Stoneham Theatre Presents Musical Farce LUCKY STIFF

Stoneham Theatre opens its 17th Season with Lucky Stiff, a musical murder mystery farce about love, dogs, diamonds, and death. From the creators of Ragtime and Seussical, Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty, Directed by Caitlin Lowans and Choreographed by Elliot Norton and IRNE Award-winner Ilyse Robbins, Lucky Stiff hilariously tells the story of an unassuming shoe salesman who stands to inherit six million dollars from a recently deceased uncle he never met. There's only one catch: he has to bring his embalmed uncle on a vacation to Monte Carlo. Should he succeed in passing his uncle off as alive, he'll get the inheritance. If not, the money goes to the Universal Dog Home of Brooklyn, or else his uncle's gun-toting ex! Performances run from September 8 - 25, 2016. Press Opening is Saturday, September 10, 2016 at 3:00pm.

Shares Lowans, "I love how musical theatre uses outlandish situations to push characters to a place of emotional truthfulness and vulnerability. Lucky Stiff is a madcap romp in which a hapless shoe salesman spends a week fulfilling a dead body's every whim BUT it's also a meditation on how fear keeps us closed off from each other and the most meaningful personal transformation emerges from dreams we've already had but have kept boxed off inside ourselves. For all of its larger-than-life energy, Lucky Stiff is an amazingly human-sized story and I can never get enough of those."

The Lucky Stiff cast includes two young company alumni, Andrew Barbato and Bryan Miner, as well as past young company teaching artists Samantha Richert and Stoneham favorite Ceit Zweil. Cast members include Stoneham Theatre comic veterans Mark Linehan and Thomas Derrah, as well as Elizabeth Milanovich (recently named one of the top 25 under 25 to watch by the Improper Bostonian), John O'Neil, Stewart EVan Smith, Jr., and Jade Wheeler.

"The show itself sends up the murder-mystery genre that our audience loves, and adds slamming doors style farce (which hasn't been on the Stoneham stage as often). Visually, this production will be an end-of-summer holiday: referencing the beautiful Riviera while also staying true to the show's roots in the late 1980s; the audience should expect shoulder-padded glamour along with whodunnit hijinks," says Producing Artistic Director Weylin Symes.

The design team is comprised of Scenic Designer Jon Savage, Lighting Designer Jessica Krometis, Costume Designer Tyler Kinney, Music Director Bethany Aiken, Sound Designer Andrew Duncan Will, Sound Engineer John Stone, Sound Board Operator Jack Staid, and Props Master Jacob Street.

Lucky Stiff full production credits: Book and Lyrics by Lynn Ahrens, Music by Stephen Flaherty. Based on "The Man Who Broke the Bank At Monte Carlo" by Michael Butterworth. First Produced by Playwrights' Horizons Inc. Off-Broadway in 1988.

Single Tickets for Lucky Stiff: $50-$55 Adults; $45-50 Seniors; $20 Students (with valid ID). "Thrifty Thursday" tickets cost $15 at the door and are available for the Thursday, September 8, 2016 performance at 7:30pm. Student Rush Tickets start one hour prior to each performance, and 2 Student tickets may be purchased for the price of one (subject to availability). There will be a talkback after the performance on Sunday, September 11, 2016 at 2:00pm. For more information or to purchase tickets, call Stoneham Theatre's Box Office at (781) 279-2200, or visitwww.stonehamtheatre.org.