Candlelight Dinner Playhouse Presents ANNIE WARBUCKS 8/27-11/13

The Candlelight Dinner Playhouse will present the Regional Premiere of ANNIE WARBUCKS, August 27, 2011 through November 13, 2011 as is happy to continue to offer free tickets to children 5-12 with each full price adult.

The world's favorite orphan returns in ANNIE WARBUCKS, the sequel to the 1977 Tony Award-winning hit ANNIE, based on Harold Gray's 'Little Orphan Annie' comic strip. Written by the same creative team behind the original, ANNIE WARBUCKS features a book by Thomas Meehan, music by Charles Strouse, and lyrics by Martin Charnin and picks up exactly were ANNIE left off, Christmas morning, 1933.

Starting life as ANNIE 2, the show had a bumpy initial tour, where the authors re-worked the show, went through some cast and character changes, changed the title to ANNIE WARBUCKS and opened off-Broadway at the newly renovated Variety Arts Theatre in the East Village. Shining in the cast were Harve Presnell as Warbucks, Marguerite MacIntyre as Grace, Alene Robertson as Commissioner Doyle, Donna McKechnie as Mrs. Kelly, and a little heart-stopping powerhouse named Kathryn Zaremba as Annie.

The show broke all off-Broadway box office records for the time. Investors were in place to move the production to Broadway. However, with 200 performances, the production had been performed too many times off-Broadway which made it inelegible to be considered for any Tony Awards, putting the Broadway transfer in jeopardy. And, thinking that the theater was going to be vacated, the Variety Arts Theatre Management was under contract to another production, forcing ANNIE WARBUCKS to close despite its' record-breaking ticket sales and positive reviews.

New York Magazine called it "Surefire family fun" while the New York Times wrote "full of peppy melodies and plenty of laughs, ANNIE WARBUCKS is one of the composer's best" and The New York Daily News said "ANNIE WARBUCKS is an enormously entertaining evening."

ANNIE WARBUCKS is directed by Timothy Kennedy, who starred last season in The Playhouse's production of BYE BYE BIRDIE as the Sullivan-struck Mr. MacAfee, directed for Pensacola Opera and served on the faculty of the University of West Florida where he directed SHE LOVES ME and INTO THE WOODS.

The cast features Mark J. Middlebrooks as Oliver Warbucks, Tricia Moreland and Meghan Leigh Hempstead as Annie Warbucks (alternating performances), Kyra Koelling as Grace Farrell, Heather Lacy as Harriet Doyle and Dominque N. Simmons as Sheila Kelly. Audience favorites, Brian Burron, Patrick Sawyer, Scott Severtson, Bren. Eyestone Burron return along with a company of 16 loveable orphans and a live 6-piece orchestra.

We invite you and a guest to review the show and appreciate you joining us during the first four weeks of the run.

The Candlelight Dinner Playhouse, Colorado's largest professional dinner theater, is conveniently located on I-25 at exit #254, just south of Johnson's Corner.

WHAT: ANNIE WARBUCKS
WHEN: August 27, 2011 through November 13, 2011
TIMES: Thursday - Saturday evenings and Sunday matinees
PRICE: Adult Dinner/Show $45.50-$57.50 Adult Show Only $29.50
Additional discounts for children 13-18
Children 5-12 are free for ANNIE WARBUCKS with each full price adult
Children under 5 are not permitted in the theater
TICKETS: 970-744-3747
WEB: www.coloradocandlelight.com
ADDRESS: 4747 Market Place Drive, Johnstown, CO 80534