Please note: Kelsey Theatre has stadium style seating. Only the handicapped seats are on floor level. All other seats are at least 1 step up or down!
Call the box office at 609-570-3333 to arrange for handicapped seating.
Written by Ken Ludwig
Directed by Diana Maurer
Content Rating: PG
Total Runtime: 2.5 hrs
Intermission: 10 min.
Friday, September 27, 2019 at 8 PM
Saturday, September 28, 2019 at 8 PM
Sunday, September 29, 2019 at 2 PM
Saturday, October 5, 2019 at 2 PM
Saturday, October 5, 2019 at 8 PM
Sunday, October 6, 2019 at 2 PM
"Leading Ladies is a highly combustible and continuously hilarious comedy by Ken Ludwig, Broadway's reigning comic writer."
-- The Cleveland Plain Dealer
Kelsey Theatre and Maurer Productions Onstage, the award-winning company that delivered the laughs with Lend Me A Tenor, bring you another hilarious farce from the master of stage comedy, Ken Ludwig.
Two English Shakespearean actors, Jack and Leo, find themselves so down on their luck that they are performing "Scenes from Shakespeare" on the Moose Lodge circuit in the Amish country of Pennsylvania. When they hear that an old lady in York, PA wants to leave her fortune to her two long lost English nephews, they resolve to pass themselves off as her beloved relatives and get the cash. The trouble is, when they get to York, they find out that the relatives aren't nephews, but nieces! Romantic entanglements abound, especially when Leo falls head-over-petticoat in love with the old lady's vivacious niece, Meg, who's engaged to the local minister. Meg knows that there's a wide world out there, but it's not until she meets "Maxine and Stephanie" that she finally gets a taste of it.
For more details and a full synopsis see Wikipedia.
Ken Ludwig is a two-time Olivier Award-winning playwright who has written over 26 plays and musicals, including 6 shows on Broadway and 7 in London's West End. His first Broadway play, Lend Me A Tenor, won two Tony Awards and was called "one of the classic comedies of the 20th century” by The Washington Post. His other awards include the Helen Hayes Award, the 2017 Samuel French Award for Sustained Excellence in the American Theatre, the Edgar Award for Best Mystery of the Year, and the Edwin Forrest Award for Contributions to the American Theater.
His book How To Teach Your Children Shakespeare, published by Penguin/Random House, won the Falstaff Award for Best Shakespeare Book of the Year, and his essays are published by the Yale Review. Ken’s best known works include Crazy For You (5 years on Broadway, Tony and Olivier Awards for Best Musical), Lend Me A Tenor, Moon Over Buffalo, The Game’s Afoot, Baskerville, Sherwood, A Fox on the Fairway, and a stage version of Murder on the Orient Express, written expressly at the request of the Agatha Christie Estate.
His newest play, The Gods of Comedy, premiered in 2019 at The McCarter Theater in Princeton and The Old Globe Theatre in San Diego. On Broadway and the West End, his plays have starred Alec Baldwin, Carol Burnett, Tony Shalhoub, Lynn Redgrave and Joan Collins. He holds degrees from Harvard, where he studied music with Leonard Bernstein, Haverford College and Cambridge University. His work has been performed in over 30 countries in more than 20 languages, and is produced somewhere in the United States and abroad every night of the year. www.kenludwig.com
Ken Ludwig’s Leading Ladies is presented by special arrangement with Samuel French, Inc.
Originally Produced by:
The Cleveland Playhouse on September 7, 2004
Michael Bloom, Artistic Director
Dean Gladden, Managing Director
And…
Alley Theatre on October 15, 2004
Gregory Boyd, Artistic Director
Terry Dwyer, Managing Director
Written by Jean Baptiste Poquelin Molière
Translation by Ranjit Bolt
Directed by Lou Stalsworth
Content Rating: PG-13
Total Runtime: 2.5 hrs
Intermission: 10 min.
Friday, October 11, 2019 at 8 PM
Saturday, October 12, 2019 at 8 PM
Sunday, October 13, 2019 at 2 PM
Friday, October 18, 2019 at 8 PM
Saturday, October 19, 2019 at 8 PM
Sunday, October 20, 2019 at 2 PM
IMPOSTERS, HYPOCRITES AND HUMOR; SOME THINGS NEVER CHANGE.
When it premiered in 1664, Moliere's classic satire of lust, deceit and false piety was denounced as a sacrilegious outrage and banned from further public view. So naturally, Kelsey Theatre and the award-winning team at PinnWorth Productions couldn’t resist bringing this 355-year-old comedy into the present day and current political climate for an evening of deliciously saterical fun.
Featuring a new translation by Ranjit Bolt, this is the story of Tartuffe, a religious hypocrite who capitalizes on the piety and ignorance of others to line his own pocket. The trouble begins when Tartuffe deftly worms his way into the affections and household of the wealthy Orgon, who he convinces to hand over his daughter in exchange for divine absolution even as he exercises a rogue’s lust for the man’s wife.
In a household of flummoxed folks, Dorine, the sassy maid, sees the imposter for what he is, yet no one else fully grasps the crisis descending on the family. Caught most desperately in the middle of the pretender’s scheming is the desirable but dutiful wife, Elmire, whose comic booty trap is a legend of theatrical comedy. Chaos reigns until Tartuffe is finally revealed for the imposter that he is.
As director Lou Stalsworth holds a mirror up to America for the evening, this play takes us on a very familiar but hilarious ride, eventually ending it all bigly, with a happy ending, and a touch of deus ex machina, and a dash of contemporary covfefe. Seriously, the ony thing missing from this comic masterpiece is a twitter feed.
For more details and a full synopsis see Wikipedia.
Tartuffe is presented through special arrangement with Samuel French, Inc.
Book by Terrence McNally | Music by Marc Shairman
Lyrics by Marc Shairman & Scott Wittman
Based on the DreamWorks Movie Directed by Steven Speilberg
Directed by Laurie Gougher
Content Rating: PG-13
Total Runtime: 2.5 hrs
Intermission: 10 min.
Friday, October 25, 2019 at 8 PM
Saturday, October 26, 2019 at 8 PM
Sunday, October 27, 2019 at 2 PM
Friday, November 1, 2019 at 8 PM
Saturday, November 2, 2019 at 8 PM
Sunday, November 3, 2019 at 2 PM
CHASING BIG DREAMS, NO MATTER THE COST
Based on the incredible true story that became the hit film from Seven Speilberg and Leonardo DiCaprio, Catch Me If You Can is the high-flying musical comedy about chasing your dreams and not getting caught.
This October, Kelsey Theatre and The Pennington Players bring you the delightfully entertaining tale of Frank Abagnale Jr., a precocious, fame and fortune-seeking teenager who runs away from home to begin an unforgettable adventure. With nothing more than his boyish charm, a big imagination and millions of dollars in forged checks, Frank successfully poses as a pilot, a doctor and a lawyer, all while living the high life and winning the girl of his dreams. But when Frank's lies catch the attention of FBI agent Carl Hanratty, Carl pursues Frank across the country to make him pay for his crimes.
Nominated for four Tony awards, including Best Musical, this delightfully entertaining show was created by a Tony Award-winning dream team, with a book by Terrence McNally (The Full Monty, Ragtime) and a swinging score by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman (Hairspray).
Featuring big dance numbers, toe-tapping tunes, plenty of laughs and a lot of heart, this show promises to deliver an evening of high-flying, high-energy entertainment!
For more details and a full synopsis see Wikipedia.
This production is presented through special arrangement with Music Theatre International.
Lyrics by Tim Rice
Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber
Directed by Marge Swider
Content Rating: PG
Total Runtime: 2.5 hrs
Intermission: 10 min.
Friday, November 8, 2019 at 8 PM
Saturday, November 9, 2019 at 2 PM
Saturday, November 9, 2019 at 8 PM
Sunday, November 10, 2019 at 2 PM
Friday, November 15, 2019 at 8 PM
Saturday, November 16, 2019 at 2 PM
Saturday, November 16, 2019 at 8 PM
Sunday, November 17, 2019 at 2 PM
THE ULTIMATE STORY OF SIBLING RIVALRY,COURAGE AND FORGIVENESS
Kelsey Theatre and The Yardley Players, who produced the mega-hit Mary Poppins, are excited to bring you one of the most enduring family musicals of the last 50 years.
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat is a reimagining of the Biblical story of Joseph, his father Jacob, his eleven brothers, and the coat of many colors. Told entirely through song, the musical follows the trials and triumphs of Joseph after being sold into slavery by his jealous brothers. While in captivity, he ingratiates himself with an Egyptian nobleman, but ends up in prison after refusing the amorous advances of the man’s wife. While imprisoned, Joseph discovers his ability to interpret dreams, and he soon finds himself in front of the mighty but troubled Pharaoh. Joseph’s solution to Egypt’s famine elevates him to Pharaoh’s right-hand man and reunites him with his family.
The first collaboration of composer Andrew Lloyd Webber (Jesus Christ Superstar, Phantom of the Opera, Cats) and lyricist Tim Rice (Jesus Christ Superstar, The Lion King), this magical musical is full of unforgettable songs including “Those Canaan Days”, “Any Dream Will Do” and “Close Every Door.”
In the end, Joseph blends pop, country and rock musical styles into an uplifting, technicolored story of biblical proportions that is perfect for the whole family.
For more details and a full synopsis see Wikipedia.
This production is presented through special arrangement with The Music Company, Inc.
Book, Lyrics & Music by Leslie Bricusse
Adapted from the Movie Scrooge and Charles Dicken’s A Christmas Carol
Directed by Fred Walker
Content Rating: PG
Total Runtime: 2.5 hrs
Intermission: 10 min.
Friday, November 22, 2019 at 8 PM
Saturday, November 23, 2019 at 2 PM
Saturday, November 23, 2019 at 8 PM
Sunday, November 24, 2019 at 2 PM
Friday, November 29, 2019 at 8 PM
Saturday, November 30, 2019 at 2 PM
Saturday, November 30, 2019 at 8 PM
Sunday, December 1, 2019 at 2 PM
THE HOLIDAY SHOW THAT BRINGS A CHANGE OF HEART
Kelsey Theatre and M & M Stage Productions, the company responsible for holiday hits like A Christmas Story the Musical and Irving Berlin’s White Christmas, are pleased to deliver even more gift-wrapped family fun in Scrooge, the Musical.
In this musical adaptation of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, Ebenezer Scrooge is the definition of a miser. He is rich, but completely stingy with his money, and he exploits the good nature of his employee Bob Cratchit. On Christmas Eve, however, Scrooge is in store for a rude awakening when he is visited by the ghost of his old business partner, Jacob Marley, who informs him that he is going to be visited by three spirits -- the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future.
Written by Leslie Bricusse, the score and book closely follow the music and screenplay of the 1970 musical film Scrooge starring Albert Finney. Bricusse was nominated for an Academy Award for the film’s song score. Not only are many of those songs carried over to the musical, but this stage verion also includes six additional songs not performed in the film. Some of the show’s favorite songs include “Thank You Very Much,” “I Like Life,” and “Christmas Children.”
Fun, fresh and festive, this is the show guaranteed to get the whole family in the holiday spirit.
For more details and a full synopsis see Wikipedia.
This production is presented through special arrangement with Samuel French, Inc.
Written by Tim Firth
Directed by Susan Galli
Content Rating: MA (For Mature Audiences)
Total Runtime: 2.5 hrs
Intermission: 10 min.
Friday, January 3, 2020 at 8 PM
Saturday, January 4, 2020 at 8 PM
Sunday, January 5, 2020 at 2 PM
Saturday, January 11, 2020 at 2 PM
Saturday, January 11, 2020 at 8 PM
Sunday, January 12, 2020 at 2 PM
PLEASE NOTE: Calendar Girls contains adult language and partial nudity.
A TALE OF BRAVE WOMEN BARING ALL FOR A CAUSE THAT MATTERS
Kelsey Theatre and The Pennington Players, who brought us imaginative and funny shows like Peter and the Starcatcher and Unnecessary Farce, will absolutely make your year with this meaningful, fun, risqué comedy about brave women baring all.
Calendar Girls is based on the true story of eleven Women’s Institute members (a charitable organization of women formed during World War I, still active to this day) who posed nude for a calendar to raise money for the Leukemia Research Fund.
When Annie’s husband dies of leukemia, she and best friend Chris resolve to raise money for a new settee in the local hospital waiting room. They manage to persuade four fellow members of the WI to courageously pose nude with them for an “alternative” calendar. The news of the women’s charitable venture spreads like wildfire, and hordes of press soon descend on the small English village of Knapeley in Yorkshire Dales, causing all sorts of wild and crazy situations to erupt. The calendar is a success, of course, but Chris and Annie's friendship is put to the test under the strain of their new-found fame.
Visit Wikipedia for more details about the stage play and the movie version.
This production is presented through special arrangement with Samuel French, Inc.
Adapted by Sherman L. Sergel.
Based on the Emmy award-winning television movie by Reginald Rose
Directed by John Zimmerman
Content Rating: PG-13
Total Runtime: 2.5 hrs
Intermission: 10 min.
Friday, January 17, 2020 at 8 PM
Saturday, January 18, 2020 at 8 PM
Sunday, January 19, 2020 at 2 PM
Friday, January 24, 2020 at 8 PM
Saturday, January 25, 2020 at 8 PM
Sunday, January 26, 2020 at 2 PM
ONE LIFE HANGS IN THE BALANCE AS TWELVE JURORS ARE PUT TO THE TEST
Kelsey Theatre and Forte Dramatic Productions bring you a spellbinding play about justice, empathy, morals, the law, and the value of human life.
The defense and the prosecution have rested. The jury files into the jury room to decide if a nineteen-year-old man is guilty or innocent of murdering his own father. The sentence, if convicted, is the death penalty. But this seemingly open-and-shut murder case is soon derailed by the courage of one juror determined to stand up for what’s right.
What follows is as a series of mini-dramas exploring each juror’s prejudices and preconceptions about the trial, the accused, and each other. Tempers get short, arguments grow heated, and the jurors become twelve angry men.
This drama, one of the highlights of Kelsey Theatre's season, promises to keep you on the edge of your seat as one intense, electrifying scene after the other takes us one step closer to a final verdict and the answer to the critical question – how can twelve antagonizing adversaries come together in this delicate process to decide one boy’s ultimate fate?
For more details about this show, visit Wikipedia.
This production is presented through special arrangement with The Dramatic Publishing Company of Woodstock, Illinois.
Book by Joe Masteroff | Based on the play by John Van Druten and Stories by Christopher Isherwood
Music by John Kander | Lyrics by Fred Ebb
Directed by Ruth Markoe
Content Rating: MA (For Mature Audiences)
Total Runtime: 2.5 hrs
Intermission: 10 min.
Friday, January 31, 2020 at 8 PM
Saturday, February 1, 2020 at 8 PM
Sunday, February 2, 2020 at 2 PM
Friday, February 7, 2020 at 8 PM
Saturday, February 8, 2020 at 8 PM
Sunday, February 9 2020 at 2 PM
PLEASE NOTE: Cabaret contains mature conent.
THE DANGERS OF DENIAL AND THE TRIUMPH OF EVIL
As America leans into an uncertain future, Kelsey Theatre and Theater to Go presents a musical drama with political punch. Winner of twelve Tony Awards since its original Broadway premiere, Cabaret tells a timely, potent and human story about the dangers of apathy in a rising culture of hate.
In a Berlin nightclub, as the 1920’s draw to a close, a garish Master of Ceremonies welcomes the audience and assures them they will forget all their troubles at the CABARET. With the Emcee’s bawdy songs as wry commentary, Cabaret explores the dark, heady, and tumultuous life of Berlin’s natives and expatriates as Germany slowly yields to Hitler’s totalitarian regime and rise of the Nazi Party.
Cliff, a young American writer newly arrived in Berlin, is immediately taken by English singer Sally Bowles. Meanwhile, Fräulein Schneider, proprietor of Cliff and Sally’s boarding house, tentatively begins a romance with Herr Schultz, a mild-mannered fruit seller who happens to be Jewish. But when the rising dark political tide reaches them, they find themselves facing a future they dared not imagine.
This sexy, vibrant and high-energy musical features some of the most memorable songs in theatre history, including “Cabaret,” “Willkommen” “Tomorrow Belongs To Me” and “Maybe This Time.”
Cabaret pushes the boundaries of the form while holding a mirror up to our very human nature.
For more details about this show, visit Wikipedia.
CABARET
Book by Joe Masteroff
Based on the play by John Van Druten and Stories by Christopher Isherwood
Music by John Kander
Lyrics by Fred Ebb
Broadway production directed by Harold Prince
Produced for the Broadway Stage by Harold Prince
CABARET is presented by arrangement with Tams-Witmark, A Concord Theatricals Company - http://www.tamswitmark.com
Written by Neil Simon
Directed by Liz Wurtz
Content Rating: PG-13
Total Runtime: 2.5 hrs
Intermission: 10 min.
Friday, February 14, 2020 at 8 PM
Saturday, February 15, 2020 at 8 PM
Sunday, February 16, 2020 at 2 PM
Friday, February 21, 2020 at 8 PM
Saturday, February 22, 2020 at 8 PM
Sunday, February 23, 2020 at 2 PM
Kelsey Theatre and The Yardley Players will tickle your fancy as we present Neil Simon’s tale of Barney Cashman, a seafood restaurateur who is deep in the throes of a mounting midlife crisis. It’s 1969, and the sexual revolution is passing him by with alarming speed. But Barney, who is bravely determined to catch up to the times, borrows his mother’s empty apartment for a series of afternoon encounters. In three hilarious scenes, we witness Barney’s attempts to discover his inner Don Juan with the help of an unlikely parade of possible partners: Elaine Navazio, a foul-mouthed bundle of neuroses; Bobbi Michele, a young actress who’s too kooky by half and finally Jeanette Fisher, a gloomy, depressed housewife who happens to be married to Barney’s best friend!
For more details about this show, visit Wikipedia.
Neil Simon's Last of the Red Hot Lovers is presented through special arrangement with Samuel French, Inc.
Produced and Directed by Tommy Reock
Content Rating: PG
Total Runtime: 3 hrs
Intermission: 10 min.
Friday, March 6, 2020 at 8 PM
Saturday, March 7, 2020 at 8 PM
Sunday, March 8, 2020 at 2 PM
The Reock & Roll Revue will once again return to The Kelsey Theatre in March 2020 with a brand new show entitled "THE GRATEFUL DEAD/The Studio Recordings 1967-1977".
Though a bit of a departure for The Revue not featuring a specific album, this show will be a journey through the first ten years of this iconic American band’s studio recordings and will also feature the usual video history associated with all the Reock & Roll Revue shows.
Adding one more show to the usual weekend, dates for this show are Friday Evening March 6th, Saturday Evening March 7th and Sunday afternoon March 8th.
The Reock & Roll Revue have been performing Classic Rock Albums since 2008, and to sold out audiences at The Kelsey Theatre since 2011.
With past shows featuring the music of The Beatles, The Who, CSN&Y, The Allman Brothers, The Band, Eric Clapton, Jackson Browne, Steely Dan, Chicago and others,
The Revue now brings you this show from one of the biggest bands of all time. So bust out the tie-dye shirts and join us at the Kelsey Theatre for this classic show.
The show entitled THE GRATEFUL DEAD/The Studio Recordings 1967-1977 is now going to take on another angle within that title.
In true Grateful Deadhead fashion, we have decided to make each one of the three shows completely different with a different feature album for each show.
Each show will accompanied by a set of Grateful Dead songs from this same period but will change for each show.
Friday, March 13, 2020 at 8pm
Saturday, March 14, 2020 at 8pm
Sunday, March 15, 2020 at 2pm
Friday, March 20, 2020 at 8pm
Saturday, March 21, 2020 at 8pm
Sunday, March 22, 2020 at 2pm
One of classical music’s enduring riddles is why Beethoven devoted four years of his diminishing life (and hearing) writing 33 variations of a rather uninspired waltz. Two hundred years later, a modern-day music scholar is driven to solve the mystery even as her own health and relationship with her daughter crumbles. Moises Kaufman (The Laramie Project) wrote this passionate play that simultaneously explores the composer’s creations and the struggle of the musicologist. The drama is enhanced by a live pianist playing the variations.
Book by Alfred Uhry | Music and Lyrics by Jason Robert Brown
Co-Conceived and Directed on Broadway by Harold Prince
Content Rating: MA (For Mature Audiences)
Total Runtime: 2.5 hrs
Intermission: 10 min.
Friday, March 27, 2020 at 8 PM
Saturday, March 28, 2020 at 8 PM
Sunday, March 29, 2020 at 2 PM
Friday, April 3, 2020 at 8 PM
Saturday, April 4, 2020 at 8 PM
Sunday, April 5, 2020 at 2 PM
A TALE OF LOVE AND COURAGE IN A TIME OF IGNORANCE AND HATE
Religious intolerance, political injustice, racial tension and the enduring power of love form the explosive ingredients of Kelsey Theatre and Playful Theatre Productions’ next collaboration, the Tony Award-winning musical drama Parade.
Set in Georgia in 1913, it tells the epic true story of one of the most famous, hotly-debated and tabloid-exploited trials in American history. Leo Frank, a Brooklyn-raised Jewish factory manager in Georgia, is accused of an unthinkable crime in a case full of false testimonies and circumstantial evidence. The resulting tale is a riveting murder mystery, a gripping courtroom drama, a moving courageous love story and certainly one of the most powerful new musical theatre works of our time.
With a book by the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Alfred Uhry (Driving Miss Daisy) and a rousing, colorful, and haunting score by Jason Robert Brown (The Bridges of Madison County), this examination of the darkest corners of America's history brings with it a moral lesson about the dangers of prejudice that must not be forgotten.
For more details about this show, visit Wikipedia.
Parade Is presented through special arrangement with Music Theatre International (MTI). All authorized performance materials are also supplied by MTI. www.MTIShows.com
Music by Tom Kitt | Book and Lyrics by Brian Yorkey
Directed by Robert A. Terrano
Content Rating: PG-13
Total Runtime: 2.5 hrs
Intermission: 10 min.
Friday, April 17 , 2020 at 8 PM
Saturday, April 18, 2020 at 8 PM
Sunday, April 19, 2020 at 2 PM
Friday, April 24, 2020 at 8 PM
Saturday, April 25, 2020 at 8 PM
Sunday, April 26, 2020 at 2 PM
WHAT IF YOU REACHED A FORK IN THE ROAD AND YOU COULD TAKE BOTH PATHS?
How much control do we really have over our path in life and how much is written in the stars? Kelsey Theatre and the MCCC Academic Theatre and Dance Company team up to explore that very question in IF/Then, the deeply moving and highly original musical from the Pulitzer Prize-winning creators of Next to Normal.
Nominated for two Tony Awards, including Best Original Score, If/Then tells the story of Elizabeth, a newly divorced woman who has courageously moved to New York to retart her life in a city of infinite possibilities. When her carefully designed plans collide with the whims of fate, Elizabeth's life splits into two parallel storylines. In one, she is “Liz,” a woman who seeks new experiences, and in the other she is “Beth,” a woman focused on her career. This ambitious and inventive show simultaneously follows one woman's two possible life paths, painting a deeply moving portrait of the lives that we lead, as well as the lives that we might have led.
For more details about this show, visit Wikipedia.
TOM KITT received the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Drama as well as two Tony Awards for Best Score and Best Orchestrations for Next to Normal. Next to Normal also received the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding New Score. He is also the composer of If/Then (Tony Nom., Outer Critics Nom.); High Fidelity (Broadway); Bring it On, The Musical (co-composer with Lin-Manuel Miranda, Broadway); Superhero (2nd Stage); Disney's Freaky Friday (Stage Production and Original Disney Channel Movie Musical); Dave (Arena Stage); The Winter's Tale, All's Well That Ends Well, and Cymbeline (The Public's NYSF); From Up Here and The Madrid (MTC); Orphans (Broadway) The Retributionists (Playwrights Horizons) and As You Like It (Toho Co., Japan). As a music supervisor, arranger, and orchestrator, credits include SpongeBob Squarepants, The Musical (Tony Nom., Outer Critics Nom, Drama Desk Nom.); Head Over Heels; Jagged Little Pill; Grease Live!; Rise (NBC); and American Idiot. His work with Green Day also includes additional arrangements for their Grammy Award-winning album 21st Century Breakdown and their album trilogy, ¡Uno! ¡Dos! ¡Tré! Tom received an Emmy Award as co-writer (with Lin-Manuel Miranda) for the 2013 Tony Award opening number, Bigger. Other Television Songwriting credits include a musical episode of Royal Pains, and songs for Penny Dreadful, Sesame Street, and Julie's Greenroom. As a musical director, conductor, arranger and orchestrator, credits include the Pitch Perfect films,2Cellos featuring Lang Lang (Live and Let Die), The Kennedy Center Honors, 13, Debbie Does Dallas, Everyday Rapture, Hair, Laugh Whore, Pippin (Deaf West), and These Paper Bullets. Upcoming projects include musical adaptations of the films Almost Famous, Magic Mike, and The Visitor.
Brian Yorkey (Librettist/Lyricist) received the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, as well as the 2009 Tony Award for Best Score, for Next to Normal. Brian is currently the Executive Producer and Showrunner of 13 Reasons Why for Netflix, Paramount Television and Anonymous Content.
Brian was also nominated for the Tony Award for Best Musical and Best Book of a Musical for Next to Normal, and his work on the show earned him the Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Score. He partnered again with the Next to Normal team on If/Then (Tony Award Nominee for Best Score) starring Idina Menzel. Brian co-wrote the libretto for The Last Ship (Outer Critic's Nomination, with John Logan), with a score by Sting. His musical adaptation of Freaky Friday for Disney Theatricals enjoyed a National Tour before being adapted into a Disney Channel Original Movie. Current theatrical projects in development include the original musical Jesus in My Bedroom, with composer Tim Symons, as well as stage musical adaptation of Magic Mike.
Additional theatre credits include Making Tracks, which has played off-Broadway and regionally, the musical adaptation of Ang Lee's The Wedding Banquet and the play, Book of Jobs with Alex Glover. Brian has directed off-Broadway and regionally and for seven years was associate artistic director at Village Theatre in Washington state, one of the nation's leading producers of new musicals.
He's a graduate of Columbia University, where he was artistic director of the Varsity Show, an alum of the BMI/Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop and a proud member of the Dramatists Guild and the WGA.
Originally Produced on Broadway by
David Stone, James L. Nederlander, Barbara Whitman, Patrick Catullo, Nancy Nagel Gibbs, Fox Theatricals, Marc Platt
Orchestrations by Michael Starobin
Vocal Arrangements by AnnMarie Milazzo
If/Then Is presented through special arrangement with Music Theatre International (MTI). All authorized performance materials are also supplied by MTI. www.MTIShows.com
Music & Lyrics by Robert Jason Brown
Book by Dan Elish & Robert Horn
Content Rating: PG-13
Total Runtime: 2.5 hrs
Intermission: 10 min.
Friday, May 1, 2020 at 8pm
Saturday, May 2, 2020 at 8pm
Sunday, May 3, 2020 at 2pm
Friday, May 8, 2020 at 8pm
Saturday, May 9, 2020 at 8pm
Sunday, May 10, 2020 at 2pm
FINDING 'COOL' WHERE YOU LEAST EXPECT IT
This spring, Kelsey Theatre and M &M Stage Productions brings you everyone’s favorite show about the geeks, posers, jocks, beauty queens, and wannabes of middle school. With an unforgettable rock score from Tony Award-winning composer, Jason Robert Brown, (Parade, The Last Five Years, Bridges of Madison County) 13 is a musical about fitting in – and standing out!
Evan Goldman is plucked from his fast-paced, preteen New York City life and plopped into a sleepy Indiana town following his parents divorce. Surrounded by an array of simple-minded middle school students, he needs to establish his place in the popularity pecking order and be seen by his pint-size peers as “cool.” Can he situate himself on a comfortable link of the food chain... or will he dangle at the end with the outcasts?
For more details about this show, visit Wikipedia.
"13" was Commissioned by Center Theater Group, Los Angeles, CA
Subsequently produced for The Goodspeed Opera House by Michael P. Price, Executive Producer
Original Broadway Production Produced by Bob Boyett, Roger Berlind, Tim Levy, Ken Davenport, Ted Hartley, Stacey Mindich, Jan Bergere, Broadway AcrossAmerica, Sharon Karmazin, Carl Moellenberg, Tom Miller, True Love Productions/Olympus Theatricals and Center Theatre Group.
13 the Musical is presented through special arrangement with Music Theatre International (MTI).
All authorized performance materials are also supplied by MTI. (www.MTIShows.com)
Saturday, May 16, 2020 at 8pm
Sunday, May 17, 2020 at 2pm
Featuring a group of Mercer County Community College’s most talented students, faculty and alumni, plus guest choreographers and dancers, this modern dance company will sway your emotions and weave a spell with their music and movement.
Written by William Shakespeare
Directed by John Frank Erath & Janet Quarterone
Content Rating: PG-13
Total Runtime: 2.5 hrs
Intermission: 10 min.
Friday, May22, 2020 at 8 PM
Saturday, May 23, 2020 at 8 PM
Sunday, May 24, 2020 at 2 PM
Friday, May 29, 2020 at 8 PM
Saturday, May 30, 2020 at 8 PM
Sunday, May 31, 2020 at 2 PM
COMIC TALE OF BETRAYAL LOVE AND DISGUISE
In what scholars believe to be William Shakespeare's first work for the stage, Kelsey Theatre and Shakespeare ‘70 bring you Two Gentlemen of Verona, a comic adventure about young love, false identities, and a band of misguided outlaws.
In this classic work, Young Proteus only has eyes for his hometown sweetheart, Julia. But one look at the beautiful Silvia on a trip to Milan changes everything. Now he’s smitten with his best friend’s lover and his sweetheart has no intention of going away quietly.
Events spin out of control as romantic rivals face off a comic tale that Shakespeare uses to explore some of his most popular ideas -- jealous lovers, a cross-dressing heroine, and a daring escape into the forest. This is at once a familiar and completely refreshing story as audiences will see The Bard explore themes that will make their way into his later and greater works.
For more details about this show, visit Wikipedia.
Book and Lyrics by Robert L. Freedman | Music and Lyrics by Steven Lutvak
Based on the Novel by Roy Horniman
Directed by John M. Maurer
Content Rating: PG-13
Total Runtime: 2.5 hrs
Intermission: 10 min.
Friday, June 5, 2020 at 8 PM
Saturday, June 6, 2020 at 8 PM
Sunday, June 7, 2020 at 2 PM
Friday, June 12, 2020 at 8 PM
Saturday, June 13, 2020 at 8 PM
Sunday, June 14, 2020 at 2 PM
ONE DOWN, SEVEN MORE MURDERS TO GO!
Kelsey Theatre and Maurer Productions OnStage, the team that brought you shows like The Drowsy Chaperone and Monty Python’s Spamalot, present the uproarious story of Monty Navarro, the conniving killer who helps turn murder most foul into entertainment most merry in the Tony-Award-winning musical comedy A Gentleman’s Guide to Love & Murder.A distant heir to a family fortune, Monty sets out to jump the line of succession by—you guessed it—eliminating the eight pesky relatives who stand in his way. All the while, Monty has to juggle his mistress (she’s after more than just love), his fiancée (she’s his cousin but who’s keeping track?), and the constant threat of landing behind bars! Of course, it will all be worth while if he can slay his way to the inheritance… and be done in time for tea.
Neither the seriously squeamish (nor children over twelve) need fear the comical bloodlust in this story because despite the high body count, this delightful show will lift your heart with a steady stream of memorable melody’s, witty lyrics and non-stop laughs.
For more details about this show, visit Wikipedia.
Robert L. Freedman won a Tony Award, Drama Desk Award, and Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Book of a Musical for the Tony-winning Best Musical of 2014, A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder. He was also nominated for a Tony Award for Best Score, with composer and co-lyricist Steven Lutvak, with whom he shared the 2014 Drama Desk Award for Best Lyrics. Among his television career highlights, Robert won the Writers Guild Award for HBO's A Deadly Secret, and was nominated for an Emmy Award and a Writers Guild award for the miniseries Life With Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows. Other teleplays include Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella, for which he received a third Writers Guild nomination; What Makes A Family, which received a GLAAD Award and for which Robert was a Humanitas finalist; What Love Sees, winner of the Silver Plaque at the Chicago International Television Festival; as well as the highly-rated true crime dramas Murder In The Hamptons, The Pastor's Wife, Honor Thy Mother, and Bitter Blood. In 2006, Freedman and Lutvak received both the Fred Ebb Award for songwriting and the Kleban Award for lyric writing for their work on the musicals A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder and Campaign of the Century. Born and raised in Los Angeles, Robert has B.A. in Theatre from UCLA and an M.F.A. in Dramatic Writing and Musical Theatre from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. Robert is currently at work on a film for HBO and Sundance Films. He is married to actress Jean Kauffman, and they are the proud parents of Max Freedman, a writer and community activist living in Brooklyn.
Steven Lutvak made his Broadway debut with his score to A Gentleman's Guide to Love And Murder, for which he supplied the music, and co-wrote the lyrics with Robert L. Freedman. A Gentleman's Guide won the Drama League, the Outer Critics Circle, the Drama Desk and the Tony Awards for Best Musical of 2014. Since its successful run of over two years on Broadway, there have been two National Tours (the second of which is currently on the road), and productions have already been seen in Sweden, Japan, and the first Chinese language production opens this December.
Previously, Lutvak and Freedman won the Kleban and Fred Ebb Songwriting Awards for their songs to A Gentleman's Guide, which was originally developed at the Sundance Theater Lab, and which premiered as a co-production at the Hartford Stage, and the Old Globe in San Diego. Lutvak and Freedman previously wrote the musical Campaign of the Century, which won the California Musical Theater Competition from the Beverly Hills Theater Guild. Campaign was originally commissioned by The American Musical Theater of San Jose, and was later presented in a concert version at Chicago's Humanities Festival, and featured in the New York Music Theater Festival.
Other musicals include Almost September, which premiered on the mainstage of the Repertory Theater of St. Louis, and was subsequently produced at Missouri Repertory Theater, and won eight Bay Area Critics' Circle Awards for its run at Theater Works in Palo Alto, California. The Wayside Motor Inn, his adaptation of a play by A. R. Gurney, began as a commission by the Harmony Project of the National Alliance for Musical Theater, for which Lutvak was named Artist-in-Residence at the Eugene O'Neill Opera Music/Theater Conference. His Esmeralda premiered at the Studio Theater of the St. Louis Rep, and was awarded a New American Work grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. Lutvak scored Off-Broadway's Hannah Senesh, which was nominated for a Drama Desk Award, and was later produced at the Zephyr Theatre in Los Angeles, the Philadelphia Theatre Company, the Baltimore Center Stage, the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, and more recently at Penguin Repertory Theatre. The production also toured throughout Canada and Israel. During the 1994 Toronto Summer Arts Festival, a revue of Steven's songs was presented as part of Garth Drabinsky and Live Entertainment of Canada's New Voices Series. Other works of his have been performed at the Berkshire Theatre Festival, La Mama ETC, Weill Recital Hall and the New York Shakespeare Festival.
Lutvak wrote the title track to Paramount's hit film, "Mad Hot Ballroom", and, the score to "Anything But Love", which starred Eartha Kitt and Andrew McCarthy, and was released by the Samuel Goldwyn Company.
As a singer/songwriter, Lutvak has performed his songs around the country, including such prestigious New York venues as Carnegie Hall, Carnegie Recital Hall, The Oak Room at the Algonquin Hotel, Rainbow and Stars and the Russian Tea Room. His two CD's are called THE TIME IT TAKES and AHEAD OF MY HEART. He is also the winner of the Johnny Mercer Emerging American Songwriting Award, the ASCAP Foundation Richard Rodgers New Horizons Award, and is the only two-time recipient of the Jonathan Larson Performing Arts Foundation Grant. Steven is proud to now be an Adjunct Professor at his alma mater, the NYU Graduate Musical Theater Writing Program.
And now that several of his songs are discussed in David Jenness and Don Velsey's "Classic American Popular Song", the follow-up to Alec Wilder's classic book, "American Popular Song", Steven Lutvak's place in the American Popular Songbook is even more firmly planted.
Steven lives in New York City with his husband, choreographer Michael McGowan, and their daughter, Eliot Rose Lutvak-McGowan.
The original Broadway Production of A Gentlemen's Guide to Love and Murder was produced by
Joey Parnes, Sue Wagner, John Johnson,
50 Church Street Productions, Joan Raffe & Jhett Tolentino, Jay Alix & Una Jackman,
Catherine & Fred Adler, Rhoda Herrick, Kathleen K. Johnson, Megan Savage,
ShadowCatcher Entertainment, Ron Simons, True Love Productions, Jamie deRoy,
Four Ladies & One Gent, John Arthur Pinckard, Greg Nobile, Stewart Lane & Bonnie Comley
Exeter Capital/Ted Snowdon, Ryan Hugh Mackey, Cricket-CTM Media/Mano-Horn Productions,
Dennis Grimaldi/Margot Astrachan, Hello Entertainment/Jamie Bendell
Michael T. Cohen/Joe Sirola, Joseph & Carson Gleberman/William Megevick
and
Green State Productions In association with The Hartford Stage and The Old Globe
A Gentlemen’s Guide to Love and Murder was developed, in part, at the 2006 Sundance Institute Theatre Lab at the Sundance Resort with continuing Post-Lab Support through its initiative with the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Orchestrations by Jonathan Tunick Vocal Arrangements by Dianne Adams McDowell & Steven Lutvak
A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder
Is presented through special arrangement with Music Theatre International (MTI).
All authorized performance materials are also supplied by MTI. www.MTIShows.com
Book and Lyrics by TIM RICE | Music by ANDREW LLOYD WEBBER
Directed by Lou Stalsworth
Content Rating: PG-13
Total Runtime: 2.5 hrs
Intermission: 10 min.
Friday, June 19, 2020 at 8 PM
Saturday, June 20, 2020 at 8 PM
Sunday, June 21, 2020 at 2 PM
Wednesday, June 24, 2020 at 7:30 PM
Thursday, June 25, 2020 at 7:30 PM
Friday, June 26, 2020 at 8 PM
Saturday, June 27, 2020 at 8 PM
Sunday, June28, 2020 at 2 PM
LOVE, POWER, POLITICS AND A WOMAN WHO EMBODIED THE HOPES OF A NATION
On the heels of mega-hits like Miss Saigon and Newsies, Kelsey Theatre and Pinnworth Productions team up to deliver the musical blockbuster Evita, which tells the stunning story of an ordinary woman’s meteoric rise to power and adoration in a time of extraordinary political unrest.
Set in in Argentina between 1934 and 1952, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice's Tony-Award winning musical follows Eva Duarte on her courageous journey from poor illegitimate child to ambitious actress, to wife of military leader-turned-president Juan Peron, and finally to the most powerful woman in Latin America, before her death from cancer at age 33.
But at its heart, Evita is a love story. On one hand, it is a romance between Eva and Juan Peron, but on the other hand, it is also a romance between Eva and the people of Argentina, the working class descamisados ("the shirtless ones"), with whom Eva grew up.
As the events in Eva’s life unfold through song and commentary by the show’s narrator, Che, audiences are presented differing points of view on this amazing woman’s life. Was she the Madona of the poor? Or was she a political villianess hungry for power? As audiences are left to decide for themselves, they are carried along through a musical theater masterpiece that includes classic songs such as “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina,” “Oh What a Circus,” “Buenos Aires” and “Another Suitcase in Another Hall.”
For more details about this show, visit Wikipedia.
EVITA is presented through special arrangement with R&H Theatricals and Two Knights Rights Limited. www.rnh.com.
Book, Music and Lyrics by LIONEL BART
Directed by Kristy Davis
Content Rating: PG-13
Total Runtime: 2.5 hrs
Intermission: 10 min.
Friday, July 10, 2020 at 8 PM
Saturday, July 11, 2020 at 2 PM
Saturday, July 11, 2020 at 8 PM
Sunday, July 12, 2020 at 2 PM
Friday, July 17, 2020 at 8 PM
Saturday, July 18, 2020 at 2 PM
Saturday, July 18, 2020 at 8 PM
Sunday, July 19, 2020 at 2 PM
AN ORPHAN'S SEARCH FOR LOVE AND FAMILY
Consider yourself at home as Kelsey Theatre and The Yardley Players present Lionel Bart's classic musical based on Charles Dickens' novel, Oliver Twist. A Tony Award-winning and (for the movie adaptation) Oscar-winning show, Oliver! has been hailed as theatrical masterpiece that appeals to the whole family.
The streets of Victorian England come to life as young Oliver, a malnourished orphan in a workhouse, becomes the neglected apprentice of an undertaker. Oliver bravely escapes to London and finds acceptance amongst a group of petty thieves and pickpockets led by the elderly Fagin. When Oliver is captured for a theft that he did not commit, the benevolent victim, Mr. Brownlow takes him in and Oliver seems to have found a home. But, fearing the safety of his hideout, Fagin employs the sinister Bill Sikes and the sympathetic Nancy to kidnap him back, threatening Oliver’s chances of discovering the true love of a family.
For more details about this show, visit Wikipedia.
Oliver! Is presented through special arrangement with Music Theatre International (MTI). All authorized performance materials are also supplied by MTI. www.MTIShows.com
Music & Lyrics by Björn Ulvaeus Benny Andersson
And Some Songs with Stig Anderson
Book by Catherine Johnson
Originally Conceived by Judy Craymer
Content Rating: PG-13
Total Runtime: 2.5 hrs
Intermission: 10 min.
Friday, July 24, 2020 at 8 PM
Saturday, July 25, 2020 at 2 PM
Saturday, July 25, 2020 at 8 PM
Sunday, July 26, 2020 at 2 PM
Friday, July 31, 2020 at 8 PM
Saturday, August 1, 2020 at 2 PM
Saturday, August 1, 2020 at 8 PM
Sunday, August 2, 2020 at 2 PM
A SEARCH FOR FAMILY WITH A BEAT YOU CAN DANCE TO
Put on your platform shoes, and your feather boas and join us as Kelsey Theatre and M & M Stage Productions presents one of the most popular musicals of all time! Over 60 million people worldwide have fallen in love with this singing and dancing extravaganza based on the music of ABBA.
This sunny and funny tale unfolds on a Greek island paradise where bride-to-be Sophie dreams of a perfect wedding — one in which includes her father give her away at the alter. The problem? Sophie doesn’t know who he is and her mother isn't telling! After a peak at her mother's diary, Sophie secretly invites three of her mother's old flames to the wedding, hoping she will know her father when she sees him, but it's not as easy as she thought.
Told through the legendary music of ABBA, Mamma Mia! includes classics like “Dancing Queen,” “Waterloo” “SOS”, “Knowing Me, Knowing You,” and of course the title number. This smash hit musical is sure to have you dancing in the aisles!
For more details about this show, visit Wikipedia.
MAMMA MIA!
Music and Lyrics by BENNY ANDERSSON & BJÖRN ULVAEUS
And some songs with STIG ANDERSON
Book by CATHERINE JOHNSON
Originally Conceived by JUDY CRAYMER
MAMMA MIA! was originally produced in London by Judy Craymer, Richard East and Björn Ulvaeus for Littlestar in association with Universal.
Additional Material & Arrangements
MARTIN KOCH
Music Published by Universal Music Publishing Group and EMI Grove Park Music Inc. and EMI Waterford Music Inc.*
Mamma Mia! is presented through special arrangement with Music Theatre International (MTI).
All authorized performance materials are also supplied by MTI. www.MTIShows.com
Produced & Directed by Kyrus Keenan Westcott
Content Rating: PG-13 Total Runtime: 2.5 hrs Intermission: 10 min.
Saturday, August 15, 2020 at 7 PM
AND THE AWARD GOES TO…
Kelsey Theatre and K2K Entertainment are proud to present The 2020 Kelsey Awards. For the twelveth consecutive year, this prestigeous event is held to celebrate the artists and artisans who bring their passion for the theater to our community.
One part awards ceremony and one part variety show, The 2020 Kelsey Awards is a fun, one-night only, live extravaganza of song, dance and fellowhip. Throughout the evening, performers, technicians, musicians, artistic staff and audience members gather to re-live the best moments and musical numbers from the 2019-2020 season while also offering a sneak peak at upcoming shows. Along the way, awards are bestowed in 22 different performance and technical categories to honor the people who participate in, and make possible, Kelsey Theatre's robust schedule of productions.
And the best part? You, the audience, get to select the award winners. Visit The Kelsey Awards website (www.thekelseyawards.com) to follow the excitement throughout the summer and vote for your favorite peformers and shows as their names come up for nomination. So cast your votes, buy your tickets, come enjoy the show, and sit beside your favorite nominee as the tension mounts and the presenter says those famous words.
And the award goes to...
