TheatreZone Announces 10th Anniversary Season Including Mack & Mabel and Sweeney Todd

Mark Danni, artistic director of TheatreZone, Naples' non-profit Equity professional theatre group in residence at the G&L Theatre in Naples, today unveiled his 10th anniversary season selections, continuing the theatre group's mission to bering the "lost treasures of Broadway" to Naples.

"TheatreZone's 10 anniversary season is designed to surprise, entertain, challenge and inspire our audiences by inviting them to take part in shared acts of imagination," continues Danni. " TheatreZone opens in January 2015 with the musical Mack & Mabel, with book by Michael Steward and music and lyrics by Jerry Herman.

Mack & Mabel was the first-ever show produced by TheatreZone in 2005, involving the tumultuous romantic relationship between Hollywood director Mack Sennett and Mabel Normand, who became one of Sennett's his biggest stars. In a series of flashbacks Sennett relates the glory days of Keystone Studios from 1911, when he discovered Normand and cast her in dozens of his early "two-reelers," through his creation of Sennett's Bathing Beauties and the Keystone Cops to Mabel's death from tuberculosis in 1930.

The original 1974 Broadway production starred Robert Preston and Bernadette Peters. It received eight Tony Award nominations including Best Musical, but did not win any. Although the original production closed after only eight weeks, the songs were praised and subsequent productions, especially in Berlin, have had success. Mack & Mabel January 8 through January 18, 2015.

February marks the return of the legendary Stephen Sondheim to TheatreZone with the staging of his musical masterpiece Sweeney Todd. This is the 1979 musical thriller based upon the 1973 play Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street by Christopher Bond. Set in the 19th century England, the musical tells the story of Benjamin Barker, aka Sweeney Todd, who returns to London after 15 years imprisonment on trumped-up charges. When he finds out that his wife poisoned herself after being raped by the judge who sent him to prison, he vows revenge on the judge, and later, other people, too. He teams up with a lonely pie maker, Mrs. Lovett, and opens a barbershop in which he slits the throats of customers and has them baked into pies.

Sweeney Todd opened on Broadway in 1979 and in the West End in 1980. In addition to several revivals, the musical has been presented by opera companies. It won the Tony Award for Best Musical and Olivier Award for Best New Musical. The production runs February 5 through February 15, 2015.

March roars in like a lion with Brooklyn - The Musical, the story of a band of performers who tell "a wondrous sidewalk fairy tales about a young girl searching for fame and the father she never knew. With just one clear to hear her, she lands in the city that bears her name, Brooklyn," says Danni.

Lyricist Mark Schoenfeld, born in Brooklyn and raised in the Bronx project became a street performer when Barri McPherson, a friend from his past heard him singing on the street one day and invited him to come live in her home. Together, the two wrote the musical Brooklyn, which premiered on Broadway in September 2004. The musical played 28 previews and 283 regular performances. Brooklyn - The Musical runs March 5 through March 15, 2015.

The season finale is Neil Simon's They're Playing Our Song, written by Marvin Hamlisch, based upon his real-life relationship with singer-songwriter Carol Sager, a wisecracking composer who finds the offbeat lyricist a good match but not initially a match made in heaven. The two undergo a series of trials and overncome a number of hurdles before finding true love by the final curtain.

They're Playing Our Song is essentially a two-character show. Vernon and Sonia are the sole characters on stage; each character has a three[person Greek chorus acting as their inner voices. They're Playing Our Song runs April 30 through May 10, 2015.

In 2005, non-profit TheatreZone was born on two concepts: an affinity and nostalgia for the stage, and for the intimacy of live audiences. Co-founders artistic director Mark Danni and his wife, actress/choreographer Karen Molnar shared a vision and a passion to bring equity professional actors, and produce talented and innovative productions of classic "lost treasures of Broadway."

Operating under the guidelines of the Actors' Equity Association and small professional theatres contracts, TheatreZone is in residence and performs in the intimate 250-seat G&L Theatre housed on the magnificent campus of The Community School of Naples, one block north of Pine Ridge Road at 13275 Livingston Road.

Over the last nine years, TheatreZone has grown steadily and produced more than 300 performances, including two world premieres, featuring more than 400 artists.

Season 10 tickets go on sale for series subscriber tickets only on May 2. Individual ticket sales open to the public on June 1, 2014. Season 10 subscriber series (four shows) costs $202; a mini series (3 shows) costs $164, and individual seats costs $48 - $53 plus a $2 per ticket fee. Reduced rates for groups of more than 10 are available.

For more information or to purchase tickets, call TheaterZone at 1-888-ZONE-FLA, 1-888-966-3352 or purchase online at www.theatrezone-florida.com. The on site Box Office will be open Wedesdays from10 am until 12 noon until June 1, 2014.