J*COMPANY Youth Theatre’s La Jolla Playhouse Tribute Season Closes with XANADU

For the final production in J*COMPANY Youth Theatre's La Jolla Playhouse Tribute Season, the cast and crew will travel to Mt. Olympus and Venice Beach, California for the roller skating romp, XANADU –The Musical.

XANADU "follows the journey of a magical and beautiful Greek muse, Kira, who descends from the heavens to California in 1980 on a quest to inspire a struggling artist, Sonny, to achieve the greatest artistic creation of all time - the first ROLLER DISCO…hey, it's 1980 after all!

"This hilarious, roller skating, musical adventure about following your dreams rolls along to the original hit score composed by pop-rock legends Jeff Lynne and John Farrar, and includes, "Magic", "Evil Woman", "Have You Never Been Mellow" and "Xanadu", to name a few, and is based on the Universal Pictures' cult classic movie of the same title, which starred Olivia Newton-John and Gene Kelly.

"It's hilarity on wheels for anyone who has ever wanted to feel inspired."

Director Joey Landwehr is not only introducing 80's music and teaching roller skating to his cast of 70, but is incorporating portions of Greek mythology into the rehearsal process. "Many of our cast members weren't even born in the 80's, so to them this "period piece" is all new. I've also found that many schools don't teach Greek Mythology, so I thought it would be a fun learning experience on several levels."

This production features 17 year-old Maddie Houts (Canyon Crest Academy) and 15 year-old Kendal Dastrup (Scripps Ranch High School) as alternating Kiras, and alternating in the male lead role of Sonny are 18 year-old Jonathan Edzant (Canyon Crest) and 17 year-old Elliot Rappaport (Canyon Crest). Setting choreography to the legendary chart-topping tunes is UCSD graduation Karen Li.

At the age of 23, Li has accomplished so much. As captain of the nationally ranked UCSD Dancesport team, she and her esteemed troupe gained national attention when they were asked to be on the college addition of "Dancing with the Stars". Karen Li was born in Hong Kong and is the first of her family to purse the arts. She is taking the theatrical world by storm as a professional actor, dancer and choreographer. She is a competitive Latin Ballroom dancer.

All performances take place at the David and Dorothea Garfield Theatre at the Lawrence Family Jewish Community Center, JACOBS FAMILY CAMPUS, 4126 Executive Drive, La Jolla.  Call the JCC Box Office at 858-362-1348 or visit www.sdcjc.org/jcompany for more information.

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