team includes Producer/Director Laurie Levy Issembert, Music Director Laura Brady and Choreographer Laurie Newton. Performances are Saturday, January 17 at 4:00 pm and 7:30 pm. Limited tickets are available at showtix4u.com.

BRAVO's middle and high school students tackle something a bit more contemporary but still from the American past with HAIRSPRAY, focusing on the social strife surrounding desegregation in nearby Baltimore in the 1960s. Under Director/Choreographer, Darnell Morris, the cast gets a more intimate education of the subject matter as both Morris and Music Director Director, Mayumi B. Griffie are African-American. Morris' family is from Baltimore and as a child he remembers his grandmother telling him, "you know, I was there, I was one of them." He found out in later years that she didn't mean that she was a dancer on the Buddy Dean Show, the teenage dance show upon which the theatrical story is based but that she was one of the Baltimorans who stood up for racial equality. Morris has been recognized with local community theatre WATCH awards for his past productions of Ragtime and Les Miserables.

BRAVO is delighted to welcome Guest Artists to our cast, both at the university and professional level: Rodney Davis Jr., Nia Smith, Jasmine Cole and Awa Sal Secka. All have worked with Morris before and several were featured in a previous production of Hairspray that he directed for Annapolis Summer Garden Theatre.