PAL JOEY, et al. Set for Rubicon Theatre Company's 15th Anniversary Season
By: Max Schwager Apr. 30, 2012
Rubicon Theatre Artistic Directors Karyl Lynn Burns and JAMES O'NEIL announced the company's 15th Anniversary Season at a preview event for subscribers, donors and media last earlier this month at the theatre's home in Ventura's Downtown Cultural District. The event was hosted by Rubicon Board President DR. ROZ WARNER and Board of Advisors' Chair/Board Vice-President Jeff Smith, with onstage appearances by several of the directors, writers and performers for the season.
Dr. Warner began the event by announcing a new initiative which is reflected in the title of the 2012-2013 Season: OUR TOWN/YOUR THEATRE. "During the coming season," said Warner, "we hope to reconnect with old friends; to throw open the doors of the theatre and welcome new attendees of different ages, interests and backgrounds; and to find new ways to take the art into the community."
"Each of the six productions in the OUR TOWN Season features an individual with ties to our region, or celebrates some unique aspect of our community character," says Artistic Director James O'Neil. "During the 15th Anniversary Season, we will welcome Ventura artists who have gone on to national prominence; re-introduce audiences to some remarkable local actors, designers and directors; and explore ideas that patrons have told us are of interest or concern to them."
The OUR TOWN/YOUR THEATRE Season opens with a World Premiere revisal of a classic American musical -- PAL JOEY. The production opens October 20 (first preview October 17), and runs through November 11, 2012. Reconceived by longtime Ventura resident and Tony Award-winner Peter Schneider, bookwriter Patrick Pacheco, and arranger and orchestrator Michael Reno, Pal Joey is based on the short stories and original libretto penned by John O'Hara. Schneider (former President of Disney Animation, Broadway producer of The Lion King, and Director of the West End production of Sister Act)will direct.
In this revised version, set after World War II, Joey is recast as an African-American singer with the voice of an angel, easy good looks, and a dangerous dream – to headline his own nightclub. When he lands at a low-rent Chicago club and is befriended by a jazz pianist with a talent for writing tunes, he sees his chance to rise. But…it's 1948…and Joey's ambitions are thwarted by the mores of the time and his own restless nature. Joey shuts out his past, steps over his only true friend, and uses his sexuality to get what he wants. The person he can't seem to shake, though, is Linda, a young artist who is as grounded as Joey is airborne. If Joey gets what he wants, will he hang onto it? And will it be enough?
Rubicon's holiday offering is a staged concert reading of a new musical - LITTLE MISS SCROOGE - a Dickensian musical extravaganza which runs December 15 through December 23, 2012, with previews beginning December 12.
Little Miss Scrooge reunites Tony and Olivier Award-winner John Caird (Les Misérables and Nicholas Nickleby) and Tony nominee Paul Gordon (Jane Eyre), who developed Daddy Long Legs at Rubicon. (Daddy has since played at 14 theatres in the U.S. and opens in Japan this fall.) Music and lyrics are by Gordon, with a book by Gordon, John Caird and Caird's son Sam Caird (a London-based director regarded as an expert on Dickens). The two Cairds will share directing responsibilities. Musical supervision, direction and orchestrations are by Brad Haak (current conductor of Mary Poppins on Broadway).
A modern retelling of "A Christmas Carol," with added characters and plot lines from novels such as "Great Expectations," "Little Dorritt" and "Bleak House," the story follows Estella (Essie) Scrooge, a Wall Street tycoon and direct descendent of Ebenezer.
The staged concert of Little Miss Scrooge features three residents of Ventura County: Andrew Samonsky, ALYSON LINDSDAY (SCHUSTER) and Ted Neeley.
The OUR TOWN/YOUR THEATRE Season continues February 2 through February 24, 2013 (first preview January 30, 2013), with the American premiere of EXTRAS by SABINA BERMAN, a free adaptation of Marie Jones' Olivier Award-winning play Stones in His Pockets.
A side-splittingly funny social satire, eXtras is the story of villagers in an impoverished Mexican community whose lives are suddenly upended by the arrival of a Hollywood film company. Cultures clash and the locals greet the visitors in a myriad of ways -- with anticipation and hope, bemused indifference, desperation, and resentment. Could the chaotic presence of these crazy strangers be an opportunity for fame or fortune? A chance to find love? A means of escape?
Rubicon's spring offering is Thornton Wilder's Tony and Pulitzer Prize Award-winning classic OUR TOWN, which begins previews on March 5 and runs March 9 through 31, 2013.
Rubicon Artistic Associate Jenny Sullivan (whose credits include Off-Broadway and Williamstown Theatre Festival) helms the production, which is the centerpiece of the season.
Our Town is set in Grover's Corners, New Hampshire, a quintessentially American town following the turn-of-the-last century. The piece reminds audiences of the precious nature of every moment of every day, and is as powerful and poetic today as it was when first produced more than 75 years ago. In Rubicon's production, Ventura resident and Artistic Director JAMES O'NEIL narrates Wilder's immortal tale of birth, love, marriage, death and daily life.
LONESOME TRAVELER returns to Rubicon for an encore run April 27 through May 19, 2013 (with a first preview on April 24). Conceived and directed by NAACP Award-winner JAMES O'NEIL, with Musical Arrangements and direction by Dan Wheetman (Tony nominee, Ain't Nothin' But the Blues), Lonesome Traveler premiered last year to thrilled audiences and praise from the critics, breaking box office records of recent years. It was dubbed a Los Angeles Times "Critic's Pick" and described as "a warm, embracing, communal experience." It subsequently had a successful run at Laguna Playhouse.
In Lonesome Traveler, a group of young singers and multi-instrumentalists take audiences on a journey down the rivers and streams of American Folk -- from the hills of Appalachia to the nightclubs of New York and San Francisco; from the mid-1920s to the mid-1960s.
Returning artists include Justine Bennett and BRENDAN (B. WILLING) JAMES, recording artists at the core of the Ventura music scene; SYLVIE DAVIDSON, a Seattle-based actress and singer (Book It); Anthony Manough, whose Broadway credits include The Lion King and Jesus Christ, Superstar); actor and singer Justin Flagg from New York (The Jazz Singer); Nicholas Mongiardo-Cooper (a recent West Coast arrival from N.Y. who just completed a run at South Coast Rep); and second-generation musicians JAMES WEBB (son of Jimmy Webb) and TREVOR WHEETMAN (son of Dan Wheetman). Jennifer Leigh Warren (Little Shop of Horrors in New York) joined the group in Laguna and will be a part of the Rubicon production.
Pricing for five- or six-show packages begin as low as $106.70. Pricing has been reduced for two series this season –Friday evenings and previews. Subscriptions may be purchased at the Rubicon Theatre Company Box Office at 1006 E. Main Street, Ventura, CA 93001, or by calling (805) 667-2900. Order forms are also available online at www.rubicontheatre.org.
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