Chance Theater Announces 2014 Season - LYSISTRATA JONES, PASSION PLAY, SHE LOVES ME & More

Chance Theater has announced its 16th anniversary season, which will be the first in its new home at 5522 E. La Palma Ave. in Anaheim, which is double the size of its current space. Chance subscribers and audiences will enjoy a bold line-up that includes cheerleaders taking a stand, a "passion" journey through different historical eras, a smash-hit musical witha Grammy-winning score, a play that questions whether the 1950's really were the "good ole days", as well as a musical gem about finding love where you least expect it, and an experimental concert musical that reimagines the story of the "Little Match Girl." Oh yeah, and the season will be taking place in Chance Theater's new theater, which is double the size of our current space.

February 7 - March 9, 2014

WEST COAST PREMIERE! LYSISTRATA JONES

Book by Douglas Carter Beane

Music and Lyrics by Lewis Flinn

Directed by Kari Hayter

Choreographed by Kelly Todd

Athens University is in the midst of a thirty-year losing streak, so Lyssie J. and her girl-power posse won't "give it up" to their basketball-playing boyfriends until they win a game. The hilarious dialogue and upbeat score from five-time Tony nominated playwright Douglas Carter Beane and Lewis Flinn is an electric combination of Mean Girls, Glee and Pitch Perfect. A modern retelling of the bawdy Greek comedy, Lysistrata by Aristophanes. The director and choreographer of last season's summer hit Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson bring you a comedy about the age old question, "Does abstinence truly make the heart grow fonder?"

* Tony Award nominee (Best Book of a Musical)
* Drama Desk Award nominee (Outstanding Book of a Musical)

April 25 - May 25, 2014

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA PREMIERE!

PASSION PLAY

by Sarah Ruhl

Directed by Trevor Biship

For over 600 years, cities across the Western world have restaged the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ for entertainment, community building, and political agenda. Two-time Pulitzer Prize nominee Sarah Ruhl dramatizes the complicated history of these Passion plays, humorously and provocatively depicting three such productions in three different historical periods. Ruhl's epic trilogy travels from Elizabethan England and Nazi Germany to post-Vietnam Era America. This exciting theatrical event will be staged by the director who brought you the multi-award winning Jerry Springer: The Opera.

* Ten Best Plays of 2008 (The New Yorker)

July 3 - August 3, 2014

TONY AWARD-WINNING MUSICAL

Although we can't officially announce which musical we will be producing in the summer, we can tell you that it's the winner of four Tony Awards (including Best Musical) that is a potent reminder of the importance of chasing one's dreams and finding where you belong. The Grammy award-winning score serves as the backdrop for a community with dreams of succeeding while at the same time holding onto their heritage. Don't miss an intimate version of this unnamed blockbuster musical, directed and choreographed by the creative team behind the Chance's award-winning revival of West Side Story.

September 19 - October 19, 2014

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA PREMIERE

MAPLE AND VINE

by Jordan Harrison

Katha and Ryu have become allergic to their 21st-century lives. After they meet a charismatic man from a community of 1950s reenactors, they forsake cell phones and sushi for cigarettes and Tupperware parties. In this compulsively authentic world, Katha and Ryu are surprised by what their new neighbors-and they themselves-are willing to sacrifice for happiness.

* GLAAD Media Award nominee (Best Production)

November 28 - December 28, 2014

SHE LOVES ME

Book by Joe Masteroff

Lyrics by Sheldon Harnick

Music by Jerry Bock

Travel back to the 1930's and the romance of Maraczek's Parfumerie, where your senses will be filled by one of the most lush, most charming musical shows of all, featuring music by Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick (Fiddler on the Roof) and book by Joe Masteroff (Cabaret). Meet the dull but adorable manager, Georg, the spirited new clerk, Amalia, and eavesdrop on the heated workday arguments between them. Georg and Amalia escape the stress of the parfumerie through passionate letters full of longing to anonymous pen pals - never guessing that each is writing to the other! This is the musical adaptation of the play that inspired such films as 1940 Jimmy Stewarts' "The Shop Around The Corner," the 1949 Judy Garland musical "In The Good Old Summertime," and most recently as the 1998 Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan film "You've Got Mail."

* 14 Tony Award nominations (including Best Musical and Best Revival)

* 5 Drama Desk Award nominations (including Outstanding Revival)

December 9 - 28, 2014

STRIKING 12

By Brendan Milburn, Rachel Sheinkin, and Valerie Vigoda

Directed by Oanh Nguyen

Striking 12 is a concert-with-a-story, sketch-comedy-meets-musical event for the holidays. New Year's Eve in modern-day New York collides with 19th Century Denmark. While some choose to grumpily ignore the season, others choose to try and spread cheer - while selling full-spectrum holiday light bulbs. Inspired in part by Hans Christian Andersen's "The Little Match Girl," Tony Award-winning writer Rachel Sheinkin (The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee) shares what happens when these worlds collide. The show springs to life through an eclectic score of classical, musical theater, jazz and rock. See it once and it will become your new holiday tradition.

* Lucille Lortel Award nominee (Outstanding Musical)

All tickets can be purchased by calling (714) 777-3033 or by visiting www.ChanceTheater.com.

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