Dayton Playhouse Announces its 2010-11 Season

The Dayton Playhouse is proud to announce its 52nd theatrical season of musicals, comedies, dramas and special events. "We are so excited to build on the tremendous success of our 2009 - 2010 Season with these exciting and daring shows for next season!" says Executive Director Wade Hamilton.

The season opens with the Mel Brooks hit musical comedy The Producers followed with the comic melodrama Die Mommie Die! by Charles Busch. Next comes the haunting, brilliant drama Wit by Margaret Edson. The Playhouse will present the charming and hilarious Christmas Belles by Jessie Jones, Nicholas Hope and Jamie Wooten as a Holiday Season extra. In the winter of 2011 comes The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, the delightful musical comedy by William Finn, Book by Rachel Sheinkin. Then Beyond Therapy, a bright comedy by Christopher Durang, followed by Bill W. and Dr. Bob by Stephen Bergman and Janet Surrey. And the season finale: La Cage aux Folles, the wonderful, musical love story by Harvey Fierstein with lyrics and music by Jerry Herman.
2010 - 2011 Season Ticket packages will be on sale at the theater during the final production this year: Gypsy. May 7 - 23. You may also call the Box Office at (937) 424-8477 or go online at www.daytonplayhouse.org.

The 2010/2011 Dayton Playhouse Season Up-Close:

The Producers

by Mel Brooks

August 27 - September 12, 2010

Directed by Chris Harmon
What happens when a down-and-out producer and his mousy accountant realize that they can make more money on Broadway with a flop, than a hit? They option the rights to "a gay romp with Adolf and Eva" in a guaranteed disaster of a show called "Springtime for Hitler!" But, what happens when that flop is a runaway hit?

Find out with us as the Dayton Playhouse presents its season opening musical comedy The Producers. This hilarious, campy, exuberant musical won 12 Tony Awards when it debuted in 2001 including Best Musical, Best Book of a Musical and Best Musical Score! 

Die Mommie Die!

by Charles Busch

October 8 - October 17, 2010

Directed by Michael Boyd
Set in 1967 Beverly Hills, this off-beat, "comic-thriller-melodrama" features the glamorous Angela Andrews, a once grand, now fading diva of the recording industry. She is trapped in a corrosive marriage to an overbearing film producer, Sol. In her attempt to find happiness with her lover Tony, a much younger, out-of-work TV star, Angela murders her husband - in a most unusual manner! Angela's meddling, daddy's-girl daughter Edith convinces her emotionally disturbed brother Lance to avenge their father's death by killing their mother. Can anyone predict how the plot will twist? We bet not!

Wit

by Margaret Edson

November 12 - 21, 2010

Directed by Matthew Smith
Vivian Bearing is a 50 year-old professor of English Poetry with an intellect of the first order - and terminal ovarian cancer. "It is not my intention to give away the plot," she tells the audience in her opening line, "but I think I die at the end." What follows is "... the kind of theatrical experience of which legends are made," according to Vincent Canby's review of the New York production of Wit. The play went on to win the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. One of the remarkable things about the play is that it manages not to be either sentimental or devastatingly sad, mainly through Vivian's personality, which remains prickly and proud throughout her ordeal with clinicians and doctors who openly reveal that "bedside manner is a waste of time for researchers." Ultimately, through Vivian, we uncover a new appreciation for the simple, the maudlin, the kind and see the triumph of the human spirit.

Christmas Belles

by Jessie Jones, Nicholas Hope and Jamie Wooten

December 17 - 19, 2010

Season Extra

What happens when a church Christmas pageant spins wildly out of control as three squabbling sisters try to reign in the mayhem? There's an ailing Santa, a vengeful sheep, and a reluctant Elvis impersonator, along with a family secret that just might derail the entire production. And on top of everything else, the pageant will be shown live on cable access television for the first time ever. Join the zany characters of Fayro, Texas as they bring us more than our share of redneck humor... Christmas Belles will bring joy to your world!

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee

Music by William Finn, Book by Rachel Sheinkin

January 28 - February 13, 2011

Directed by Natalie Houliston
This ingratiating, thoroughly disarming little musical comedy has a big heart. With a funny, touching book and a jubilant musical score, ...Spelling Bee celebrates the triumph of doing the best you can. Maybe not winning, but enjoying what you do. The story follows six students in the throes of puberty (plus volunteer audience members) as they try to spell their way toward first prize and a chance to compete in the finals in Washington D.C. You'll fall in love with these quirky, charming outsiders for whom a spelling bee is the one place where they can stand out and fit in at the same time ... A roller coaster of music and fun!

Beyond Therapy

by Christopher Durang

March 11 - 20, 2011

Directed by Kim Warrick
In Durang's more popular and sunnier comedies, Bruce and Prudence meet through an ad in the personals - and idea suggested by their psychiatrists. But their date doesn't go so well: He expresses emotions and likes to cry. Prudence doesn't think men should cry "unless something falls on them." He says he has another lover. She doesn't believe him; they talk some more but end up throwing water in each others' faces. Somehow Bruce and Prudence overcome their initial loathing, and start to maybe like one another. But - since this is a Christopher Durang comedy - watch as the whole thing comes to a wacky, chaotic end in a mad restaurant scene where screaming and shootings take place!

Bill W. and Dr. Bob

by Stephen Bergman and Janet Surrey

April 1 - 3, 2011

Season Extra

Directed by Dodie Lockwood
In 1929, famous New York stockbroker Bill W. crashes with the stock-market and becomes a hopeless drunk. Dr. Bob Smith, a surgeon from Ohio, has been an alcoholic for thirty years, often operating on patients - with a hangover. Through an astonishing series of events, Bill W. and Dr. Bob meet and form a relationship, each helping to keep the other sober. Join us for this courageously blunt, uncompromisingly straight-forward docu-drama that chronicles the circuitous path these men took to arrive at a practical method of dealing with a life-threatening condition: Alcoholics Anonymous, the organization that saves millions of men and women!

La Cage aux Folles

by Harvey Fierstein, Lyrics and Music by Jerry Herman

May 13 - 29, 2011

Directed by Doug Lloyd
Join us for our season finale at the fabulous St. Tropez nightclub, "La Cage aux Folles." Georges and his lover Albin have lived happily together for many years. Albin is the club's star female impersonator while Georges is the club's Master of Ceremonies. The fireworks begin when Georges' son, Jean-Michel, a result from a brief encounter years back, announces that he is engaged to ... a girl! Anne is the daughter of a well-known homophobic politician, Edouard Dindon. Anne's parents want to come and meet Jean-Michel's mother and father. Little do they know that Albin, a man, has been Jean-Michel's mother figure his whole life. Jean-Michel wants to keep Albin away from the Dindons but Albin is hurt and insists on making an appearance! Featuring the memorable tunes like "Mascara," "The Best of Times is Now," and the show-stopping "I Am What I Am."

About The Dayton Playhouse:
The Dayton Playhouse celebrates the performing arts with accessible, affordable, community theater presentations, events and cultural activities ... Including the area's largest annual festival of new works, FutureFest. Located in the beautiful Wegerzen Gardens just off East Siebenthaler Avenue in Dayton, The Playhouse features a 180 seat auditorium with safe, lighted, easy parking, right next to the spectacular gardens maintained by Five Rivers Metroparks. 

(937) 424-8477 Dayton, OH 45414
Box Office at (937) 424-8477 or go online at www.daytonplayhouse.org

 

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