'Lion King' is the pride of theater's next season
Elizabeth Maupin | Sentinel Theater Critic
Posted March 8, 2006
What: 2006-07 Broadway in Orlando series.
Where: Carr Performing Arts Centre, 401 W. Livingston St., Orlando.
Shows and dates: The Light in the Piazza, Sept. 19-24.
All Shook Up, Oct. 24-29.
The Lion King, Dec. 7-Jan. 14.
Sweet Charity, March 13-18, 2007.
The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, April 10-15, 2007.
Camelot, May 15-20, 2007.
Cost: $124-$513 for this six-show series.
Call: 1-800-448-6322.
Online: BroadwayAcrossAmerica.com
What else: 2005-2006 season subscribers will receive renewal packets this week..
Audiences who have been waiting more than eight years for the mammoth stage production of The Lion King to make it to Orlando will find next season that there's more than the Disney musical waiting in the wings.
The 2006-07 Broadway in Orlando season, which long has promised The Lion King as its centerpiece, also will feature Tony Award-winning musicals The Light in the Piazza and The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, along with three other shows.
And even though Orlando's Carr Performing Arts Centre still isn't getting the pick of the touring shows the way the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center does, next season's lineup is a giant step in that direction.
"We're going to keep pushing and keep fighting" for better, newer shows, says Ron Legler, president of the Florida Theatrical Association, which presents the touring Broadway shows.
And assuming an Orlando Performing Arts Center is built to replace Carr, he says, "Fort Lauderdale and Tampa had better look out."
The coming season looks better for Orlando, Legler says, mainly because subscription sales are way up, with nearly 9,000 season ticket-holders this year.
"Also, we've been beating the doors down, saying, 'Don't overlook Orlando,' " he says. "We're ranked number 13 in [touring] Broadway markets. We're really not far off from what Tampa's doing."
Still, Tampa is getting the hit Wicked for a second time next season, as well as other popular musicals Monty Python's Spamalot and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and the Pulitzer Prize-winning drama Doubt. Orlando didn't get Dirty Rotten Scoundrels solely because of scheduling problems, Legler says, and Doubt is having a very limited tour.
Orlando's 2006-07 series also will include All Shook Up and revivals of Sweet Charity and Camelot.
Although the tour of The Lion King was announced for Orlando close to a year and a half ago, the newer Broadway hits are a welcome surprise. The Light in the Piazza won six Tony Awards, including best musical score, last season, while The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee won two Tonys, including best book of a musical, at the same time.
The revival of Sweet Charity and the jukebox musical All Shook Up also played on Broadway last season, although All Shook Up closed after about six months and Sweet Charity after about eight. Only the Camelot revival, which will star Michael York, was put together solely to tour.
By contrast, only two of the five shows of the current Broadway in Orlando season were based on relatively new Broadway productions, and one, the Radio City Christmas Spectacular, wasn't a Broadway show at all.
The 2006-07 Orlando season will begin with The Light in the Piazza, a wry but romantic drama by Adam Guettel, a grandson of Broadway legend Richard Rodgers, and Craig Lucas (Reckless, Prelude to a Kiss).
Based on Elizabeth Spencer's novella, the musical is about a pair of 1950s-era tourists -- an American mother and her grown daughter -- who find their lives changed under the Tuscan sun. That musical, directed by Bartlett Sher, will play in Orlando Sept. 19-24, just before it opens the new performing-arts center in Miami on Sept. 26.
Next will be All Shook Up (Oct. 24-29), a musical that puts the songs of Elvis Presley into a plot about a lonely girl who meets up with a guitar-playing roustabout. All Shook Up's book is by Joe DiPietro (I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change), with direction by Christopher Ashley (The Rocky Horror Show).
The Lion King will play a record 51/2 weeks, from Dec. 7 to Jan. 14 with nearly 280 seats removed from Carr to create two center aisles, down which the show's phantasmagorical animal puppets will parade.
Elton John wrote the music, Tim Rice the lyrics and Roger Allers and Irene Mecchi the book for this long-running musical, which opened on Broadway in 1997. But most of the acclaim has gone rightly to Tony-winning director-designer Julie Taymor, who created the puppets and masks.
Onetime movie sweetheart Molly Ringwald, who more recently has turned to the stage, will star in the revival of Sweet Charity, a 1966 musical by Cy Coleman, Neil Simon and Dorothy Fields, that was revived in 2005 as a vehicle for TV star Christina Applegate. The story of an idealistic young woman who works as a dancer-for-hire in a disreputable ballroom, Sweet Charity will come to Orlando from March 13-18, 2007.
Next will be The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (April 10-15, 2007), a musical comedy about a group of teenage misfits who compete in a spelling bee with members of the audience. With music and lyrics by William Finn (Falsettos), a book by Rachel Sheinkin and direction by James Lapine (Into the Woods, Sunday in the Park With George), Spelling Bee was an off-Broadway underdog that became an unexpected Broadway hit, resulting in a Tony not only for Sheinkin but for ensemble member Dan Fogler, who created a nasally challenged character who spells out words with his foot.
The season will close with the touring perennial Camelot (May 15-20, 2007), starring York as the doomed King Arthur.
Season subscriptions will range from $124 to $513. Current season subscribers will receive renewal packets in the mail this week.
Subscriptions are available at 1-800-448-6322, at the Broadway in Orlando box office (301 E. Pine St., Suite 175) or online at BroadwayAcross America.com. Tickets to individual shows are not yet available.
Elizabeth Maupin can be reached at emaupin@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5426.
Elizabeth Maupin | Sentinel Theater Critic
Posted March 8, 2006
What: 2006-07 Broadway in Orlando series.
Where: Carr Performing Arts Centre, 401 W. Livingston St., Orlando.
Shows and dates: The Light in the Piazza, Sept. 19-24.
All Shook Up, Oct. 24-29.
The Lion King, Dec. 7-Jan. 14.
Sweet Charity, March 13-18, 2007.
The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, April 10-15, 2007.
Camelot, May 15-20, 2007.
Cost: $124-$513 for this six-show series.
Call: 1-800-448-6322.
Online: BroadwayAcrossAmerica.com
What else: 2005-2006 season subscribers will receive renewal packets this week..
Audiences who have been waiting more than eight years for the mammoth stage production of The Lion King to make it to Orlando will find next season that there's more than the Disney musical waiting in the wings.
The 2006-07 Broadway in Orlando season, which long has promised The Lion King as its centerpiece, also will feature Tony Award-winning musicals The Light in the Piazza and The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, along with three other shows.
And even though Orlando's Carr Performing Arts Centre still isn't getting the pick of the touring shows the way the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center does, next season's lineup is a giant step in that direction.
"We're going to keep pushing and keep fighting" for better, newer shows, says Ron Legler, president of the Florida Theatrical Association, which presents the touring Broadway shows.
And assuming an Orlando Performing Arts Center is built to replace Carr, he says, "Fort Lauderdale and Tampa had better look out."
The coming season looks better for Orlando, Legler says, mainly because subscription sales are way up, with nearly 9,000 season ticket-holders this year.
"Also, we've been beating the doors down, saying, 'Don't overlook Orlando,' " he says. "We're ranked number 13 in [touring] Broadway markets. We're really not far off from what Tampa's doing."
Still, Tampa is getting the hit Wicked for a second time next season, as well as other popular musicals Monty Python's Spamalot and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and the Pulitzer Prize-winning drama Doubt. Orlando didn't get Dirty Rotten Scoundrels solely because of scheduling problems, Legler says, and Doubt is having a very limited tour.
Orlando's 2006-07 series also will include All Shook Up and revivals of Sweet Charity and Camelot.
Although the tour of The Lion King was announced for Orlando close to a year and a half ago, the newer Broadway hits are a welcome surprise. The Light in the Piazza won six Tony Awards, including best musical score, last season, while The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee won two Tonys, including best book of a musical, at the same time.
The revival of Sweet Charity and the jukebox musical All Shook Up also played on Broadway last season, although All Shook Up closed after about six months and Sweet Charity after about eight. Only the Camelot revival, which will star Michael York, was put together solely to tour.
By contrast, only two of the five shows of the current Broadway in Orlando season were based on relatively new Broadway productions, and one, the Radio City Christmas Spectacular, wasn't a Broadway show at all.
The 2006-07 Orlando season will begin with The Light in the Piazza, a wry but romantic drama by Adam Guettel, a grandson of Broadway legend Richard Rodgers, and Craig Lucas (Reckless, Prelude to a Kiss).
Based on Elizabeth Spencer's novella, the musical is about a pair of 1950s-era tourists -- an American mother and her grown daughter -- who find their lives changed under the Tuscan sun. That musical, directed by Bartlett Sher, will play in Orlando Sept. 19-24, just before it opens the new performing-arts center in Miami on Sept. 26.
Next will be All Shook Up (Oct. 24-29), a musical that puts the songs of Elvis Presley into a plot about a lonely girl who meets up with a guitar-playing roustabout. All Shook Up's book is by Joe DiPietro (I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change), with direction by Christopher Ashley (The Rocky Horror Show).
The Lion King will play a record 51/2 weeks, from Dec. 7 to Jan. 14 with nearly 280 seats removed from Carr to create two center aisles, down which the show's phantasmagorical animal puppets will parade.
Elton John wrote the music, Tim Rice the lyrics and Roger Allers and Irene Mecchi the book for this long-running musical, which opened on Broadway in 1997. But most of the acclaim has gone rightly to Tony-winning director-designer Julie Taymor, who created the puppets and masks.
Onetime movie sweetheart Molly Ringwald, who more recently has turned to the stage, will star in the revival of Sweet Charity, a 1966 musical by Cy Coleman, Neil Simon and Dorothy Fields, that was revived in 2005 as a vehicle for TV star Christina Applegate. The story of an idealistic young woman who works as a dancer-for-hire in a disreputable ballroom, Sweet Charity will come to Orlando from March 13-18, 2007.
Next will be The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (April 10-15, 2007), a musical comedy about a group of teenage misfits who compete in a spelling bee with members of the audience. With music and lyrics by William Finn (Falsettos), a book by Rachel Sheinkin and direction by James Lapine (Into the Woods, Sunday in the Park With George), Spelling Bee was an off-Broadway underdog that became an unexpected Broadway hit, resulting in a Tony not only for Sheinkin but for ensemble member Dan Fogler, who created a nasally challenged character who spells out words with his foot.
The season will close with the touring perennial Camelot (May 15-20, 2007), starring York as the doomed King Arthur.
Season subscriptions will range from $124 to $513. Current season subscribers will receive renewal packets in the mail this week.
Subscriptions are available at 1-800-448-6322, at the Broadway in Orlando box office (301 E. Pine St., Suite 175) or online at BroadwayAcross America.com. Tickets to individual shows are not yet available.
Elizabeth Maupin can be reached at emaupin@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5426.
