DCTC artistic director Donovan Marley selected 11 works, including three Pulitzer Prize-winners and contemporary hits from London and New York, for the new season.
The world-premiere musical, Diner Stories, with book, music and lyrics by Nancy Shayne, opens the season Sept. 4-Oct. 4, at The Stage Theatre in the Denver Center for the Performing Arts complex. Randal Myler (The Immigrant, Love, Janis) directs.
Here's how the work is billed: "Under the bright lights of a neighborhood diner in New York City, an artist takes us on a haunting journey of love, loss, dreams and redemption. On an ordinary day, in a woman's ordinary life, some extraordinary discoveries can happen." Myler has been developing the show for many months and brought the idea to DCTC's Marley, who trusted Myler.
"When a major artist in the company brings something they feel strongly about, that is my major consideration," Marley told Playbill On-Line.
In collaboration with producer Harold Thau, a new production of Almost Heaven, about John Denver's world, using the songs he wrote or made famous, will emerge under Myler's direction. The show is subtitled Songs and Stories of John Denver. The piece is written and adapted by Peter Glazer, with orchestrations and vocal arrangements by Jeff Waxman. Performances play Oct. 2-Nov. 29 at The Ricketson Theatre. "DCTC director and artistic associate Randal Myler brings John Denver back in a brand new production with added songs and a new cast," according to the announcement. Glazer was the original director of the March 28-April 27, 2002, run in Denver. He has a scheduling conflict, so Myler took over. Producer Thau has been hoping to tour the show and aim it to New York since last year.
The Denver Center resident season in 2003-04 also includes Joe Penhall's Blue/Orange; William Inge's Picnic; Kenneth Lonergan's Lobby Hero; A Christmas Carol; Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire (Israel Hicks will direct an all-African-American cast); Jeff Baron's Visiting Mr. Green; Stephen Vincent Benet's John Brown's Body, an adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning narrative poem, directed by Laird Williamson; Noel Coward's Blithe Spirit; The Merchant of Venice.
For information, call (303) 893-4100 or (800) 641-1222 or visit www.denvercenter.org.
