TheatreZone Sets 11th Season: INTO THE WOODS, XANADU & More

TheatreZone founder and artistic director Mark Danni today unveiled his musical selections for the non-profit Equity professional theatre group's 11th consecutive season opening with legendary composer Marvin Hamlisch's final Broadway show Sweet Smell of Success on January 7, 2016 closely followed by The Boy From Oz in February, Stephen Sondheim's Into The Woods in March and concluding with the tap dancing comedic gem Dames at Sea in May.

Sweet Smell of Success began life in the late 40s as a long magazine article, but was then made into one of the last great film noirs with Burt Lancaster (Hunsecker) and Tony Curtis (Falco). Generally presumed to be a savage profile of the savage Walter Winchell of The New York Daily Mirror, the Winchell character, Hunsecker, induces Falco, the press agent whose survival depends on placing items in the column, to help break up a romance between Hunsecker's younger sister and a jazz musician.

"It's a magnificent story about media sensationalism and entertainment at the cost of people's lives. And so the suspense and entertainment begins," explains Danni. It was nominated for both the 2002 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Musical and 2002 Tony Award for Best Book of A Musical.

Sweet Smell of Success will run for 11 performances January 7 through January 17, 2016.

February showcases The Boy From Oz ("oz" is slang for Australia) based on the life of hit singer/songwriter Australian Peter Allen, a protégé of Judy Garland who was briefly married to her daughter Liza Minnelli. The show follows Allen from bars to nightclubs and concerts across the globe. The book is by Nick Enright who used the same title for his musical version of Allen's life as the 1996 documentary The Boy From Oz.

On Broadway, Hugh Jackman (as Peter Allen) won the 2004 Tony Award for Best Leading Actor in a Musical and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Musical, while Isabel Keating (as Judy Garland) won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical. The show also received nominations for four other Tony Awards, including Best Musical.

The Boy >From Oz runs for 11 performances February 4 through February 14, 2016.

In March, TheatreZone stages a beautiful new production of Stephen Sondheim's Into The Woods, the fairytale kingdom of the Brothers Grimm where, once upon a time, a mysterious witch sent a baker and his wife on a quest into the woods. Thrust into a world of magic and adventure, they find their story intertwined with a group of legendary characters including Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, and a young man named Jack who has some very magical beans.

"Sondheim's brilliant lyrics and gorgeous music, paired with James Lapine's captivating book, make this Tony-winning Broadway musical about wishes, chasing your dreams, and the importance of the stories we tell our children both magical and deeply touching," promises Danni.

Into the Woods won several Tony Awards including Best Score (Stephen Sondheim), Best Book (James Lapine) and Best Actress in a Musical (Joanna Gleason). The original production also won the 1988 New York Drama Critic's Circle Award and the Drama Desk Award for Best Musical and the original cast recording won a Grammy Award.

Into the Woods takes place March 3 until March 13, 2016.

TheatreZone's Season 11 finale is Dames at Sea, a musical with book and lyrics by George Haimsohn and Robin Miller with music by Jim Wise. The show is a parody of large, flashing 1930s Busby Berkeley-style movie musicals in which an understudy steps into a role on Broadway and becomes a star. It originally played Off-Off-Broadway, then played Off-Broadway and jump started the career of a 17-year-old singer and dancer named Bernadette Peters.

"This is a quintessential American musical with an amazingly tuneful score and a really clever book with more dancing than ever before," assures Danni. "It is full of songs that invoke the great tunesmiths of the day," he adds.

Dames at Sea performs April 28 through May 8, 2016.

Season 11 tickets go on sale for series subscribers only on April 1. Individual ticket sales open to the public on June 1, 2015. Season 11 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, although the $2 per ticket fee is waived on season series tickets purchased before June 1, 2015.

A special bonus added to Season 11 in October 2015 is a joint production of Xanadu, the second pairing of professional actors (members of the Actors Equity Association) with Florida Gulf Coast University's Bower School of Music and The Arts theatre and music students and professors.

According to Danni, if you ever wished there were a perfect theatrical equivalent of the frivolous beach book - something that didn't require you to think but still kept your mind turning to mush, Xanadu fills the bill. This is a show in which the goddesses go crazy, Zeus changes his mind, Aphrodite triumphs and young lovers fall into each other's arms on roller skates. And, Olivia Newton-John's songs still sound terrific.

Based on the infamous film, Xanadu is a musical comedy with book by playwright Douglas Carter Beane and uses songs from John Farrar and Jeff Lynne's (ELO - Electric Light Orchestra) film soundtrack.

"The musical tells the story of one of the nine muses of ancient Greece who comes to earth to inspire the greatest of artistic achievements - a roller disco. Along the way she falls in love, bumps into an old acquaintance and for the first time, feels the desire to create herself," explains Danni.

Xanadu will be staged at the 90-seat Theatre Lab on the FGCU campus for 10-performances October 1 through October 10, 2015. Karen Molnar will choreograph and Robin Frank (a FGCU faculty member) will music direct as well as play the piano.

Individual tickets to Xanadu at Florida Gulf Coast University are on sale now and cost $45 and $40 each, but are not included in the Series 11 subscription. For more information or to purchase tickets, call TheatreZone 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 Wednesdays from 10 am until 12 noon until June 24, 2015.

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