THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE, musical, Georgetown Palace, May 17 - June 16, 2013

presents




Thoroughly Modern Millie

a musical by Jeanine Tesori, Dick Scanlan and Richard Morris

directed by David Sray

May 17 to June 16
Friday and Saturday shows are at 7:30 p.m.; Sunday shows are at 2:00 p.m.

Ticket prices are $24 General Admission, $22 Seniors (55+), $14 Students (10-22) and Active Military, and $10 Children (9 and younger). 
Available on-line via the Palace website.

Rated for General Audiences 

Georgetown’s Historic Palace Theatre opens Thoroughly Modern Millie on May 17 for a five-weekend fun-filled music and dance fest! With music by Jeanine Tesori, lyrics by Dick Scanlan, and book by Richard Morris and Dick Scanlan, the stage production of Thoroughly Modern Millie is based upon the 1967 film of the same name starring Julie Andrews.

It is New York City in 1922, a New York full of intrigue and jazz – a time when the rules of love and social behavior were changing forever. Thoroughly Modern Millie tells the story of a small-town girl, Millie Dillmount, in search of a new life for herself. Millie comes to New York City to marry for money instead of love – a thoroughly modern aim in 1922, when women were just entering the workforce. Filled with frisky flappers, dashing leading men, and a dragon-lady of a villainess, Thoroughly Modern Millie is a perfectly constructed evening of madcap merriment.

Sara Burke (Millie) and Stephen Jack (Jimmy Smith) star in this musical romp! Sara made her first musical theatre splash sharing the coveted role of Annie in the Palace’s 2003 production with two other lucky young ladies! Her most recent triumph at the Palace was as Kathy Seldon in the Palace’s hit production of Singin’ in the Rain. Sara has performed all around the Austin area, as well: as Kira/Clio in Xanadu, Wendla in Spring Awakening, Amber in Hairspray, Serena in Legally Blonde, Cathy in Last 5 Years, and Charity in Sweet Charity. Most recently, Sara studied vocal performance with Adam Roberts. She will teach and direct for the Palace’s Theatrical Education Program this summer.

Stephen Jack (Jimmy Smith) has Austin credits that include Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson (Blue Theatre), Standing on Ceremony (ZACH Theatre), I Love You Because (Hyde Park Theatre), Drone (City Theatre), and RENT (ZACH Theatre); his Palace Theatre credits include Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Man of La Mancha, and Big River. Additional credits include numerous galas and season previews for Austin Theatre Project, Penfold Theatre, and ZACH Theatre.

A strong supporting cast includes Melita McAtee as ‘Mrs Meers’ (The Villainess!); Scott Shipman as ‘Mr. Trevor Graydon’; Nikki Bora as ‘Matilda’; Tiffany Blackmon as ‘Miss Dorothy Brown’; Lariena Brown as ‘Muzzy Von Hossmere’; and Samantha Watson as ‘Miss Flannery’!

David Sray, who has both acting and directing recognition at the Palace, directs Millie. David’s Palace acting credits include Carl-Magnus in A Little Night Music, Edward Rutledge in 1776, and Curly in Oklahoma!; plus a B. Iden Payne Outstanding Cast Award-winning Austin performance in I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change. Palace directing credits include I Hate Hamlet, Big River: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and Cheaper by the Dozen. David has the inimitable support of Clifford Butler for music direction and Jesee Smart for choreography.

Thoroughly Modern Millie plays at the Palace on weekends from May 17 to June 16. Actual production dates are May 17-19, 24-26, 31-June 2, June 7-9, and 14-16. Friday and Saturday shows are at 7:30 p.m.; Sunday shows are at 2:00 p.m. Ticket prices are $24 General Admission, $22 Seniors (55+), $14 Students (10-22) and Active Military, and $10 Children (9 and younger). Rated for General Audiences 

The Palace seats about 295, with reserved seating paid for in the ticket price. The Palace office in the lobby of the theatre is open Monday through Friday from 10:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. (except for some holiday dates). Purchase tickets and select seating on-line at www.georgetownpalace.com or by calling (512) 869-7469 or (512) 869-5081. (Please call ahead regarding special needs seating.) 


Visa, Master Card, and Discover Card are accepted.

The Historic Palace Theatre is located at 810 South Austin Avenue in downtown Georgetown and is part of the most beautiful Town Square in Texas!


(Click to go to the AustinLiveTheatre front page)

Upcoming: The Last Five Years by Jason Robert Brown, Theatre at the J, June 16 and 17

Theatre at the J

(image via www.shalomaustin.org/theatreatthej)

presents

The Last Five Years

by Jason Robert Brown

directed by Adam Roberts
featuring Sara Burke and Eric Ferguson
media by Andrew Segovia

Saturday, June 16th at 8 PM, Sunday June 17th at 3 PM

Smith Auditorium at Congregation Beth Israel, 3901 Shoal Creek Boulevard (click for map)

 $25 General Admission/$20 for JCC Members, Students with college ID and Seniors 65+. 

Order our tickets now at https://shalomaustin.org/theateratthej#tickets.

Theater at the J presents this contemporary musical by Jason Robert Brown that chronicles the five-year life of a marriage. The show is an intensely personal look at the relationship between a writer and an actress, told from both points of view. Due to strong language and mature content, it is not recommended for young children.

Singing in the Rain, Georgetown Palace Theatre, February 24 - March 25

by Michael Meigs

Gotta sing! Gotta dance!

Those could be the rallying cries for the Georgetown Palace Theatre. Under the years of Mary Ellen Butler's artistic direction, this community institution in the elegantly refurbished movie house off the courthouse square sees very little down time, given its eight-show season and its classes for adults and for young people. The staff and the unpaid actors and tech folk send familiar musicals and plays, down the chutes one after another to their loyal and enthusiastic weekend audiences.

Singing in the Rain, the 1952 musical film from MGM, has been an enduring success, a work that was one of the last and finest examples of the the American film studio tradition of musical cinema. That art form originated with Al Jolson's The Jazz Singer, the very first nationally distributed "talkie," flourished through the 1930's and 1940's with Arthur Freed, Vincente Minelli and others, and then died away in the mid-1950's. Just as the talkies had put an end to vaudeville, the new medium of television drained away much of the audience for studio musicals. The standardization of network broadcasting in full color was a factor in families' decisions to stay home in the living room almost every weekend rather than to attend movie houses such as the Georgetown Palace. Hollywood continued to produce musical films but they were expensive spectaculars such as West Side Story or adaptations of Broadway shows such as The Sound of Music. Almost none had the assembly line directness and simplicity of the Gene Kelly - Debbie Reynolds - Donald O'Connor vehicle.

In 1974 Tinseltown put together the nostalgic anthology film That's Entertainment, a low-cost assemblage from the MGM library directed by Jack Haley, Jr., featuring narration by recognizable ageing stars including Astaire, Kelly and Bing Crosby. It was such a success that the studio got Kelly to direct and narrate That's Entertainment II just two years later. By that time a more truthful title might have been That Was Entertainment.

So it's a special pleasure to see this accomplished live theatre production of Singing in the Rain take place at the re-glorified palace where it surely must have played 60 years ago. And to be entertained within it by Rich Simms' full-screen video re-creation of a 1920's swashbuckling black-and-white silent film in the best wild old style.

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Man of La Mancha, Georgetown Palace, October 2 - November 1

The Georgetown Palace production of Man of La Mancha starts out moody, atmospheric and harsh, and it comes surging beautifully through that dark, difficult second act.

The Inquisition is awaiting in the darkness above, and Cervantes is storytelling to save his life and possessions from the thieves and murderers who surround him. In Cervantes' fantastical tale of the deranged Alonso Quijana, that Knight of the Woeful Countenance has lost it. The knight's beloved Dulcinea--Aldonza the prostitute and scullery maid--has been gang raped, and he doesn't know it.

Dulcinea curses Quijana for his foolishness and his misguided belief that life contains any hope at all.

Then, in the filth and stink both of the prison before us and of the misadventures of his quest, Joe Penrod as Cervantes/Quijana/Quijote replies with The Impossible Dream:

To dream the impossible dream;
To fight the unbeatable foe;
To bear with unbearable sorrow,
To run where the brave dare not go.

To right the unrightable wrong;
To be better far than you are;
To try when your arms are too weary
To reach the unreachable star . . . .

It's an exalting and inspired moment, one that squeezes the heart and puts into you the dizzy hope of beauty, meaning and peace.

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .