Lilli Zarda, executive director, announced a season that will include one world premiere, two Kansas City, MO, premieres, and the return of a stage blockbuster — Menopause the Musical, in summer 2006.
The new season opens Sept. 9 with the Kansas City premiere of Neil Simon's Rose's Dilemma, about a writer and her lover, playing through Oct. 23.
Married Alive! will premiere in spring 2006 (March 3-April 16, 2006), offering audiences a first look at the four-character show about a younger married couple and an older pair who have been through the mill. Book and lyrics are by Sean Grennan and music is by Leah Okimoto.
The show is billed as "a wacky new musical revue" exploring marriage "from Niagara to Viagra" — from "new babies to empty nests, from job stress to domestic bliss."
New Yorker Leah Okimoto has concentrated on musical theatre since graduating from Harvard University. The Genesius Theatre Guild presented an evening of her work in New York City in May 2003. Her family musical, Just So, was recently produced by Open Door Repertory Theatre in Oak Park, IL. New Yorker Sean Grennan is a veteran actor last seen at AHT as the greedy son in the farce Affluenza! His many writing credits include the musical hit Phantom of the Country Opera (published by Music Theatre International), Ms. Cinderella, The Ho Ho Ho Show and Rodeo. In addition, his non-musical comedy Luck! recently won an honorable mention from the National Writer's Association Playwriting Contest and was produced in New York by the Epic Theatre Company.
AHT's new season lineup also includes Alan Janes' Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story, an AHT hit returning after 10 years, Oct. 28, 2005-Jan. 1, 2006; Larry Shue's The Nerd Jan. 13-Feb. 26, 2006; the Kansas City premiere of Mitch Albom's Michigan hit Duck Hunter Shoots Angel April 28-June 11, 2006; Jeanie Linders' Menopause the Musical June 16-Oct. 29, 2006.
For information, visit www.ahtkc.com or call (816) 842-9999.
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The rest of the 2004-05 season includes Swing!, Tuesdays With Morrie and From My Hometown.
