Middletown Lyric Theatre is excited to announce the cast and creative team for our September 2014, production of SIDE BY SIDE BY SONDHEIM.
Directed by Charley Shafor
Music directed by Julia Abanto-Bethune
For more information visit www.middletownlyric.org
Filed under Cast list
All auditions to be held at
Middletown Lyric Theater
1530 Central Avenue
Middletown, Ohio 45044
513-425-7140
SIDE BY SIDE BY SONDHEIM
Music by Stephen Sondheim and Leonard Bernstein and Jule Styne and Richard Rodgers and Mary Rodgers
Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
Continuity by Ned Sherrin
Directed by Charley Shafor
Vocal Direction Julia Abanto Bethune
Pianist Jay Mills
About the Show:
This dazzling array of some of Sondheim’s best-known songs features numbers from landmark shows that revolutionized the musical theatre with their masterful craft and astounding creativity: COMPANY, FOLLIES, A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC, A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM, ANYONE CAN WHISTLE and PACIFIC OVERTURES, not to mention the classics written with musical theatre giants Leonard Bernstein, Jule Styne and Richard Rodgers, WEST SIDE STORY, GYPSY, and DO I HEAR A WALTZ?
Performance Dates: September 19, 20, 26 & 27 2014
Audition Dates: Sunday, June 8, 4pm -5:30pm, Monday & Tuesday, June 9 & 10 7pm – 8:30pm
Those auditioning may arrive at any time during the designated audition hours.
Audition Requirements: Please prepare a Broadway style up-tempo as well as a ballad
Casting Needs:
Vocal Ranges are:
Gas Stipends are possible for those travelling more than 40 miles roundtrip from the theatre.
Filed under Auditions
COMEDY TONIGHT: An Evening with Durang and Ives
Presented by Middletown Lyric Theatre
May 30-June 7
Middletown
Directed by Michael Schlotterbeck & Charley Shafor
FOR WHOM THE SOUTHERN BELLE TOLLS
In this parody of THE GLASS MENAGERIE, the fading Southern belle, Amanda, tries to prepare her hyper-sensitive, hypochondriacal son, Lawrence, for “the feminine caller.” Terrified of people, Lawrence plays with his collection of glass cocktail stirrers. Ginny, the feminine caller, is hard of hearing and overbearingly friendly. Brother Tom wants to go the movies, where he keeps meeting sailors who need to be put up in his room. Amanda tries to face everything with “charm and vivacity,” but sometimes she just wants to hit somebody.
TIME FLIES
Two lonely but sweet young mayflies meet at a pond and really hit it off. Unfortunately, Horace and May watch a nature program on this first night out and discover they have a lifespan of only one day—and their lives are half over.
VARIATIONS ON THE DEATH OF TROTSKY
Shows us the Russian revolutionary on the day of his demise, desperately trying to cope with the mountain-climber’s axe he’s discovered in his head.
UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE
Brings together Dawn, a young woman with a stutter, and Don, the creator and teacher of Unamunda, a wild comic language. Their lesson sends them off into a dazzling display of hysterical verbal pyrotechnics—and, of course, true love.
THE ACTORS NIGHTMARE
Having casually wandered onstage, George is informed that one of the actors, Eddie, has been in an auto accident and he must replace him immediately. Apparently no one is sure of what play is being performed but George (costumed as Hamlet) seems to find himself in the middle of a scene from Private Lives, surrounded by such luminaries as Sarah Siddons, Dame Ellen Terry and Henry Irving. As he fumbles through one missed cue after another the other actors shift to Hamlet, then a play by Samuel Beckett, and then a climactic scene from what might well be A Man for All Seasons—by which time the disconcerted George has lost all sense of contact with his fellow performers. Yet, in the closing moments of the play, he rises to the occasion and finally says the right lines, whereupon make-believe suddenly gives way to reality as the executioner’s axe (meant for Sir Thomas Moore) instead sends poor George to oblivion—denying him a well-earned curtain call.
Filed under On Stage
MIDDLETOWN LYRIC THEATRE
2014-2015 SEASON
September 19, 20, 26 & 27 Auditions: June 8, 9 & 10
SIDE BY SIDE BY SONDHEIM – Music by Stephen Sondheim and Leonard Bernstein and Jule Styne and Richard Rodgers and Mary Rodgers Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim Continuity by Ned Sherrin
DIRECTED BY: Charley Shafor
VOCAL DIRECTION: Julia Abanto-Bethune
PIANIST: Jay Mills
This dazzling array of some of Sondheim’s best-known songs features numbers from landmark shows that revolutionized the musical theatre with their masterful craft and astounding creativity
October 24, 25, 31 & November 1 Auditions: July 14, 15 & 16
BEAUTY QUEEN OF LEENANE – By: Martin McDonagh
DIRECTED BY: TBA
Tells the darkly comic tale of Maureen Folan, a plain and lonely woman, and Mag, her manipulative aging mother, whose interference in Maureen’s first and possibly final chance of a loving relationship sets in motion a train of events that leads inexorably towards the play’s terrifying dénouement.
December 5, 6, 12 &13 Auditions: August 11, 12 & 13
THE LAST NIGHT OF BALLYHOO – By: Alfred Uhry
DIRECTED BY: Charley Shafor
We’re in Atlanta, Georgia, in December of 1939. Gone with the Wind is having its world premiere, and Hitler is invading Poland, but Atlanta’s elitist German Jews are much more concerned with who is going to Ballyhoo, the social event of the season. Especially concerned is the Freitag family. The family gets pulled apart and then mended together with plenty of comedy, romance and revelations along the way.
March 6, 7, 13 &14 Auditions: November 2, 3 & 4
PICASSO AT LAPINE AGILE – By: Steve Martin
DIRECTED BY: Nathan Greer
This long running Off-Broadway absurdist comedy places Albert Einstein and Pablo Picasso in a Parisian cafe in 1904, just before the renowned scientist transformed physics with his theory of relativity and the celebrated painter set the art world afire with cubism. The show plays fast and loose with fact, fame and fortune as these two geniuses muse on the century’s achievements and prospects as well as other fanciful topics with infectious dizziness.
April 17, 18, 24 & 25 Auditions: January 5, 6 & 7
FORBIDDEN BROADWAYS: GREATEST HITS – Created by Gerard Alessandrini
DIRECTED BY: Ryan Heinrich
VOCAL DIRECTION: Ryan Heinrich
In this long-running Off-Broadway hit musical revue, Broadway’s greatest musical legends meet Broadway’s greatest satirist in this hilarious, loving, and endlessly entertaining tribute to some of the theatre’s greatest stars and songwriters.
May 29, 30 & June 5, 6 Auditions: February 15, 16 & 17
NOVEMBER – By: David Mamet
DIRECTED BY: Claire LaNicca
It’s a Presidential election year, and incumbent Charles Smith’s chances for reelection are looking grim. Approval ratings are down, his money’s running out, and nuclear war might be imminent. Though his staff has thrown in the towel and his wife has begun to prepare for her post-White House life, Chuck isn’t ready to give up just yet. November is a scathingly hilarious take on the state of America today and the lengths to which people will go to win. (this play does contain strong adult language)
Filed under Press Releases, Season Announcements
Middletown Lyric Theatre announces a change in the season:
PAINTING CHURCHES by Tina How scheduled to be the final production of the MLT season is being replaced with:
COMEDY TONIGHT: AN EVENING OF FARCE directed by Michael Schlotterbeck & Charley Shafor
The evening will include short plays written by Christopher Durang & David Ives. Scheduled are:
The show runs: May 30, 31 & June 6 & 7, 2014
Filed under Press Releases
Behind the Curtain Cincinnati 