Surflight Producer Roy Miller announced today the theatre's 2011 season, which will feature stars from film, television and Broadway. The theatre's much-anticipated 62nd Season has an exciting line-up of musicals and plays including three Surflight premieres:
Winner of the Tony Award for Best Musical and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, the pop culture phenomenon RENT (May 28 - June 19) forever changed the Broadway musical. This Surflight premiere will star New Jersey's own Paul Iacono (star of the current MTV hit series "The Hard Times of RJ Berger" and the recent remake of the motion picture FAME). Inspired by La Boheme, Jonathan Larson's revolutionary rock musical RENT is set in New York City's gritty East Village and tells the unforgettable story of a group of young artists learning to survive, falling in love, finding their voices and living for today.
GREASE! (June 22 - July 10), the original high school musical, hits the Jersey Shore in an all-new production featuring the unforgettable songs from the hit motion picture: "You're The One That I Want," "Hopelessly Devoted To You," "Sandy," and the title song "Grease!" Get ready for those 'summer nights' with the Rydell High gang - Sandy, Danny, The Pink Ladies and The T-Birds.
A. R. Gurney's LOVE LETTERS (five performances only July 14 through July 17) starring Dawn Wells (Mary Ann from the classic TV series "Gilligan's Island") and Peter Marshall (the five-time Emmy Award-winning host of The Hollywood Squares from 1966-1981 and the original Broadway production of La Cage Aux Folles). This Pulitzer Prize nominated play chronicles the relationship between Andrew Makepeace Ladd (Marshall) and Melissa Gardner (Wells), whose poignantly funny friendship and ill-fated romance takes them from second grade through adolescence, young adulthood and into middle age. Love Letters is about a fifty-year love affair carried on primarily through letters, written in and about a world where letter-writing was very much an essential mode of communication.
ART (July 19 - July 31), Yasmina Reza's internationally acclaimed, Tony Award-winning comedy, directed by and starring Emmy and Tony Award-winner Judd Hirsch ("Numb3rs," "Taxi" and numerous motion pictures including "A Beautiful Mind"). This smart and funny play is ninety-minutes of ferocious fun, and explores the value and meaning of both friendship and art when a (nearly) all-white painting ignites an escalating argument among three men, threatening to destroy their long friendship.
Neil Simon's THE FEMALE ODD COUPLE (August 4 - August 21), the hilarious comedy classic of mismatched roommates, but with a twist! This Surflight premiere stars
Cindy Williams (Shirley on the classic TV series "Laverne & Shirley") and
Joanne Worley (star of the classic TV series Rowan & Martin's "Laugh-In"). Ungar and Madison are at it again! Florence Ungar and
Olive Madison, that is, in
Neil Simon's hilarious contemporary comic classic: the female version of The Odd Couple. Instead of the poker party that begins the original version, Ms. Madison has invited the girls over for an evening of Trivial Pursuit. But the hilarity remains the same.
I DO! I DO! (August 24 - September 4). The story of a marriage is at the center of this intimate and nostalgic work by
Harvey Schmidt and
Tom Jones, the authors of "The Fantasticks." The show begins with Michael and Agnes on their wedding day and traces their life together over a period of 50 years, until the day they leave their house to the next pair of newlyweds. In that time we watch them go through their wedding night jitters, raise a family, negotiate mid-life crises, quarrel, separate, reconcile and grow old together, all lovingly to the strains of a tuneful, charming score which includes the standard "My Cup Runneth Over."
PLAID TIDINGS - A Special Holiday Edition of Forever Plaid (November 25 - December 23), another Surflight premiere, continues the story of the singing group whose lives were lost in an accident involving a busload of teens en route to see "The
Ed Sullivan Show." Encouraged by a heavenly phone call from
Rosemary Clooney, the high-spirited boys of Forever Plaid - Frankie, Sparky, Jinx and Smudge - are transported from the ethereal cosmos to stage a nostalgic holiday extravaganza for world-weary mortals on Earth. Stuffed with such "Plaid-erized" Christmas standards as "Mr. Santa," "Let It Snow" and "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas," Plaid Tidings is one holiday treat that is truly heaven-sent.
In a recent statement Miller said, "We are thrilled to have such an exciting line-up of shows and performers, and look forward to announcing additional stars that will be added to the season very soon."
Recently elected Board of Trustees President Lance Wimmer said, "We are grateful to everyone for their continued support of Surflight Theatre, including our friends at the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, which enables us to bring first-class entertainment to our patrons while also providing our award-winning education programs to the community.
In the coming weeks, Surflight plans to announce its upcoming concert series, Children's Theatre performances and fall season of shows.
Subscribers have exclusive access to tickets through March 6. Tickets go on sale to the general public March 7, and for the first-time ever, Surflight patrons will be able to purchase tickets online at www.surflight.org.
* Please note: Shows and stars subject to change.
For tickets or to make a tax-deductible donation, visit
www.surflight.org or call the Surflight Theatre box office at 609-492-9477 ext.1.
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