Mark Cortale Productions Makes Plans To Relocate Provincetown Theatre Base For Summer 2019

Mark Cortale, Producing Artistic Director of Provincetown's internationally known Art House theater, has announced that he has begun to search for a new summer location for 2019. Cortale learned last week that the twin 120-seat theaters at The Art House will be gutted by the property owner after the current summer season due to restaurant expansion plans. The news comes on the heels of seven consecutive seasons of remarkable success; thriving outposts of its famed "Broadway @" music series in major venues across the country and abroad; and the recent announcement of its largest lineup of Broadway, comedy and music stars yet for its P-Town home.

Reached for comment, producer Cortale released the following statement: "It's been an honor to bring artists like Patti LuPone, Audra McDonald, Chita Rivera, Christine Ebersole, Sutton Foster, Varla Jean Merman, Seth Rudetsky, Marilyn Maye and Well-Strung to such an intimate space with such great sound. As we launch our final season at The Art House, I am excited and hopeful about potential new venue opportunities ahead. My priority is to remain in Provincetown - home to the best audiences in the world! On behalf of my entire staff, we are so grateful to our supporters and sponsors, and we look forward to this summer season as well as many more in the future."

When Travel & Leisure magazine named Provincetown America's #1 Beach Town two summers ago, they singled out the destination's nightlife for featuring Broadway stars. What they didn't mention is that this feat - now a major attraction for this Cape Cod location - began as an experiment by producer Mark Cortale with Sirius XM radio star Seth Rudetsky in the summer of 2011, and a risky one with no precedent in the seasonal locale. Their venture succeeded beyond expectations. Within one season, the "Broadway @ The Art House" series quickly became a veritable star-magnet for Broadway's mega talent, and has since then exploded beyond picturesque P-Town now making its home in more than a dozen major venues from Los Angeles to New Orleans to Chicago to London and many more cities in-between. The unique format of the series differentiates it from any other: a seamless mix of intimate behind-the-scenes stories prompted by Rudetsky's insightful, funny and revealing questions - and the music from the artists' stellar careers. The result is spontaneous evenings of show-stopping songs and hilarity.

The Broadway roll-call of stars who have graced the "Broadway @" series' stages reads like a Tony Awards Who's Who: Audra McDonald, Patti LuPone, Kristin Chenoweth, Chita Rivera, Sutton Foster, Christine Ebersole, Kelli O'Hara, Neil Patrick Harris, Matthew Broderick, Sarah Jessica Parker, Rosie O'Donnell, Vanessa Williams, Jessie Mueller, Megan Hilty, Faith Prince, Megan Mullally, Cheyenne Jackson, Gavin Creel, Matthew Morrison, Darren Criss, Jane Krakowski, Beth Malone, Melissa Errico, Joanna Gleason, Michael Cerveris, Norm Lewis, Laura Osnes, Ana Gasteyer, Andrea Martin, Adam Pascal, Kerry Butler, Jackie Hoffman, Sam Harris, John Barrowman, Will Swenson, Alice Ripley, Emily Skinner, Judy Kuhn, Charles Busch, Betty Buckley and many others.

For summer of 2018, the P-Town series again encompasses both "Broadway @ the Art House" in its original, intimate theatrical home and the separate "Broadway @ Town Hall" concert series in Provincetown's largest venue. For Tickets and information, visit www.ptownarthouse.com or call 800-838-3006.

This year's eighth annual season features a virtual meteor shower of Broadway and the NY Club scene's biggest stars. First, a powerful cluster of comedies will open one-after-another in quick succession: Varla Jean Merman, the First Lady of Ptown, returns for her 20th Anniversary Season with her solo show "Under A Big Top" running June 22 through August 31, with Gerald Goode at piano; RuPaul's Drag Race Season Five winner Jinkx Monsoon returns to The Art House with new show "Beach City Bimbo" together with cohort Major Scales from June 25 through September 9; Emmy-winning comedian Judy Gold will return for a summer-long stand from June 28 - August 31; Miss Conception, the first ever drag contestant on TV's "Wipeout Canada" also featured on "Queer as Folk" and "Degrassi, The Next Generation," makes her Art House debut with "Forbidden Diznee" from June 30 - September 4; "Hocum Pokem" - a new comedy starring Jinkx Monsoon, Peaches Christ and Liza Lott - makes its Provincetown premiere from July 4 - September 7; "The Whining" a brand new raucous comedy by Varla Jean Merman and Peaches Christ makes its P-Town bow July 6 - September 8. Mid-to-late summer will welcome Deven Green, the award-winning Canadian comedy chanteuse known for her video parody character "Mrs. Betty Bowers, America's Best Christian," makes her Art House debut July 23 - 27; Unitard, the comedy trio that Time Out NY called "incredibly vicious and relentlessly hilarious" returns to P-Town August 9 & 10 - starring Mike Albo, Nora Burns and David Ilku; and the Afterglow Festival - the live performance arts festival - takes up residence at The Art House from September 11 - 15.

Converging at the same time on the music front, Well-Strung, the singing string quartet (which includes two recent contestants on TV's "The Amazing Race") who began their international career in P-Town, bring their new show to The Art House for a summer-long run July 1 - September 5; Tori Scott, hailed as one of Time Out New York's Top 10 Cabaret Artists, returns with Jesse Kitchell at piano on July 1 at 9:00 PM and July 2 at 7:00 PM; Steve Grand, the singer who burst onto the scene with his video An All American Boy and his #3 Billboard Independent Album, returns to The Art House for an extended stay this summer from July 5 - September 7; Branden & James, the cello and vocal duo and 2013 finalists on "America's Got Talent" make their Art House debut on July 7 & 8 at 7:00 PM, all followed later in summer by internationally acclaimed opera star Marisol Montalvo who brings her show "Mad Scene" back to Provincetown, with William Hobbs at the piano and directed by Jeffery Roberson, on July 30 at 7:00 PM & August 31 at 6:00 PM.

Summer 2018's "Broadway @ Town Hall" series, produced by Cortale at the town's largest venue, resumes on the heels of Indigo Girls' May 27 season opener with Bianca Del Rio, RuPaul's Drag Race Season 6 winner, returning to the scene of last year's triumphant debut on July 9 at 8:30pm; Academy Award nominee and Emmy Award winner Patricia Clarkson & star of TV's "Mad Men" Bryan Batt will appear for one night only in A.R. Gurney's hit play "Love Letters" directed by Tom Cianfichi, on August 6 at 8:00 PM; Jeremy Jordan, Tony Award nominee for "Newsies" on Broadway and star of The CW's "Supergirl" makes his Town Hall debut on August 13 at 8:30 PM, with Seth Rudetsky as pianist and host; and RuPaul's Drag Race season 8 winner Bob The Drag Queen returns by popular demand on September 2 at 8:30 PM. The Town Hall season will climax with he anticipated P-Town debut of a new show by Kathy Najimy called "Lift Up Your Skirt." Najimy, the star of "Hocus Pocus," the "Sister Act" films and voice of Peggy Hill on "King of the Hill," will perform on September 9 at 8:30 PM. The Town Hall series will be raising funds this year for Sandy Hook Promise.

Just down Commercial Street, the "Broadway @ The Art House" series kicks-off simultaneously: Judy Kuhn, Tony-nominated star of "Fun Home" and Broadway's original "Les Miz" and the voice of Disney's "Pocahontas" returns to P-Town on July 15 & 16 at 7:00 PM, with Seth Rudetsky as pianist & host; Adam Pascal, star of the original Broadway cast of "Rent," as well as the film version lights up the Art House stage on July 17 at 7:00 PM, with Seth Rudetsky as pianist and host; Christine Ebersole, a two-time Tony Award winner for "Grey Gardens" and "42nd Street" and star of Oscar-winning films such as "Amadeus" and "Tootsie," appears on July 19 & 20 at 6:00 PM, with Seth Rudetsky as pianist & host; Will Swenson, Tony nominee for the revival of "Hair" and most recently a star of the hit musical comedy "Disaster!," performs on July 28 & 29 at 7:00 PM, with Seth Rudetsky as pianist & host; Sierra Boggess, Broadway's original Ariel in "The Little Mermaid" and a frequent Christine Daaé in "Phantom of the Opera" and its sequel "Love Never Dies," makes her series debut August 4 & 5 at 7:00 PM, with Seth Rudetsky as pianist & host; Liz Callaway, Tony nominee for "Baby" and also a star of "Cats" and "Miss Saigon" on Broadway as well as the singing voice in many of Disney's animated films including as Princess Jasmine in two of the "Aladdin" series of films, debuts in the series on August 12 at 7:00 PM, with Seth Rudetsky as pianist & host; Emily Skinner, Tony nominee for "Side Show" (with Alice Ripley) and star of Broadway's "Billy Elliot" and "The Full Monty", performs on August 19 at 7:00 PM, with Seth Rudetsky as pianist & host; Stephanie J. Block, recently announced to play the title role in the upcoming Broadway musical "The Cher Show" and two time Tony nominee for "The Mystery of Edwin Drood" and "Falsettos," makes her series debut on August 21 & 22 at 6:00 PM, with Seth Rudetsky as pianist & host; Marilyn Maye, living legend cabaret singer and perennial Art House favorite returns from August 24 - 27 Friday at 6:00 PM and Saturday - Monday at 7:00 PM, with Billy Stritch at the piano; Alice Ripley, winner of the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical for "Next to Normal," and Tony nominee for "Side Show" (with Emily Skinner) makes her Provincetown return on September 1 at 7:00 PM and September 2 at 6:30 PM; and the new musical "Midnight at the Neverget" a hit musical at the Provincetown Inn last summer making its Art House debut September 6 - 8 at 7:00 PM.

...And beginning this fall, in addition to its many outposts in venues across the U.S. and on London's West End, the series comes full circle with the launch of the "Broadway @ Town Hall" series in New York City - kicking-off with two-time Tony Award winner Kelli O'Hara - smack dab in the middle of Broadway itself.

The 2018 Art House and Town Hall season produced by Mark Cortale is sponsored by Cape Air, Anchor Inn Beach House, Ptown Bikes, and Provincetown Gym.

For fans that wish to see each of The Art House and Town Hall stars this summer, the venue provides the opportunity to reserve those seats with its 2018 All Show Season Pass. It guarantees Season Pass holders best seats available, 'front-of-the-line' access, and an overall savings of $500 off the price of VIP seating. More info can be found at https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/3387221.

The Art House is wheelchair accessible.

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