DCA Announces 2011 Broadway Season

Denver Center Attractions has announced a high-spirited season of Broadway hits headed to Denver. The 2011 season, generously supported by United Airlines and Vectra Bank, features hits straight from Broadway-including the 2009 Best Musical Tony Award winner BILLY ELLIOT THE MUSICAL and the 2010 Pulitzer Prize winner NEXT TO NORMAL. In addition, Denver audiences will be treated to at least two shows that will feature the Broadway star who originated the lead role.

The startling new musical NEXT TO NORMAL-winner of the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Drama-will start the season on an dramatic high note, playing the Ellie Caulkins Opera House January 4-16. Denver audiences will have the privilege of seeing Alice Ripley reprise the role she created on Broadway, for which she won the 2009 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical. Ripley's portrayal of Diana Goodman, a woman struggling with mental illness, received unanimous critical acclaim on Broadway, with the New York Daily News calling her portrayal "a towering performance that leaves you tongue-tied for superlatives." NEXT TO NORMAL was chosen as "one of the year's ten best" by The New York Times and features music by Tom Kitt, book and lyrics by Brian Yorkey, and direction by Michael Greif. www.NextToNormal.com

Dolly Parton's soul-stirring music fills the Buell Theatre April 26-May 8, when 9 TO 5: The Musical works its way to Denver. Nominated for four 2009 Tony Awards including Original Score and earning a record-breaking 15 Drama Desk nominations, this new musical comedy is based on the hit movie and features Dolly Parton's original hit title song along with her new Tony and Grammy-nominated score. The book is by Patricia Resnick (co-writer of the original screenplay). 9 TO 5: The Musical marked the Broadway debut for seven-time Grammy Award winning singer, songwriter and musician Parton, and is a hilarious story of friendship and revenge in the Rolodex era. This is the tale of three unlikely friends who conspire to take control of their company and learn there's nothing they can't do -- even in a man's world. The Associated Press calls it "a certified crowd pleaser" and the Daily News sums it up by saying "it shines...Dolly Parton's songs are bouncy, big hearted, fresh & original." www.9to5themusical.com

Subscribers will next experience TRACES, a co-presentation with the Denver Center Theatre Company, in the Stage Theatre March 11-May 14. TRACES is a unique show by 7 Fingers, an astonishingly talented French Canadian company that has pioneered a whole new brand of theatrical entertainment. On what may prove their last night on earth, seven street youths celebrate life with dazzling, gravity-defying displays of skill - balancing on each other's heads, tumbling through hoops and leaping spectacularly up giant poles. TRACES is more than just a display of acrobatic brilliance. The audience is gradually drawn into the performers' real life stories and, by the dramatic climax of the show, on the edge of their seats, is willing them to pull off the seemingly impossible. Edinburgh's The Sun called it "one of the most creative and inspiring pieces of entertainment I've ever witnessed."

Arriving in May is the worldwide smash hit and 2009 Best Musical Tony winner BILLY ELLIOT, playing the Buell Theatre May 11-June 5. BILLY ELLIOT is the joyous celebration of one boy's journey to make his dreams come true. Set in a small town, the story follows Billy as he stumbles out of the boxing ring and into a ballet class, discovering a surprising passion that inspires his family and his whole community. A big musical with an even bigger heart, BILLY ELLIOT will enchant the dreamer in all of us. Based on the international smash-hit film, BILLY ELLIOT is brought to life by a phenomenal cast of 45 and the Tony Award-winning creative team -- director Stephen Daldry, choreographer Peter Darling and writer Lee Hall -- along with music legend Elton John, who has written what the New York Post calls "his best score yet!" www.BillyElliotTour.com

Next up, the big-hair rock-n-roll Broadway hit ROCK OF AGES plays the Buell Theatre June 14-26. Tony Award nominee and "American Idol" finalist Constantine Maroulis reprises his acclaimed performance as Drew in the tour of the five-time Tony nominated smash-hit musical. In 1987 on the Sunset Strip, a small town girl met a big city rocker and in LA's most famous rock club, they fell in love to the greatest songs of the 80's. An arena-rock love story told through the mind-blowing, face-melting hits of Journey, Night Ranger, Styx, REO Speedwagon, Pat Benatar, Twisted Sister, Poison, Asia, Whitesnake, ROCK OF AGES is a hilarious homage to the power ballads and rock anthems of the 80s. The New York Times declares ROCK OF AGES is "impossible to resist! As guilty as pleasures get" and Rolling Stone says "Rock of Ages has found a perfect lead in Maroulis." ROCK OF AGES is directed by Tony Award nominee Kristin Hanggi and choreographed by Kelly Devine, with a book is by Chris D'Arienzo. www.RockofAgesMusical.com

From the rocking 80's, audiences will go back 20 years to the free spirited days of the 1960s in HAIR, playing the Buell Fall 2011. HAIR: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical, won the 2009 Tony Award for Best Musical Revival. With a score including such enduring musical numbers as "Let the Sun Shine In," Aquarius," "Hair" and "Good Morning Starshine," HAIR depicts the birth of a cultural movement in the 60's and 70's that changed America forever. The musical follows a group of hopeful, free-spirited young people who advocate a lifestyle of pacifism and free-love in a society riddled with intolerance and brutality during the Vietnam War. As they explore sexual identity, challenge racism, experiment with drugs and burn draft cards, the show resonates with an irresistible message of hope more than 40 years after it first opened on Broadway. The New York Times says "Diane Paulus's thrilling, emotionally rich production delivers intense, unadulterated joy" and Time Out New York says "HAIR speaks to a whole new generation!"www.hairontour.com

One of the most beloved musicals of all time returns in a spectacular new Broadway revival when WEST SIDE STORY visits the Buell December 13-January 1. Directed by its two-time Tony Award-winning librettist Arthur Laurents, WEST SIDE STORY remains as powerful, poignant and timely as ever, and features the original unforgettable Jerome Robbins choreography restaged by Tony Award-nominee Joey McKneely. WEST SIDE STORY was written by three theatrical luminaries: two-time Tony Award winner Arthur Laurents (book) and multiple Tony and Grammy Award winners Leonard Bernstein (music) and Stephen Sondheim (lyrics, in his Broadway debut.) The new Broadway cast album of WEST SIDE STORY recently won the 2010 Grammy Award for Best Musical Show Album. The Bernstein and Sondheim score is considered to be one of Broadway's finest and features such classics of the American musical theatre as "Something's Coming," "Tonight," "America," "I Feel Pretty" and "Somewhere." The New Yorker declares it is "so exciting it makes you ache with pleasure." www.BroadwayWestSideStory.com

The 2011 Denver Center Attractions subscription season will also include a cabaret show in the Garner Galleria Theatre. The cabaret space where we staged some of the best musicals and comedies in Denver Center history including I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change; Always...Patsy Cline; My Way: A Musical Tribute to Frank Sinatra, and The Taffetas, will feature another entertaining title in 2011. The cost of this show is included in the DCA 2011 subscription price.

2011 season ticket packages start at just $220. To purchase a subscription, please call Denver Center Ticket Services: 303.893.4100 or 800.641.1222, or visit the ticket office located in the Helen Bonfils Theatre Complex at Speer & Arapahoe. Subscription packages can also be purchased online at www.denvercenter.org/bwaysubs. Single tickets are not available at this time.

DCA subscribers will also receive priority access to added attractions in 2011 prior to the general public. Season subscribers can purchase tickets to these added attractions NOW: the long-awaited return of THE LION KING (Nov 2-Dec 4), and the returns of Broadway hits LES MISÉRABLES (Aug 31-Sept 4) and AVENUE Q (Mar 11-13). Additional subscriber benefits include preferred seating, free ticket exchanges and various special offers throughout the season. Subscribers will also receive a complimentary, one-year subscription to Denver Magazine with their 2011 season ticket package.

The Denver Center Attractions 2011 season is sponsored by United Airlines and Vectra Bank. Media sponsorship for Denver Center Attractions is provided by The Denver Post, CBS4 and Denver Magazine. Denver Center Attractions is supported in part by the Scientific and Cultural Facilities District.

The Denver Center for the Performing Arts presents and produces live theatre with Broadway touring shows, cabaret productions and a professional theatre company. The DCPA is also the site of training schools for actors and unique rental facilities. Denver Center Attractions is a preferred stop on the Broadway touring circuit and has launched many national touring premieres. DCA also produces original cabaret shows. The Tony Award-winning Denver Center Theatre Company is the largest professional theatre company between Chicago and the West Coast. It produces traditional and contemporary drama and world premieres. For more information, please visit www.denvercenter.org.

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