The University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music will celebrate the songs of composer Stephen Flaherty and lyricist Lynn Ahrens July 7-Aug. 18, when it presents We Tell the Story, a revue of tunes by the Tony Award winning team.
The new show, directed by faculty member Richard E. Hess for the respected musical theatre program, will be part of the CCM Hot Summer Nights series of performances in repertory. The series begins July 5 with Jeanine Tesori and Brian Crawley's musical, Violet and continues July 6 with Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill. Performances play in rep to Aug. 18 at the Patricia Corbett Theater.
We Tell the Story: The Songs of Ahrens and Flaherty, created especially for the Hot Summer Nights series, will feature songs from the Tony Award-winning team's Lucky Stiff, Once on This Island, Ragtime, My Favorite Year, Seussical, and the animated picture, "Anastasia." Also expect songs from the in-development shows The Glorious Ones ("I Was Here") and A Man of No Importance ("The Streets of Dublin," "Love Who You Love"). The latter is their next show to premiere, come September, at Lincoln Center Theatre in New York City.
Flaherty is a 1982 alumnus of The University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. He'll be on campus July 10 and appear at a curtain talk with the company after the show. The revue is designed for eight performers — four men and four women. The show is being created a possible future property, a CCM spokesperson told Playbill On-Line. We Tell the Story has the potential to be performed in cabaret spaces of regional theatres everywhere.
The student cast includes Ashley Brown, Julie Kotarides, Leo Nouhan, Geoff Packard, Keldon LaVar Price, Angel Reda, Matt Risch and Jasmin Walker, with Emily Randolph Jones and Brian Sears. Songs in the revue include "At the Beginning"/"We Tell the Story," "Waiting for Life," "It's Possible," "Alone in the Universe," "The Showbiz," "Professional Showbizness Comedy," "Speaking French," "Times Like This," "Larger Than Life," "If the World Were Like the Movies," "The Streets of Dublin," "Shoes," "Love Who You Love," "Journey to the Past," "Our Children," "Ti Moune," "Come Down From the Tree," "Wheels of a Dream," "Mama Will Provide," "Ragtime Vocal Arrangement," "Henry Ford," "What a Game," "New Music," "Sarah Brown Eyes," "Ragtime" (reprise), "Once Upon a December"/"Gliding," "All Those Christmas Cliches," "Goodbye, My Love," "Back to Before," "'Till We Reach That Day," "Make Them Hear You," "I Was Here," "We Tell the Story" (reprise).
For ticket information about Hot Summer Nights at UC CCM in Cincinnati, OH, call (513) 556-4183, noon-6 PM Tuesday Saturday, noon-4 PM Sunday.
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A national tour of Ahrens and Flaherty's revised Seussical, the Musical launches Sept. 17 in Indianapolis.
— By Kenneth Jones
