Barrington Stage Company 2020 Season to Feature SOUTH PACIFIC, AIN'T MISBEHAVIN' and More

Barrington Stage Company (BSC), the award-winning theatre in Pittsfield, MA., in the heart of the Berkshires, and under the leadership of Founder/Artistic Director Julianne Boyd, has announced its 2020 season. BSC will present two World Premiere musicals and new productions of a Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning musical classic, a Tony Award-winning musical revue, and a Pulitzer Prize-winning play.

"Many of us are thinking about what it means to be an American," commented Founder/Artistic Director Julianne Boyd. "We're also considering that question on our stages this season, with works full of joy, passion and substance - from a musical classic decrying racism, to a play about the after-effects of war, to a world premiere musical about migrants on a perilous journey to freedom. We're also presenting plays by Chinese-American, Cuban-American and Jewish authors, and an exuberant musical revue that conjures up African-American life in 1920's/30's Harlem. We'll also be performing outdoors and for free for the first time with a World Premiere musical featuring our Youth Theatre. We cannot wait to share these productions with BSC audiences."

The first production on the Boyd-Quinson Mainstage (30 Union Street, Downtown Pittsfield) will be one of the most celebrated musicals of all time, the Rodgers & Hammerstein classic South Pacific, based on James A. Michener's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Tales of the South Pacific, and the 1950 winner of 10 Tony Awards including Best Musical, as well as the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The production will be directed by Julianne Boyd and choreographed by Shea Sullivan (BSC: Ragtime; Neurosis - Chita Rivera Award nomination).

Tony Award-winning playwright Richard Greenberg, represented on Broadway this season with a revival of Take Me Out, will be featured on the Boyd-Quinson Mainstage with a new production of his 2013 Tony-nominated The Assembled Parties. Director for The Assembled Parties will be announced in coming weeks.

The final Boyd-Quinson Mainstage production of the summer will be the 'Fats' Waller musical revue, Ain't Misbehavin', winner of the 1978 Tony Award for Best Musical, in a completely reconceived production directed and choreographed by the visionary Camille A. Brown (2019 Tony Nominee for Best Choreography, Choir Boy). Ms. Brown has been hailed by The New York Times as "one of the most expressive, genuine and deeply felt choreographers working today."

A Fall production for the Mainstage will be announced shortly.

Launching the St. Germain Stage (36 Linden Street, Downtown Pittsfield) season will be The Great Leap by award-winning playwright Lauren Yee (Cambodian Rock Band, The Tiger Among Us) and directed by Jesca Prudencio (Vietgone, Actually).

Next up will be the 2003 Pulitzer Prize-winning Anna in the Tropics by Nilo Cruz, directed by Elena Araoz (Original Sound).

The St. Germain season continues with Chester Bailey, by Emmy Award-winner Joseph Dougherty ("thirtysomething"), directed by Ron Lagomarsino (Driving Miss Daisy), and starring real-life father and son, Tony Award-winner Reed Birney (The Humans) and Ephraim Birney ("Gotham").

The St. Germain season concludes with a BSC commission, the World Premiere of A Crossing, a new dance musical co-conceived by BSC Associate Artist Joshua Bergasse (BSC: The Royal Family of Broadway, On the Town; Broadway: On the Town) and BSC Associate Artist Mark St. Germain (BSC and Off Broadway: Freud's Last Session), with book by St. Germain, music & lyrics by award-winning songwriter Zoe Sarnak (Secret Soldiers, Empire Records), created in association with Calpulli Mexican Dance Company and directed & choreographed by Bergasse.

The 2020 Youth Theatre Production will be another BSC commission, the World Premiere musical The Supadupa Kid, with book by Melvin Tunstall III (actor in Broadway's Beautiful: The Carole King Musical; author of Polkadots: The Cool Kids Musical), music by Joel Waggoner (BSC: Presto Change-o), lyrics by Sukari Jones (The River Is Me, Ain't Far from Home), based on the novel by award-winning children's book author, literacy advocate and motivational speaker Ty Allan Jackson, and directed by Signe Harriday (How Black Mothers Say I Love You). The production will be presented outdoors and for free at The Common (100 1st Street Pittsfield).

THE 2020 Boyd-Quinson Mainstage PRODUCTIONS INCLUDE:

SOUTH PACIFIC

Music by Richard Rodgers

Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II

Book by Oscar Hammerstein II and Joshua Logan

Adapted from the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Tales of the South Pacific by James A. Michener

Choreographed by Shea Sullivan

Directed by Julianne Boyd

Previews begin June 24, 2020

Opens June 28, 2020

Runs through July 18, 2020

Set on an idyllic South Pacific island during World War II, Rodgers and Hammerstein's

South Pacific, winner of 10 Tony Awards, including Best Musical and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, intertwines the themes of romance, duty and prejudice to create a story that is at once hilarious, heartbreaking and thought-provoking.

Featuring an extraordinary score - including "Some Enchanted Evening," "I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair," "Bali Ha'i," "There Is Nothin' Like a Dame" and "You've Got to Be Carefully Taught" - South Pacific is an unparalleled and timely classic.

THE ASSEMBLED PARTIES

By Richard Greenberg

Director TBA

Previews begin July 24, 2020

Opens July 29, 2020

Runs through August 8, 2020

The Assembled Parties, a 2013 Tony Award nominee for Best Play, introduces us to the Bascovs, an Upper West Side Jewish family, in 1980. Former movie star Julie Bascov and her sister-in-law Faye bring their families together for their traditional holiday dinner. Twenty years later, the Bascovs' seemingly picture-perfect life may be about to crumble. A stunning play infused with humor, The Assembled Parties is an incisive portrait of a family grasping for stability at the dawn of a new millennium.

AIN'T MISBEHAVIN'

The Fats Waller Musical Show

Conceived by Richard Maltby, Jr. and Murray Horwitz

Directed & Choreographed by Camille A. Brown

Previews begin August 13, 2020

Opens August 16, 2020

Runs through September 6, 2020

A co-production with Westport Country Playhouse

The 1978 Tony Award-winning Best Musical features unforgettable music made famous by Thomas 'Fats' Waller, including "Honeysuckle Rose," "Your Feet's Too Big," "The Joint is Jumpin'" and "'Tain't Nobody's Biz-ness If I Do," to name a few. These rowdy, raunchy and humorous songs capture the love, longing and zest for life of 1920's/30's Harlem, in a production reimagined by the incomparable director/choreographer Camille A. Brown (2019 Tony Nominee for Best Choreography, Choir Boy).

THE 2020 ST. GERMAIN STAGE PRODUCTIONS INCLUDE:

THE GREAT LEAP

By Lauren Yee

Directed by Jesca Prudencio

Previews begin May 27, 2020

Opening night May 30, 2020

Runs through June 13, 2020

When an American college basketball team travels to Beijing for an exhibition game in the 1980s, the tension on the court mirrors the strain between their countries. For two men with a shared past and one teen with a future in jeopardy, it's a chance to stake their moment in history and claim personal victories off the scoreboard.

New York Magazine says "Yee has crafted a moving fiction around pieces of real

history-her own, and that of China in the years after the Cultural Revolution, leading up to the protests in Tiananmen Square."

ANNA IN THE TROPICS

By Nilo Cruz

Directed by Elena Araoz

Previews begin June 18, 2020

Opens June 21, 2020

Runs through July 11, 2020

Winner of the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Anna in the Tropics is set in Ybor City (Tampa) in 1929 in a Cuban-American factory where cigars are still rolled by hand. The factory owner's family awaits the arrival of a new "lector," who is hired to read to the workers for their education and entertainment. His arrival is cause for celebration, but when the lector begins reading Anna Karenina, the passionate, frustrated lives of the characters in the book begin to parallel those of the listeners, leading to jealousy, betrayal and sexual awakening.

CHESTER BAILEY

By Joseph Dougherty

Starring Reed Birney and Ephraim Birney

Directed by Ron Lagomarsino

Previews begin July 16, 2020

Opens July 19, 2020

Runs through August 7, 2020

In a hospital on Long Island at the close of World War II, a young man is recovering from catastrophic injuries...or so the doctors struggle to convince him. Because Chester Bailey denies what's happened to him has actually happened, he is put under the care of Dr. Philip Cotton, who is charged with guiding Chester from his imaginary world back to reality. The journey is not what either man expected.

The World Premiere of

A CROSSING

Co-conceived by Joshua Bergasse and Mark St. Germain

Book by Mark St. Germain

Music & Lyrics by Zoe Sarnak

Created in association with Calpulli Mexican Dance Company

Directed & Choreographed by Joshua Bergasse

Previews begin August 15, 2020

Opens August 20, 2020

Runs through September 6, 2020

Commissioned by Sydelle and Lee Blatt & Pamela Cooper

Pulsing with energy and emotional intensity, this story about a group of migrants crossing the southern border is raw, visceral and electrifying - demonstrating the personal impact of crossing an invisible line. The group faces many dangers, even from the "coyote" hired to smuggle them across the border. This new dance musical ingeniously combines compelling lyrics, athletic choreography and elements of Mexican folk music to tell a remarkable tale of courage, fear and struggle.

2020 YOUTH THEATRE PRODUCTION

The World Premiere of

THE SUPADUPA KID

Book by Melvin Tunstall III

Music by Joel Waggoner

Lyrics by Sukari Jones

Based on the novel by Ty Allan Jackson

Directed by Signe Harriday

Presented for free July 30, 2020 to August 9, 2020 at The Common (100 1st Street).

Commissioned by Jodi and Paul Tartell

Javon Williams was just a normal kid until a freak accident gave him amazing superpowers. The only problem? The neighborhood bully, Hoody, acquired his own superpowers and is using them to terrorize the city! Javon attempts to save the city by becoming...The Supadupa Kid!

Tickets and subscriptions for the 2020 Season are now on sale at BarringtonStageCo.org.