2010-2011 Season
A MAGNIFICENT SEASON OF GREAT MUSICALS
By David Armstrong, Executive Producer and Artistic Director
In addition to the magnificent music, dynamic dancing and tantalizing tales of love, laughter and passion -- at the heart of every great Musical are unforgettable characters that spring to life before your eyes and create indelible impressions that last a lifetime.
Our 2010-2011 season is loaded with such extraordinary characters -- some of whom may already be among your favorites, and others that you will meet for the first time. And I promise that you will never forget any of them!
In the Heights National Tour Company by Joan Marcus
We open this 30th Anniversary Season with the current Broadway smash In The Heights, winner of four 2008 Tony Awards including Best Musical, Best Music and Lyrics, and Best Choreography. The story revolves around the lovable Usnavi who as the proprietor of a corner "bodega" supplies both coffee and advice to the vital, vibrant community that inhabits his upper Manhattan neighborhood. The exciting new songwriter Lin-Manuel Miranda created the show's scintillating musical score that mixes Broadway tradition with the hottest Latin rhythms and contemporary sounds, and choreographer Andy Blankenbuller has devised some incredibly hip and exhilarating dancing. These are the kind of amazing young talents that come along only once in a generation and no one should miss the chance to experience their first major creation.
Kansas City Repertory Theatre's A Christmas Story: The Musical! by Don Ipock
Our next production, A Christmas Story: The Musical!, combines two kinds of shows for which The 5th Avenue has become famous – a big, splashy holiday favorite, and the premiere of an exciting new musical. Inspired by the classic 1983 movie, and the stories of popular radio humorist Jean Shepard, this hilarious musical takes you back to the 1940's and follows the adventures of young Ralphie Parker and his desperate quest to receive the most desirable and forbidden of all Christmas presents - "An Official Red Ryder Carbine-Action 200-shot Range Model Air Rifle". All of films most memorable moments (You'll shoot your eye out, kid!) and indelible characters will be onboard including "The Old Man", Ralphie's irascible father fighting with the furnace, and reveling in his prize leg lamp. With its tuneful score and spectacular production A Christmas Story: The Musical! is certain to become a new Seattle holiday tradition that will delight young and old alike.
We will follow one exhilarating new work with another -- the Northwest premiere of Vanities – A New Musical, presented in a unique and exciting collaboration with Seattle's acclaimed ACT – A Contemporary Theatre.
Following the journey of three best friends--Mary, Cathy and Joanne – as they go from high school cheerleaders to sorority sisters to housewives, liberated women and beyond, this funny and moving tale of coming-of-age in the 1960s, '70s and 80's is a musical scrapbook of an era that had to be lived to be believed. With David Kirshenbaum's evocative score and Jack Heifner's sparkling adaptation of his long-running off-Broadway play, Vanities offers a musical portrait of the lives, loves, disappointments, and dreams of women caught up in "times that were a-changin'". This production will be performed in ACT's intimate Falls Theatre located just three short blocks from The 5th Avenue Theatre.
Next up is another current Broadway smash - Next To Normal -- the groundbreaking new show that "pushes Broadway in new directions" (Rolling Stone) and that the New York Daily News hailed as "exceptional, hopeful and uplifting". This emotional powerhouse of a musical is about a family trying to take care of themselves and each other. At its center is the unforgettable Diana -- a wife and mother struggling to weave together all the strands of her life. A highlight of show is its captivating Tony Award-winning score with music by Tom Kitt and book and lyrics by Issaquah native Brian Yorkey. It was a thrill to see Brian onstage at Radio City Music Hall last year receiving his Tony Award and I am thrilled to have his brilliant new musical as part of our season.
The Original Broadway Cast of 9 to 5: The Musical by Joan Marcus
Just in time to brighten up the final grey days of spring will be 9 To 5: The Musical. This outrageously funny recent Broadway delight is adapted from the popular film and features not only the movie's blockbuster title tune but also also 18 new original songs by the one and only Dolly Parton! Although she is a multiple Grammy Award-winning songwriter this is Dolly's first attempt at creating songs for the musical theater. In my opinion she has knocked it out of the park with her toe-tapping Tony-nominated score that mixes Broadway, pop and country with her signature witty lyrics. This show will bring four memorable characters to our stage when those three determined secretaries -- Violet, Judy and Doralee -- join forces to turn the tables on their chauvinistic boss, Franklin Hart, Jr.
We will bring our season to a climax with two of the greatest musicals ever created - both timeless classics from the Golden Age Of Broadway.
Cast of The 5th Avenue Theatre’s 1999 production of Guys & Dolls by Chris Bennion
No show is funnier, or loaded with more hit songs than Guys & Dolls. And what characters! All of those hilarious gangsters and conmen including Nathan Detroit, the organizer of "the oldest established permanent floating crap game in New York" and Nathan's girlfriend -- the leggy, sneezy nightclub showgirl, Miss Adelaide -- whom he has been engaged to for 14 years! Who can forget the cool and sexy gambler Sky Masterson who falls head over heels for the prim "mission doll" Sarah Brown. And there are all of those treasured Frank Loesser tunes - "Luck Be A Lady," "Bushel And A Peck," "If I Were A Bell," "Sue Me" and "Sit Down You're Rockin' The Boat," to name only a few. This is one musical that is always a sure bet!
We will close this 30th Anniversary Season with a show that amazingly has not been on our stage in 29 years -- Rodgers and Hammerstein's masterpiece Oklahoma! As our recent production of South Pacific demonstrated the landmark musicals of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein have lost none of their original power and impact. Oklahoma! was the first of their collaborations and it changed the American musical forever. Every show that followed, right up to today, was either an emulation of, or a reaction to this groundbreaking work. It was Hammerstein that first brought fully dimensional, complex characters to the musical stage and Oklahoma! includes some of his best: the cowboy Curly who pretends not to be in love with the spunky farm girl Laury; the moody and darkly dangerous Jud Fry; and that indomitable archetype of pioneer spirit -- the crusty Aunt Eller.
This is the show that first demonstrated what musicals do better than any other form of entertainment: give us characters we care about, wrap them in rich, emotional music, and make their trials and triumphs both deeply moving and wildly entertaining.
Every one of our upcoming shows is a worthy successor to Oklahoma!, and together in one incredible season they will deliver all of the incomparable exhilaration of great musical theatre from yesterday, today and tomorrow. I urge you not to miss any of them.
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