MAY 2015 2014/15 SEASON A CHORUS LINE SEPT 3 - 28, 2014 KINKY BOOTS OCT 7 - 26, 2014 A CHRISTMAS STORY NOV 25 - DEC 30, 2014 RODGERS & HAMMERSTEIN’S CAROUSEL FEB 5 - MAR 1, 2015 JACQUES BREL IS ALIVE AND WELL & LIVING IN PARIS MAR 7 - MAY 17, 2015 CO-PRESENTED AT ACT - A CONTEMPORARY THEATRE JASPER IN DEADLAND APR 30 - MAY 24, 2015 GREASE JULY 9 - AUGUST 2, 2015 May 2015 APRIL 23 – MAY 24, 2015 Volume 12, No. 6 Paul Heppner Publisher Susan Peterson Design & Production Director Ana Alvira, Deb Choat, Robin Kessler, Kim Love Design and Production Artists Marty Griswold Seattle Sales Director Joey Chapman, Gwendolyn Fairbanks, Ann Manning, Lenore Waldron Seattle Area Account Executives Mike Hathaway Bay Area Sales Director Staci Hyatt, Marilyn Kallins, Terri Reed, Tim Schuyler Hayman San Francisco/Bay Area Account Executives Brett Hamil Online Editor Jonathan Shipley Associate Online Editor Carol Yip Sales Coordinator Jonathan Shipley Ad Services Coordinator www.encoreartsseattle.com SEASON SPONSORS SHOW SPONSOR 206.938.0339 ArtsWest.org Leah Baltus 4711 CALIFORNIA AVENUE SW Editor-in-Chief Summit East Fund Paul Heppner Publisher Marty Griswold Associate Publisher Dan Paulus Art Director Jonathan Zwickel Senior Editor Gemma Wilson NEVER MISS AN ISSUE! Associate Editor Amanda Manitach Visual Arts Editor Subscribe and get City Arts Catherine Petru Account Executive delivered right to your mailbox. Amanda Townsend Events Coordinator www.cityartsonline.com Paul Heppner President Mike Hathaway Vice President Erin Johnston Communications Manager Genay Genereux Accounting Corporate Office 425 North 85th Street Seattle, WA 98103 p 206.443.0445 f 206.443.1246 [email protected] 800.308.2898 x113 www.encoremediagroup.com $ 1 year/12 issues/ 36 Encore Arts Programs is published monthly by Encore Media Group to serve musical and theatrical events in the Puget cityartsonline.com/subscriptions Sound and San Francisco Bay Areas. All rights reserved. ©2015 Encore Media Group. Reproduction without written permission is prohibited. 2 5TH AVENUE MUSICAL THEATRE COMPANY One Dynamic Destination From Lunch to Late Night... And Everything in Between. The Bellevue Collection 30 Remarkable Restaurants And Nightlife Hot Spots... All in One Exhilarating Place. Featuring Our Exciting New Additions —Now Open: TAVERN HALL and 13 COINS RESTAURANT Opening Summer: VIVO 53 Explore More at bellevuecollection.com BELLEVUE SQUARE BELLEVUE PLACE LINCOLN SQUARE The Place to Be for Inspiring Fashion, Artful Dining and Vibrant Nightlife TBC 2015 Dining Ad_FINAL_REV0315.indd 1 4/14/15 3:47 PM Untitled-9 1 4/17/15 12:51 PM BOARD OF DIRECTORS ABOUT FROM THE DESK OF DAVID ARMSTRONG Wanda J. Herndon Chairman EXECUTIVE PRODUCER AND ARTISTIC DIRECTOR Stephen P. Reynolds President THE TH Sterling Wilson 5AVENUE THEATRE Treasurer Margaret C. Inouye • The non-profit 5th Avenue Theatre is one of the country’s leading musical theater Secretary companies. Our mission is to advance and preserve America’s great indigenous art Barbara L. Crowe B form – The Musical. Immediate Past Chairman • We are nationally renowned for our production and development of new musicals. Kenny Alhadeff Ann Ardizzone Since 2001, The 5th has premiered 17 new works, nine of which have subsequently Clodagh Ash opened on Broadway. They include Disney’s Aladdin, First Date, A Christmas Story, Les Biller Scandalous, Shrek, Catch Me If You Can, The Wedding Singer, Robert R. Braun, Jr. and Best Musical Margaret Clapp Tony Award®-winners, Hairspray and Memphis. Larry Estrada Maria P. Ferrer • Gary J. Fuller We are equally acclaimed for our vibrant new productions of musicals from the Sarah Nash Gates “Golden Age of Broadway” and contemporary classics. These signature revivals Cyrus Habib enthrall fans of these enduring works and introduce these great shows to new Christopher Heman Randy Hodgins generations of musical theater lovers. Richard Kagan SaSa Kirkpatrick • The 5th is committed to achieving the highest standards of artistic excellence by Elizabeth Lund John Oppenheimer employing world-class performers and creative artists, utilizing full live orchestras, Llewelyn G. Pritchard and staging exceptional and imaginative productions. The 5th places a special Gordon Prouty emphasis on employing our amazing community of Puget Sound-based artists and David Quinn Ann Ramsay-Jenkins technicians. Norman B. Rice Robert A. Sexton • Our celebrated educational programs serve more than 74,000 young people each Elliot Silvers year through a host of projects including our Adventure Musical Theater Touring Kirk A. Soderquist Company, The 5th Avenue Awards, and the unique Rising Star Project. For adults, Heather Sullivan McKay Bonnie Towne we offer free-to-the-public events such as the popular Spotlight Night series and pre- Eric Trott performance Show Talks with Albert Evans. Tom Walsh Tracy Wellens • We are the largest arts employer in the Pacific Northwest with more than 800 Kenneth Willman actors, singers, dancers, musicians, creative artists, theatrical technicians and arts professionals working for us each season. PAST CHAIRMEN OF THE BOARD • As a non-profit theater company supported by the community, we enjoy the Barbara L. Crowe (2011-2013) patronage of more than 25,000 season subscribers (one of the largest theater Robert A. Sexton (2009-2011) subscriptions in America). More than 300,000 audience members attend our Norman B. Rice (2007-2009) performances each year. Kenny Alhadeff (2004-2007) William W. Krippaehne Jr. OUR HISTORIC THEATER (2002-2004) Bruce M. Pym (2000-2002) A beautiful Seattle landmark, The 5th Avenue Theatre’s breathtaking design was John F. Behnke (1998-2000) inspired by ancient Imperial China’s most stunning architectural achievements, Faye Sarkowsky (1996-98) including the magnificent Forbidden City. Built in 1926 for vaudeville and silent Donald J. Covey (1994-96) pictures, The 5th Avenue Theatre reigned for decades as Seattle’s favorite movie Kenneth L. Hatch (1992-94) John D. Mangels (1990-92) palace. In 1979, 43 companies and community leaders formed the non-profit 5th Stanley M. Little, Jr. (1986-88) Avenue Theatre Association. Their goal was to restore the theater to its original Robert F. Buck (1988-90) splendor. The 5th Avenue Theatre re-opened in 1980 as Seattle’s premier home for R. Milton Trafton (1983-86) musical theater. W.J. Pennington (1981-83) D.E. (Ned) Skinner (1979-81) The 5th Avenue Theatre gratefully acknowledges our 43 original founders and sponsors. Founding Managing Director Please visit www.5thavenue.org for specific information on these important companies and individuals. Marilynn Sheldon WELCOME TO THE WELCOME TO 5TH FROM THE DESK OF DAVID ARMSTRONG EXECUTIVE PRODUCER AND ARTISTIC DIRECTOR WHERE NEW MUSICALS ARE BORN The principal mission of The 5th Avenue Theatre is to celebrate America’s great indigenous art form, The Musical—past, present, and future. We celebrate the past through productions of classic musicals from the “Golden Age of Broadway” such as our recent production of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Carousel, and modern classics like our current production of Jacques Brel is Alive and Well & Living in Paris. We celebrate the present by bringing to our stage current Broadway hits like next season’s Matilda, The Musical and A Gentleman’s Guide to Love And Murder. Perhaps most important, we celebrate the future of The Musical through our development and production of new musicals. I am proud to report that since 2001 The 5th Avenue Theatre has produced 17 new musicals. To Now we add the final and most important collaborators date, nine of those musicals have moved from our stage to in this process—you the audience. It is impossible to Broadway including two that received the coveted Tony create a new musical without the active participation Award® for “Best Musical.” This is an incredible track of a live audience. In fact, we could rehearse this show record of which we are very proud. everyday for a year in the empty theater and not learn in These achievements, however, represent only the tip of all that time what we will in just one performance with the iceberg in regards to our commitment to creating the you in attendance. You are crucial to the process and you future of the musical theater. Our extensive New Works can be certain that the show will evolve and change and Program is dedicated to early-stage development of new grow based on your reactions and responses. musicals through a variety of initiatives including writer’s We invite you to share with us your responses to our retreats, staged readings and developmental workshops. latest new work by visiting our website (www.5thavenue. We currently have a host of exciting projects in various org) where you will find an email link on the Jasper stages of incubation including three brand new musicals in Deadland show page. That email address is that we have commissioned. Much of this work will be [email protected]. These types of responses showcased this summer in our first ever NextFest. You can have proved to be invaluable to us in developing previous find more information about this new event on page 24 of new works. this playbill. This commitment to new work is only made possible By the time you read this, Jasper in Deadland will have through the support of our large subscription audience gone through four weeks of rehearsals in our rehearsal hall and the generous contributions of our 5th Avenue donors, (lovingly known as Downstairs At The 5th or DAT5) and especially the members of our Creativity Circles. This two additional weeks of technical rehearsals on the stage. important “research and development” activity would The actors will have spent many intense weeks mastering simply not be possible without their vision and support. the words, music, staging and choreography. Meanwhile And you are about to see proof that the future of The our design and production teams have been creating and Musical is alive and rocking here at The 5th! installing the sets, props, costumes, lighting and sound equipment.