TOMMY, BIG, THE MOUNTAINTOP and More Announced for Redhouse Arts Center 2020-21 Season

Artistic Director, Hunter Foster has announced Redhouse Arts Center's 2020-21 Main Stage Season featuring several Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winning productions that are sure to delight audiences of all ages.

With every production this season, Redhouse will utilize its versatile theatre space to treat audiences to a thrilling theatre experience. "We found our audiences really loved the intimacy of our productions, as they did with our musical, Rent", stated Foster. "Having the actors so close to the audience really elevated the story's emotional level. No other theatre in Central New York gives such an immersive experience to an audience the way Redhouse can, and we want to continue experimenting with our spaces for the 20/21 season", he concluded. Building on this year's success, Redhouse will offer five Main Stage shows with some productions offering an extended three week run.

The full season lineup includes:

THE WHO'S TOMMY

Redhouse will kick off 2020-21 season with Tony Award winning rock musical The Who's Tommy which will run from September 24 - October 11, 2019.

Based on the classic rock'n roll concept album by the British rock band, The Who, Tommy is an exhilarating story of hope, healing, and the human spirit. It's the story of a pinball-playing, deaf and blind boy who triumphs over his adversities that has inspired, amazed and puzzled audiences for more than 40 years. With a classic rock score featuring the songs "I'm Free", "Sensation" and "Pinball Wizard", Tommy embarks on a journey that takes him from being a traumatized and abused young boy to an international pinball superstar. Redhouse will bring back the entire creative team from its acclaimed production of Rent, with Hunter Foster and Jennifer Cody once again co-directing. Like Rent, this thrilling show will also be performed in the round.

BIG, THE MUSICAL

Redhouse's second show of the season will feature the family friendly musical Big which will run from Dec. 3 - Dec. 20, 2020. The 1987 motion picture fantasy starring Tom Hanks comes to life onstage in this comedic musical adaptation. It's the story of a young awkward suburban boy, who wants nothing more than to be "big". After making his wish to a Zoltar machine at a local carnival, he wakes up the next morning a grown man. After the initial shock of being a grown up and with the help of best friend, he ends up getting a job and a girlfriend. In the end, he discovers there's much more to being an adult than what he bargained for, and learns that we all must grow up at our own pace, in our own time. The show will feature many local kids and teens from the Syracuse and Central New York region.

THE MOUNTAINTOP

Redhouse continues in 2021 with the powerful and inspiring play The Mountaintop which will run from February 25 - March 7, 2021. Katori Hall's play reimagines the events on the night before Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination in Memphis, following the delivery of his memorable "I've Been to the Mountaintop" speech. It's April 3, 1968, and after delivering one of his most memorable speeches, an exhausted Martin Luther King, Jr. retires to his room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis while a storm rages outside. That night he is visited by a mysterious stranger who brings him some surprising, sobering and tragic news; and he is forced in that short time to confront his destiny and his legacy to his people. The show will be directed by Redhouse favorite Temar Underwood (Once Upon a Mattress, Steel Magnolias).

A DOLL'S HOUSE, PART 2

Nominated for 8 Tony Awards, Lucas Hnath's quick witted, contemporary, A Dolls House Part 2, will run April 8 - April 18, 2021. In the final scene of Ibsen's 1879 groundbreaking masterpiece, A Doll's House, Nora Helmer makes the shocking decision to leave her husband and children to begin a life on her own. This climactic event - when Nora slams the door on everything in her life - instantly propelled world drama into the modern age. Many years have passed since Nora made that fateful decision, and now she has returned to face all that she left behind. A smart, funny, and utterly engrossing play, A Doll's House Part 2 poses thoughtful questions about marriage, gender inequality and human rights. The play asks, even a century later, how much life has changed for Nora and women like her in a world that often still has firm ideas about where they belong. Don't miss your chance to see the most produced, most talked about play in America. The show will be directed by Artistic Director Hunter Foster.

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM

Redhouse will close it's 2020-21 Season with Shakespeare's popular romantic comedy A Midsummer's Night Dream,which will run from May 6-May 16, 2021. One of Shakespeare's most beloved plays, A Midsummer Night's Dream is a comic fantasy about 4 lovers who find themselves bewitched by fairies who inhabit the forest. It is a play ripe with magic, enchantment and, of course, romance. "The course of true love never did run smooth," comments Lysander, articulating one of Midsummer's most important themes - that of the difficulty of love. A versatile play that can be adapted in many different ways, this production will be no different, using music, dance and immersive story-telling. This Shakespearean production will also be produced in the round.

2020-21 Season subscriptions are currently on sale, with single tickets going on sale August 1, 2020. Subscriptions start at $175 with single tickets prices starting at $40. For questions or more information, call the Redhouse Arts Center box office at (315) 362-2785 or visit www.theredhouse.org. Audition information for MainStage, Education and Camps will be released soon and also soon available online at www.theredhouse.org.