Music Theatre Company's 'OSCAR & RICHARD & JOE' Set for Ravinia Festival in January

The Music Theatre Company joins forces with The Ravinia Festival for a special one night engagement of OSCAR & RICHARD & JOE: An Evening About Rodgers & Hammerstein's Allegro on Saturday, January 31 at 8:30 pm at Ravinia Festival's Bennett Gordon Hall, 200 Ravinia Park Rd., Highland Park, IL. Tickets for OSCAR & RICHARD & JOE are $10 and available by calling the Ravinia Festival Box Office at (847) 266- 5100 or visiting www.ravinia.org.

After the immense popularity of Oklahoma! and Carousel, legendary duo Rodgers & Hammerstein created a revolutionary new musical, Allegro. The show sharply divided critics, but Stephen Sondheim, who served as a production assistant on the original production for $25 a week, found much to admire. With music by Richard Rodgers, and book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, Allegro tells the story of Joseph Taylor, Jr., a young doctor who takes a lucrative hospital job in the big city of Chicago but finds himself longing for the simpler, more personal practice he left back home.

Conceived and directed by TMTC Founding Artistic Director Jessica Beth Redish and written by Scotty Arnold, OSCAR & RICHARD & JOE will explore the context of Allegro through theatrical footnotes on its history and legacy - and showcase key moments and songs from this rarely produced gem.

OSCAR & RICHARD & JOE features Kate Loprest (Wicked, Broadway In Chicago; Anyone Can Whistle, Ravinia Festival), Michael Weber (Gypsy and Annie Get Your Gun, Ravinia Festival), Matthew Keffer (The Wild Party, Bailiwick Chicago), Sarah Larson (Passion, Theo Ubique Cabaret Theatre), Chris Logan (A Kurt Weill Cabaret, Theo Ubique Cabaret Theatre) and Patrick Martin (Merrily We Roll Along, The Music Theatre Company). Additional casting to be announced.