Upcoming: Stop The World, I Want to Get Off, Austin Playhouse, April 22 - May 22

Received directly:

presents

Stop the World – I Want to Get Off!

by Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley

directed by Don Toner

April 22 – May 22; Thursday–Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 5 p.m.

Austin Playhouse, Penn Field (behind the water tower), 3601 S. Congress, Bldg. C (click for map)

Tickets $26 Thursday and Friday, $28 Saturday and Sunday, $35 Opening Night

Available at the box office 512.476.0084 or online at: www.austinplayhouse.com

www.austinplayhouse.com and on Facebook and Twitter

Closing out the 2010-2011 Season, Austin Playhouse presents a Bricusse/Newley classic and multiple Tony Award nominated production, a thought-provoking tale about the fleeting nature of worldly success. This beloved musical celebrates its 50^th year in 2011.

Stop the World – I Want to Get Off! is set in a circus and tells the timeless tale of a Littlechap, a clown who conquers the world but loses himself. The story will be told through song, dance, drama, and the artistry of the Austin Playhouse acting company over a one-month run. The show is a boundless, shameless, and humorously entertaining production. Stop the World is about the responsibility we have for our own lives, and how it sometimes feels like the world is spinning out of control and you just want to get off.

Directed by Don Toner, musical direction by Oliver Worthington, and choreography by Danny Herman and Rocker Verastique. The Austin production stars Rick Roemer as Littlechap and Angela Davis as Evie, with an ensemble cast that includes Kimberly Barrow, Rachel Dendy, Hildreth England, Kasey Erin Eggleston, Eedann McCord, Stephanie Ngo-Hatchie, Ann Pittman, Hannah Rose, and Jennifer Blakeney Young.

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

The Fantasticks, Austin Playhouse, May 22 - June 28

The Fantasticks at Austin Playhouse is charming. The reliable, charming low-budget winsome musical that has been charming 'em since its low-budget opening off-Broadway in 1960.

This is the show that smashed the records for long runs -- with a 42-year run by the original production and 17,162 performances. Then a New York City revival that ran 655 performances in 2006-2008 at the Snapple Theatre Center's Jerry Orbach Theatre on 50th Street, paused, then resumed and is still going. You can check out their website with perky piano audio, theatre description, ticket info and pages and pages of press clippings. Regular tickets are $75 (twofers, $112.50) and premium seating tickets are $125, which by comparison makes the Austin Playhouse production a grand bargain.

Wikipedia records that there have been 11,103 U.S. productions in 2000 U.S. cities and towns, as well as more than 700 productions in other countries, including 200 in Canada and 45 in Scandinavia.


What's the secret? There are several:

A comfortable formula (boy meets girl, fathers stage fake abduction, boy saves girl; boy discovers trickery, boy ventures into world, girl falls for cad and is disabused, couple are reunited, now more experienced and wiser).

Simple, memorable melodies and lyrics (Try to Remember, Why Did The Kids Put Beans In Their Ears?, Soon It's Gonna Rain, I Can See It).

The simple staging that evokes a troupe of traveling players. With duos: two lovers, two clownish dads, two actor-clowns. And with a mysterious master-of-ceremonies named "El Gallo" who moves the plot, fakes the abduction, seduces (or almost seduces) the jilted heroine, and exposes the lovers to the world's cruelties.

Click to read more on AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .