Rubicon Theatre Season Will Feature Ted Neeley in Concert, Private Lives, Hello! My Baby

By Michael Gioia
28 Nov 2011

Ted Neeley
Ted Neeley

Rubicon Theatre Company has announced the full lineup for its 14th season, which began in October with the Charles Ludlam satire The Mystery of Irma Vep, at California's Rubicon Theatre.

Following Irma Vep, Ted Neeley, best known for his performance in the title role in the 1973 film adaptation of Jesus Christ Superstar, will bring his concert to Rubicon beginning Jan. 20, 2012. Ted Neeley and His Little Big Band, which continues through Jan. 29, will feature the singer-songwriter performing blues and country, as well as numbers from rock musicals such as Tommy, Hair and Jesus Christ Superstar.

Nazi Hunter - Simon Wiesenthal, written and performed by Tom Dugan, will play Feb. 18-March 11. The one-man show, directed by Jenny Sullivan, was nominated for three Ovation Awards and follows the story of Wiesenthal. After escaping death at the hands of Hitler's S.S., Wiesenthal devoted his life to bringing war criminals to justice.

Brian McDonald will direct Hello! My Baby, which features a book  and new lyrics by Cheri Steinkellner and new music and arrangements by Georgia Stitt. The musical, running March 24-April 15, is a romantic farce that reboots the music of Irving Berlin, George Gershwin and Jerome Kern. Here's how the show is billed: "Set on the sidewalks of New York in the early nineteen-teens, the charming tale weaves an updated Tin Pan Alley score into the story of streetwise song-sellers, sweatshop-workers, debutantes, gangsters, and Whiffenpoofs as they sing and dance through young love, gender-bending and many ukuleles." Following the run at RTC, Hello! My Baby will play a limited engagement at Santa Barbara's Lobero Theatre April 25-29.

August Wilson's Gem Of the Ocean, directed by James O'Neil, will run May 19-June 10. In Gem Of the Ocean, according to press notes, "young Citizen Barlow arrives at the home of Aunt Ester, a 285-year-old healer who is the keeper of tradition and history for her people. Barlow is in search of redemption, and finds Aunt Ester is not too old to practice healing; she guides him on a soaring, lyrical journey of spiritual awakening aboard the slave ship Gem of the Ocean to the City of Bones, where he must learn about his ancestors and face the truth about himself."

Concluding the season will be Noël Coward's Private Lives, which will run Sept. 8-30 and feature direction by Andrew Barnicle. Winslow Corbett, Joseph Fuqua, Julie Granata and Matthew Floyd Miller will star in the 1930 comedy by Coward, which currently plays a limited engagement on Broadway through Feb. 5, 2012, at the Music Box Theatre.

Also included in RTC's 2011-12 season are the Broadway Cabaret Series, which continues Dec. 10 with the arrival of David Burnham's one-night-only A Broadway Holiday; developmental presentations of "Plays In Progress"; the acclaimed Young Playwright's Festival; and talkback sessions.

The Rubicon Theatre is located at 1006 E. Main Street in Ventura, CA. For more information and tickets, call (805) 667-2900 or visit www.rubicontheatre.org.