The Music Theatre Company to Bring OSCAR & RICHARD & JOE to Ravinia Festival

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 was an early admirer and has cited it as a major influence on his work. 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 by TMTC Founding Artistic Director Jessica Beth Redish and written by Scotty Arnold, OSCAR & RICHARD & JOE features direction by Redish and TMTC Co-Artistic Director Jess McLeod and music direction by TMTC Associate Artist Diana Lawrence. The evening 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 Kevin Gudahl (Pacific Overtures, Donmar Warehouse; She Loves Me; Writers Theatre), Kate Loprest (Wicked, Broadway In Chicago; Anyone Can Whistle, Ravinia Festival), Johanna Mckenzie Miller (A Little Night Music, Sunday in the Park With George, Ravinia Festival) Michael Weber (Gypsy and Annie Get Your Gun, Ravinia Festival), Alex Weisman, (My Name is Asher Lev, The History Boys, TimeLine Theatre Company), Kelli Harrington (The Light in the Piazza, Theo Ubique Cabaret Theatre), James Rank (Oklahoma!, Lyric Opera of Chicago; PIPPIN, The Music Theatre Company), Michael Ferraro (Cymbeline, First Folio Theatre), Matthew Keffer (The Wild Party, Bailiwick Chicago), Sarah Larson (The 48-Hour Musicals: Encore!, The Music Theatre Company), Chris Logan (A Kurt Weill Cabaret, Theo Ubique Cabaret Theatre), PatRick Martin (Merrily We Roll Along, The Music Theatre Company), Haley Jane Schafer (Flipside: The Patti Page Story National Tour) and Sean Thomas (Phantom of the Opera, Broadway).

Photo courtesy of The Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization.