BRUNSWICK — Tickets for Maine State Music Theatre’s summer season will go on sale to the public at 9 a.m. Wednesday, April 24.
The 2019 main stage series season will start off June 5 to 22 with the production of Duke Ellington’s “Sophisticated Ladies.” The show is a tap-dance celebration of the jazz legend Duke Ellington, with the hits “Take the ‘A’ Train,” “I Got It Bad and That Ain’t Good,” “It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing)” and the title song, “Sophisticated Ladies.”
Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic tale comes to musical life with “Treasure Island” from June 26 to July 13. This swashbuckling, high seas journey is set to a majestic and exhilarating score. This new version of the show was created by MSMT Artistic Director Curt Dale Clark and well-known director Marc Robin.
The cast of MSMT’s production, “Treasure Island.” (Photo by Kinectiv)
The blockbuster Broadway hit “Hello Dolly! will run July 17 to Aug. 3, with humor, romance, high-energy dancing and some of the greatest songs in musical theater history. The musical follows the romantic and comic exploits of Dolly Gallagher Levi, a strong-willed matchmaker (played by MSMT favorite Charis Leos).The show’s memorable songs include “Put on Your Sunday Clothes,” “Ribbons Down My Back,” “Before the Parade Passes By,” “Hello, Dolly!,” “Elegance” and “It Only Takes a Moment.”
“The Wizard of Oz” will twist its way to the main stage Aug. 7 to 24. The entire family will delight in lavish costumes, spectacular sets and the songs, “Over the Rainbow,” “Munchkinland (Ding Dong! The Witch Is Dead),” “If I Only Had a Brain/a Heart/the Nerve,” “We’re Off to See the Wizard (Follow the Yellow Brick Road)” and “The Merry Old Land of Oz.”
The Monday Performance Series starts with “Walkin’ the Line: A Tribute to Johnny Cash” on June 17. Maine native, Scott Moreau, who starred as Johnny Cash in last season’s “Million Dollar Quartet,” relives the amazing songs of Johnny Cash in this electrifying tribute to the Man in Black.
“Lettin’ the Good Times Roll,” a cabaret concert with epic stage divas E. Faye Butler, Oda Mae Brown in MSMT’s “Ghost,” and Felicia P. Fields, a Tony-nominated Broadway star, will be next on July 1. The show is an electrifying evening of jazz, blues, gospel and show tunes presented in the way that only these two award winning, powerhouse performers know-how.
The third in the series is “The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber,” the Oscar-, Grammy- and Tony-winning legend and composer of some of the world’s best-known musicals on July 29. The show includes much loved standards from “Phantom of the Opera,” “Cats,” “Evita,” “Jesus Christ Superstar,” “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” and “Sunset Boulevard.”
The Theatre for Young Audiences series includes a modern retelling of the legend originally published by the Brothers Grimm in Robin and Clark’s “Snow White” on June 12 and 15. Next will be three little superstar piglets, their devoted single-parent mum, a misunderstood big bad wolf and the perfect “Great Big Little Broadway Show” for young audiences in Stiles and Drewe’s “Three Little Pigs” on July 8. Last will be an original take on the classic Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale in Robin and Clark’s “The Little Mermaid” on Aug. 19.
The off-season box office is located at 22 Elm St. until May 28, when it moves to the Pickard Theater on the Bowdoin College Campus. All of MSMT’s summer performances take place at the Pickard Theater on the campus of Bowdoin College, 1 Bath Road.
For more information and to buy tickets for the 2019 season, visit www.msmt.org or call the box office at 207-725-8769.
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