The disco-pop of Abba, Broadway's now-famous "Girl in the Yellow Dress" and a group of working class guys who take up stripping to pay the bills will prowl the stage of Boston's Colonial Theatre in the 2001-2002 season. Broadway in Boston/SFX Theatrical announced that three major Broadway musicals, Mamma Mia!, The Full Monty and Contact, will headline its 2001-2002 season. Broadway in Boston will also present a musical remake of the 1971 Academy Award-nominated film, Summer of '42, prior to Broadway. The announcement comes on the heels of a season when two of the presenters' three planned pre-Broadway tryouts, The Visit and Little Women, were shelved.
The pre-Broadway tour of the smash London hit, Mamma Mia!, will have them dancing in the aisles of the Colonial Theatre Aug. 16 through Oct. 28, featuring the hit songs of '70s Swedish supergroup Abba, including "Dancing Queen," "Money, Money, Money" and the title song. Mamma Mia! has enjoyed sold out runs in London, San Francisco and Toronto, and will land on Broadway in the fall.
Susan Stroman directs John Wideman's three-part "dance play," Contact, at the Colonial beginning Dec. 26. Contact nabbed the 2000 Tony Award for Best Musical in addition to Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle and Drama League awards. The cast of 24 dancers/actors perform to the music of Rodgers and Hart, Tchaikovsky, the Beach Boys, the Squirrel Nut Zippers and Robert Palmer's "Simply Irresistible."
The Fully Monty takes it all off at the Colonial beginning Jan. 24, 2002. Based on the 1997 Academy Award-nominated sleeper hit, Monty transports the film's three working class stiffs-turned-male strippers from England to the industrial grime of Buffalo. This season's major Broadway smash boasts music and lyrics by David Yazbek and a book by Tony winner Terrence McNally.
Summer of '42, directed by Gabriel Barre with music and lyrics by David Kirshenbaum, is a coming-of-age story about three teenage boys spending their summer vacation on Cape Cod during World War II. The new musical debuted at the Goodspeed Opera House last summer and is set to bow at the Colonial beginning Nov. 13 prior to opening on Broadway. Also slated for Boston next season is Copenhagen, the Tony Award winner for Best Play in 2000, at the Wilbur Theatre beginning Feb. 18; a revival of the classic Rodgers and Hammerstein tuner, South Pacific, at the Colonial beginning Dec. 4. (television film starring Glenn Close and Harry Connick, Jr., is scheduled to air this month); the highly anticipated stage debut of screen star Ann-Margret as hot-headed brothel madam Miss Mona in The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas beginning Apr. 15 at the Colonial; the percussive busking sensation, Stomp, at the Wilbur Theatre beginning Nov. 13; and another collaboration with the Huntington Theatre Company in a production to be announced at the Wilbur in March/April. The two organizations co-presented the one-man comedy Fully Committed at the Wilbur in December.
Huntington artistic director Nicholas Martin recently told The New York Times that he was considering last year’s Broadway musical of James Joyce’s The Dead and his production of Tennesse Williams’ Camino Real for the Huntington stage next season. Martin, however, did not specify whether one of those would be a collaboration with Broadway in Boston. The Huntington's associate artistic director Christopher Wigle said that a decision will be made by the time of the Huntington's season announcement at the end of March.
