5th Annual BARDWAY BABY at Utah Shakespeare Festival in August

Bardway Baby! is back at the Utah Shakespeare Festival for its fifth annual night of musical entertainment. Bardway, Baby! is a late-night concert event which, this year, will feature the music of Rodgers and Hammerstein. Performed by Festival actors, the concert will be held on two nights, August 1 and August 8 at 11:30 p.m. in the Auditorium Theatre. Tickets are $25 for reserved seating and are available now at the Festival ticket office or by calling 1-800-PLAYTIX.

Not only is Bardway, Baby! an evening of delightful show tunes, but it's the largest annual fundraiser for the Festival's Artistic Initiative Fund, which was established by artistic directors David Ivers and Brian Vaughn. The fund serves to increase the size and scope of the Festival's production design aesthetic, as well as increase the Festival's national and international presence.

"This fund was established to help promote the Festival's growth in artistic excellence, and we hope you'll show your support by attending," said event organizer and Festival actor, Jason Michael Spelbring. Nearly everyone participating in the concert has volunteered his or her time so that revenue may go directly to the Artistic Initiative Fund.

To help promote the Festival's 2015 production of South Pacific, Spelbring decided that the evening's musical selection should celebrate the range and depth of Rodgers and Hammerstein's canon of work. "Bardway Baby!: An Evening of Rodgers and Hammerstein is going to be a fun, memorable event that people won't want to miss," said Spelbring. "It's the cherry on top of an already great and immersive Festival experience."

Aaron Galligan-Stierle will emcee the event with ten performers: Larry Bull, Brian Vaughn, James Sanders, Kyle Eberlein, Peter Saide, Melinda Pfundstein, Misty Cotton, Bree Murphy, Bri Sudia, and Tina Scariano with musical direction by Sam Clein.

Tickets are on sale for the Festival's 53rd season, which will run from June 23 to October 18, 2014. The eight-play season includes Shakespeare's Measure for Measure, The Comedy of Errors, Henry IV Part One, and Twelfth Night. The season will also include the world premiere adaptation of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility written by Joseph Hanreddy and J. R. Sullivan, Stephen Sondheim's Into the Woods, Steven Dietz's adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure, and Boeing Boeing by Marc Camoletti. For more information and tickets visit www.bard.org or call 1-800-PLAYTIX.