Shout! Celebrates the 60s at TLP
Mount Carroll?The summer season at Timber Lake Playhouse comes to a close with Shout! The Mod Musical, opening Thursday, August 14 and performing through Sunday, August 24. This "swinging sixties sensation" features TLP favorites Daryn Harrell, Allison Hunt, Caroline Murrah, Lexie Plath and Melissa Weyn performing songs made famous by Petula Clark, Dusty Springfield, Nancy Sinatra and more.
Featuring terrific new arrangements of such classics as "Those Were The Days," "To Sir With Love," "Downtown," "Son of a Preacher Man," "Goldfinger," and the title song, Shout! The Mod Musical follows five women through Swinging London. With a shimmy and shake, the songs are tied together by hilarious sound bites from the period -- from 60s advertisements from face creams to The Pill, to letters answered by an advice columnist who thinks every problem can be solved with a "fetching new hair style and a new shade of lipstick."
The cast includes some of the best talent TLP has had in the last several years. Daryn Harrell (Sweet Charity, Children of Eden) returns after spending the last two years working with Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines. Allison Hunt won the heart of the audience and "the monster" in Young Frankenstein. Caroline Murrah brought her gorgeous voice and charms to all six of TLP's mainstage shows this year. Lexie Plath is completing her second full summer, and Melissa Weyn is back after blowing audiences away as the narrator in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.
Courtney Crouse, who helmed last year's hit 'SWonderful, directs the show, with musical staging by James Beaudry. While the show takes a lighthearted look at the 1960s, it includes some discussion of the sexual revolution, so parental discretion is advised.
Shout! The Mod Musical performs Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings at 7:30. There is a Saturday matinee at 3:00 p.m. on August 16, Sunday matinees at 2:00 p.m. on August 17 and 24, and a Wednesday matinee at 2:00 p.m. on August 20. Tickets are $17-$23. This program is partially sponsored by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency, with federal funds from the National Endowment for the Arts.
To purchase tickets, visit www.timberlakeplayhouse.org or contact the TLP box office. The box office is open daily 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. through August 24.
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Timber Lake Playhouse Announces 2015 Summer Season
Mount Carroll?Timber Lake Playhouse, the professional summer theatre of Northwest Illinois, and Executive Director James Beaudry announced their 54th consecutive summer season for 2015 at on July 19th. The theatre company, which has over 20,000 visitors annually, announced a lineup of six mainstage shows. Two productions for young people will be announced shortly.
The season will be begin June 4, 2015 with the musical Hairspray. Winner of 8 Tony Awards including Best Musical, Hairspray is a family-friendly musical piled bouffant high with laughter, romance, and deliriously tuneful songs. It's 1962 in Baltimore, and the lovable plus-size teen Tracy Turnblad has only one desire?to dance on the popular Corny Collins Show. When her dream comes true, Tracy is transformed from social outcast to sudden star, using her newfound power to dethrone the reigning teen queen, win the affections of heartthrob Link Larkin, and integrate a TV network, all without denting her 'do.
Following Hairspray, is a big-hearted new play called The Big Meal, which premiered in Chicago in 2011 and tells the extraordinary story of an ordinary family. Somewhere in America, in a typical suburban restaurant on a typical night, Sam and Nicole first meet. Sparks fly. And so begins an expansive tale that traverses five generations of a modern family, from first kiss to final goodbye. Though it premiered in 2011, The Big Meal already feels like a classic. In the spirit of Thornton Wilder's plays (Our Town, The Long Christmas Dinner), The Big Meal is humorous, human and ambitious. Pulitzer Prize Winner Annie Baker recently called it "The greatest play ever written."
In July, for the first time ever, TLP will present the Broadway musical Peter Pan. Since 1955, when Mary Martin first took to the air as Peter, the show has become a must-see classic around the world. Beloved by generations, the playhouse will offer additional matinees of the productions to accommodate families.
The fourth show and second play of the season is Greater Tuna, the hilarious comedy about the third smallest town in Texas, where the Lion's Club is too liberal and Patsy Cline never dies. The eclectic band of citizens that make up this town are portrayed by only two performers, making this send-up of life in rural America even more delightful as they depict all of the inhabitants of Tuna -- men, women, children and animals. The action takes place in the early Eighties, though nothing in Tuna has changed since then, anyway.
In 2003, film director Tim Burton transformed the novel Big Fish into a beloved film starring Albert Finney, Ewan McGregor and Jessica Lange. Last year, the story was turned in a glorious new Broadway musical. TLP will present the area premiere of this show in a special production starring long time TLP favorite Karl Hamilton (last seen as Rev. Moore in Footloose) and Elizabeth Haley (who starred as his wife, Vi Moore). The two are also married in real life.
Big Fish tells the story of Edward Bloom, a traveling salesman whose incredible, larger-than-life stories thrill everyone around him - most of all, his adoring wife Sandra. But their son Will is determined to find the truth behind his father's fantastic tales. Overflowing with heart, humor and spectacular stage magic as Edward's stories come to life, it is an extraordinary new musical that reminds us why we love going to the theatre - for an experience richer, funnier and bigger than life itself. Executive Director James Beaudry, who brought his inventive style to Joseph and The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, directs and choreographs.
The final production of the 2015 season will be Roger Miller's Big River: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Propelled by an award winning score from Roger Miller, the king of country music, this journey down the mighty Mississippi provides a brilliantly theatrical celebration of pure Americana. Twain's timeless classic is played out by actor-musicians to the sound of country and bluegrass as irrepressible Huck Finn helps his friend Jim, a slave, escape to freedom. Their adventures are hilarious, suspenseful and heartwarming, bringing to life our favorite characters from the novel.
Subscribers may reserve advance tickets to all six productions immediately. Tickets for individual shows will go on sale in 2015. Gold series subscriptions are $105 (30% off the individual ticket price), and are available through Labor Day only. Silver series subscriptions are $119 (20% off the individual ticket price) and will be available following Labor Day.
Audition opportunities for area teens and kids will be announced in March.
To purchase a subscription, visit www.timberlakeplayhouse.org or contact the TLP box office. The box office is open daily 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. through August 24.
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