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June 9, 2006 -- Are you looking to get away this summer? Heritage Repertory Theatre, the University of Virginia’s summer professional theatre, is offering the best travel deal in town. For the price of a single season ticket, the theatre will take you to an exotic island, a gorgeous Parisian park, a breathtaking seaside Italian villa and the coldest backwoods of Minnesota. And, if you’re really good, they will even haul you off on a “spiritual” retreat with the most entertaining order of nuns ever to don a habit.
Heritage Repertory Theatre’s 31st season will include Rodgers and Hammerstein’s all-time classic South Pacific, the Stephen Sondheim musical masterpiece Sunday in the Park with George; the uproarious Nunsense; the wistful and touching Tony-Award-winning play Enchanted April and Don’t Hug Me, a fresh new musical that combines karaoke, sharp writing, zany characters and big laughs.
“We are thrilled to announce what we feel will be one of our most exciting seasons ever,” said Heritage Repertory Theatre Producing Artistic Director Robert Chapel. “Musical theatre does not get more classic than South Pacific, more outrageous than Nunsense or more refreshing than Don’t Hug Me. Add to that a wonderful, Tony Award-nominated play in Enchanted April and this is a season that truly promises a little bit of everything for Heritage Rep fans and newcomers alike.”
Heritage Repertory Theatre is also announcing an important change in their show formats this year. Instead of operating in true repertory style as has been done in the past, Heritage will offer five productions, each with a defined run.
“We are looking forward to offering our audiences the clarity of our new schedule while at the same time allowing for our production team to work more efficiently,” Chapel said.
The 31st season officially kicks off with South Pacific, to be presented in Culbreth Theatre beginning June 22. The production, directed by Robert Chapel, will run from June 22-24 and from the 26-July 1, and will feature matinee and evening performances (the full production schedule for all 2006 shows will be announced closer to the season opening).
One of the greatest love stories to ever grace the Broadway stage (or Hollywood screen), South Pacific is a timeless tale of love and prejudice set against the exotic backdrop of a wartime tropical isle. James Michener’s book is as relevant today as it ever was, and Rodgers and Hammerstein’s score offers up some of the most cherished tunes in Broadway history, including Some Enchanted Evening, There is Nothing Like a Dame, Bali Ha’i and others.
“In addition to its classic appeal,” Chapel said, “I continue to be amazed at the unfortunate yet very real timelessness of the issues at the core of this story. It seems that no matter how we try, the most basic of differences between us as people continue to divide us, in ways both subtle and profound. I look forward to delving into these issues while sharing some of the finest material ever created for the American musical stage.
Nunsense comes to The Helms Theatre beginning on June 20 in a production directed by Renee Dobson. The production will then run June 22-24; June 26-July 1 and July 3-8 (with no performance on the July 4 holiday).
The Little Sisters of Hoboken are back! HRT is proud to present one of the theater world’s true international sensations in this is tale of a convent meal gone very, very bad. The ultimate “Sister Act” follows the nuns’ efforts to put on a show to raise funds for the last of 52 funerals for their fallen comrades -- victims of a most unintentional and unfortunate meal from the kitchen of Sister Julia (Child of God). Sit back and enjoy the musical and comedic hysteria that ensues, just as millions around the world have enjoyed it since the show first opened Off-Broadway in 1985.
“Here’s a show that offers as many guffaws per minute as anything we’ve ever done here at Heritage,” said Chapel. “It’s just pure fun. There is nothing like escaping to an evening of unadulterated frivolity, and this show more than fits that bill. Plus, it’s a knuckle-rapping good time for anyone looking to relive their parochial school days!”
Enchanted April, directed by Douglas Sprigg, is next up on the Culbreth stage, running on July 7 and 8 and 11-15.
This Tony-Award-nominated play tells the charming tale of four women who take their lives on vacation by escaping to a gorgeous Italian seaside villa. The wildly mismatched quartet ultimately learn more about themselves and each other than they could have learned in years at home and, in the process, break through barriers that have been holding them back for years.
“I think our audiences are going to thoroughly enjoy this delightful night at the theatre,” Chapel said. “This is a play that has a little bit of everything…great comedy, wonderful characters and a very timeless message about the value of stepping outside of our lives to find the people we truly are.”
Don’t Hug Me is next up at the Helms. The new musical, directed by Heritage favorite Eugene Carr, will run from July 18-22 and July 24-29.
Don’t Hug Me is a classic tale of man versus machine. Karaoke machine, that is. When a traveling salesman stops by a backwoods Minnesota bar promising a karaoke system that will change lives, the reaction he gets rivals the sub-zero temperatures outside. One by one, however, the machine lures the characters to take the microphone and croon the tunes of a fictional songwriting sensation whose catalog covers influences from Lawrence Welk to Donny and Marie to John Denver and beyond!
“Think of the wonderfully offbeat lunacy of the characters in Fargo…then add music,” Chapel said. “Between the sharp barbs flying back and forth across the stage and the ridiculous lyrics of the great ‘Sven Jorgensen’ flying out of the karaoke machine’s speakers, my only concern about this show is that some audience members will be laughing too hard to hear the next joke.
Doing the season-closing honors this year will be Sunday in the Park with George, directed by Robert Chapel. Dates for this production are July 21 and 22 and July 24-29.
Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Sunday in the Park with George is an entertaining and thought provoking reflection on the relationship between the artist and the art. Based on the life of the great pointillist Georges Seurat, the musical both constructs and deconstructs one of the artist’s greatest masterpieces, examining the way he controlled every detail of the piece while the most important people and relationships in his life slipped beyond his grasp.
“This is one of the finest pieces ever to examine artists and their creations,” according to Chapel. “All great artists wish for their art to have cultural immortality…but at what price? Sondheim’s masterpiece is a wonderful look at these issues, complete with a brilliant collection of songs that have become classics in their own right, including the title song and “Putting It Together.”
Brochures will be mailed to friends of the Heritage Repertory Theatre in late April/early May. The box office will open June 5 for in-person sales. For further information, visit the website.
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