PPAC Announces Schedule for 2011/2012 Season; Begins With ROCK OF AGES

J.L. "Lynn" Singleton, President of the Providence Performing Arts Center (PPAC), is pleased to announce the full schedule for PPAC's 2011/2012 Broadway Season. The complete schedule includes PPAC's Contemporary Specials, Family Shows, Music and Dance Specials, and Featured Shows at The VETS. Watch for an on-sale date announcement for PPAC's Broadway Series, TACO/The White Family Foundation Contemporary Classics Series, Specials, and Featured Shows at The VETS.

There is still time to become a new PPAC subscriber to the Broadway Series and/or the TACO/The White Family Foundation Contemporary Classics Series with just a $99 deposit; this payment plan option is available through August 15, 2011! The Broadway Series includes ROCK OF AGES (October 4 - 9, 2011; sponsored by 38 Studios), the 25th Anniversary production of LES MISÉRABLES (November 1 - 6, 2011; sponsored by Navigant Credit Union), CIRQUE DREAMS HOLIDAZE (December 13 - 18, 2011; sponsored by TD Bank),SHREK THE MUSICAL (January 3 - 8, 2012), a two-week engagement of MARY POPPINS (February 8 - 19, 2012), THE ADDAMS FAMILY (March 20 - 25, 2012; sponsored by Coastway Community Bank), and BRING IT ON: THE MUSICAL (April 24 - 29, 2012; sponsored by Tufts Health Plan). The TACO/The White Family Foundation Contemporary Classics Series includes a full-week, 12 performance engagement of Dr. Seuss' HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS! THE MUSICAL (November 15 - 20, 2011), COME FLY AWAY (March 2 - 4, 2012), and BURN THE FLOOR (May 4 - 6, 2012).

This season, PPAC introduces a new subscription offering: The Broadway Budget Package. This is an incredible opportunity to become a PPAC Broadway Subscriber! You can enjoy six shows in the Broadway Series for just $135 (LES MISÉRABLES is excluded) or enjoy thecomplete TACO/The White Family Foundation Contemporary Classics Series for just $75; these prices are inclusive of PPAC's restoration and handling fees. There are a limited number of Broadway Budget Packages available for the following Broadway Series performances days: Wednesday, Thursday, and Sunday evenings, and for the following TACO/The White Family Foundation Contemporary Classics Series performance days: Friday and Sunday evenings.

Broadway Budget Package subscribers can take advantage of the majority of subscription benefits; please note that the "opt out" benefit is EXCLUDED from the Broadway Budget Package. Orders can be placed with just a $99 deposit; these will sell quickly, so ACT NOW! Call the Box Office at (401) 421-ARTS (2787), Direct Response at (401) 574-3136, or Group Sales at (401) 574-3162 for complete details and to order.

Summer Box Office Hours are now in effect and are Monday through Thursday, 10A to 3P and through curtain time(s) on show days. Regular Box Office Hours resume Tuesday, September 6, 2011 and are Monday through Friday, 10A to 5P; Saturday, 10A to 2P and through curtain time(s) on performance days. The PPAC/The VETS Box Office is located at 220 Weybosset Street in downtown Providence. Direct Response and Group Sales Hours are Monday through Friday, 9A to 5P.

Discounted admission is available for groups of 20 or more to the majority of Broadway shows and for groups of 10 or more to the majority of Family Shows in PPAC's 2011/2012 season. For complete information and to order, please contact Group Sales Representative Paul Hiatt at phiatt@ppacri.org or (401) 574-3162. In addition, PPAC offers military discounts and student/senior citizen discounts; please call the PPAC/The VETS Box Office at (401) 421-ARTS (2787) for complete information and to order.

Tickets for DOG WHISPERER: Cesar Millan (Saturday, December 3, 2011 at 8P) and The VETS Gala Concert: AN EVENING WITH RENÉE FLEMING AND THE RHODE ISLAND PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA (Saturday, January 21, 2012 at 7:30P) are on sale now.

Family Specials
The all new GAZILLION BUBBLE SHOW (September 30 - October 2, 2011) will have its world premiere in Providence! Produced by four-time Tony Award® winner Jon B. Platt (Wicked), the GAZILLION BUBBLE SHOW stars international sensation Fan Yang, who David Letterman calls "the greatest bubble artist in the world!" Watch as Fan Yang performs the extraordinary bubble magic that has earned him an amazing 17 Guinness World Records! Be among the first in the world to see the all new GAZILLION BUBBLE SHOW tour and experience what Oprah Winfrey guarantees "will blow you away!"

SESAME STREET LIVE: 1-2-3 IMAGINE! WITH ELMO AND FRIENDS (March 9 - 11, 2012) is a high-energy musical that transports audiences to far away places as Ernie captains the high seas, Elmo dances to the rhythm of the African rainforest, and Bert meets an octopus who has the blues. It's a story of adventure and fun that teaches children they can be anyone, do anything, and go anywhere with the power of imagination.

Music Specials
The Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra with conductor Keith Lockhart and featured guests Rockapella (Friday, December 2, 2011 at 8P; sponsored by National Grid, WPRI 12, and The Providence Journal) brings their 2011 HOLIDAY POPS TOUR to PPAC this holiday season! For the first time ever, "America's Orchestra" joins America's leading a capella group for an unforgettable holiday show. Enjoy unique takes on classic favorites and brand new originals, plus a special visit from Jolly Ole St. Nick and a time-honored audience sing-along.

RAIN - A TRIBUTE TO THE BEATLES (Thursday, January 27, 2012 at 8P) returns to Providence direct from Broadway! Winner of the 2010/2011 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Revue, RAIN performs the full range of The Beatles' discography live onstage, including the most complex and challenging songs that The Beatles themselves recorded in the studio but never performed live. For more than two decades, RAIN has distinguished itself by focusing on details, always being faithful to The Beatles with the ultimate goal of delivering a perfect note-for-note performance. All the music is performed live, with no pre-recorded tapes or sequences.

Chris Botti performs with the Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra and conductor Francisco Noya (Saturday, March 31, 2012 at 7:30P) as part of the POPS-PHIL-PPAC Series, sponsored by WPRO AM. Since the 2004 release of his critically acclaimed CD When I Fall in Love, Botti (pronounced boat-tee) has become the largest selling American jazz artist. Botti and his band have also performed with many of the finest symphonies, at some of the world's most prestigious events, including the World Series and Nobel Peace Prize Ceremony.

Contemporary Specials
David Sedaris (Saturday, April 14, 2012 at 8P) will visit Providence for one night only, featuring all-new readings of his work and a book signing. Sedaris is the author of the collections of personal essays Naked, Me Talk Pretty One Day, Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, and When You Are Engulfed in Flames, each of which became a bestseller. There are a total of seven million copies of his books in print and they have been translated into 25 languages. Sedaris' pieces appear regularly in The New Yorker and have twice been included in "The Best American Essays." His newest book, a collection of fables entitled Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk: A Modest Bestiary (with illustrations by Ian Falconer), was released in September 2010.

Dance Specials
Presented by FirstWorks and PPAC as part of the FirstWorks Festival 2011, MOMIX: BOTANICA (Saturday, October 29, 2011 at 8P) is "a full-evening fantasy blending movement, circus, athleticism, and magical effects." Creatures real and mythical materialize before your eyes thanks to dazzling projections, strobes, wind machines, larger-than-life puppets designed by Michael Curry-the Tony Award®-winning designer of The Lion King-and most of all, MOMIX's impossibly nimble dancer-illusionists. The New Jersey Star Ledger calls MOMIX: BOTANICA "the IMAX version of dance theatre."

Festival Ballet Providence returns to the PPAC stage to perform THE NUTCRACKER (December 9 - 11, 2011). This beloved holiday tale of a Nutcracker given to Clara takes the young girl from a grand Christmas party, complete with a tree that grows 25 feet in height, to a midnight battle between toy soldiers and giant mice led by the Mouse Queen. Clara's protector, a life-sized Nutcracker, leads her through a snow-covered forest and dozens of dancing Swarovski snowflakes to the Kingdom of Sweets. There, the pair meets the Sugar Plum Fairy, her Cavalier, and brightly-costumed dancers from around the world. THE NUTCRACKER, featuring a return performance by Archie The Nutcracker Dog, is a holiday gift not to be missed.

SWAN LAKE, presented by Festival Ballet Providence and PPAC (May 11 - 12, 2012), has been hailed as "the most impressive, moving, and enduring" of the classical ballets. It is the story of good and evil, of beauty and love. An evil sorcerer has put a curse on young women so that by day they live as swans in a lake of their tears, but by night they become women again. Only true love can break the curse and free the Swan Queen. The critically acclaimed staging of SWAN LAKE by Festival Ballet Providence Artistic Director Mihailo Djuric and Milica Bijelic, based on the original Petipa and Ivanov, returns to Providence this season for the first time in four years.

Featured Shows at The VETS

THE MUSIC OF ABBA (Thursday, January 6, 2012 at 8P) stars the tribute group Arrival from Sweden. Since their start in 1995, the band has become one of the world's most popular and best-selling ABBA tribute groups. The only group to ever receive the exclusive right to reproduce ABBA's original outfits and trademark,THE MUSIC OF ABBA is the closest you will ever get to see ABBA! Even official ABBA fan clubs around the globe call the show "the best existing ABBA tribute show in the world."

Colin Mochrie & BRAD SHERWOOD (Friday, March 30, 2012 at 8P), stars of the Emmy-nominated Whose Line Is It Anyway?, have teamed up to present an evening of improvisational comedy at The VETS. Using their quick wit, Colin and Brad take contributions from the audience to create hilarious and original scenes, just like a live version of Whose Line! Throughout the evening, the show becomes truly interactive as audience members are called to the stage to participate in the fun.