Jill Blackwood News

ZACH - Austin's Theatre and Texas' longest running theatre, presents Goodnight Moon, adapted from the book Margaret Wise Brown and Clement Hurd, featuring book, music, and lyrics by Chad Henry.

ZACH - Austin's Theatre and Texas' longest running theatre, presents Goodnight Moon, adapted from the book Margaret Wise Brown and Clement Hurd, featuring book, music, and lyrics by Chad Henry.

As 2012 comes to a close, many Austin theater companies are putting together their 2013-2014 season. Given the incredible talent in this town and the large number of daring, courageous theater groups in the Austin area, here are my picks for 13 musicals that I'd love to see produced in the 2013-2014 season.

When you walk into the Whisenhunt Stage to see their current production of The Santaland Diaries and are greeted with fractured Christmas songs such as "Chipmunks Roasting on an Open Fire," "It's the Most Fattening Time of the Year," and "Yellow Snow, Yellow Snow, Yellow Snow," you know you're in for an unconventional and twisted Holiday show. In its final year at ZACH, their annual production of Santaland Diaries is still fresh, entertaining, and hysterical.

ZACH Theatre - Austin's Theatre and Texas' longest running theatre, presents THE SANTALAND DIARIES, written by David Sedaris and adapted for stage by Joe Mantello. ZACH's production will be directed by Dave Steakley and star Martin Burke, Amy Downing (for evening performances) and Jill Blackwood (on matinees).

ZACH Theatre - Austin's Theatre and Texas' longest running theatre, presents THE SANTALAND DIARIES, written by David Sedaris and adapted for stage by Joe Mantello. ZACH's production will be directed by Dave Steakley and star Martin Burke, Amy Downing (for evening performances) and Jill Blackwood (on matinees).

The current production of RAGTIME, produced by Zach Theatre in its new Topfer Theatre, shows precisely why RAGTIME is such a respected and important piece of theater. This dazzling and flawless production of the show is nothing short of spectacular and yet another triumph for Zach.

ZACH welcomes a new era with the opening of the Topfer Theatre, and no production is better suited to showcase the deep and inspired talents of ZACH's full company and new performance space than the uplifting Tony Award-winning musical RAGTIME. More than 50 of Austin's finest actors, supported by a glorious orchestra, tell the story of how we forged a nation that all people could call home. Bold anthems, Harlem ragtime, and delicate waltzes lift our aspirations for all that we can and will be. RAGTIME will set a new standard for musicals in Austin, so intimate and immediate, that discerning patrons will rejoice at the power of the experience.

Austin's Theatre and Texas' longest running theatre, in its last season before the new Topfer Theatre opens, presents the Austin premiere of XANADU, the over-the-top, roller-skating musical that spoofs the outrageously campy 1980s film starring Olivia Newton-John and Gene Kelly. Get a first look below!

Jill Blackwood gives us the scoop on the ZACH's vivacious new production of XANADU plus some great information about future projects at the ZACH, including next season's production of RAGTIME and the opening of the new Topfer Theater.

Xanadu presented by the Zach Theater in Austin is two hours brimming with joy, laughter, and sequins.

Austin's Theatre and Texas' longest running theatre, in its last season before the new Topfer Theatre opens, presents the Austin premiere of XANADU, the over-the-top, roller-skating musical that spoofs the outrageously campy 1980s film starring Olivia Newton-John and Gene Kelly.