We've cast all three mainstage shows and we are so happy with the amazing people we get to work with this season! We're also very happy that all three casts are very diverse and entirely local, and a lot of our actors this season will be working with us for the first time. We love that. And a few of our actors who have only done ensemble or secondary roles with us are stepping up to leads! All our designers are returning for this season, Nic Valdez is returning as music director, and Michelle Sauer and Sara Rae Womack are returning as choreographers, after their exceptional work on Anything Goes, La Cage aux Folles, and Be More Chill.
We are going to kick some serious musical theatre ass.
And by the way, you can still buy season tickets that include all three mainstage musicals, Cry-Baby, Head Over Heels, and Urinetown, for as low as $60! Just click here. The deadline is Sept. 2.
And if all of that isn't enough, we'll also be starting up the Off Line Cabaret Series at the Monocle again, after a short hiatus. We're not quite ready to announce the New Liners who will take the Monocle stage this season, but we'll let you know soon. You won't want to miss any of them!
Our season ticket sales have been great so far, including a lot of new subscribers! (I really do use italics too much.) But for anybody on the fence about subscribing, I thought it would be fun to take a (virtual) stroll through our upcoming season, and give you the inside scoop on everything we've got planned...
Friday the 13th: The Trivia Night, Sept. 13, Richmond Heights Community Center
Don't worry, you won't have to know the famous slasher movie to have a good time, and we promise all the questions won't be about horror. But when we saw we could do this on Friday the 13th, we couldn't resist. You can expect lots of prizes, raffles, Mulligans, a costume contest, the whole nine yards. The evening will be hosted by Trivia Master (and occasional New Line orchestrator) John Gerdes and his wife Lea, both of whom have played in the New Line band! A bunch of your favorite New Liners will be there, too, so come join the freaky fun and help us raise some seed money for the season!
For more info, click here.
Back in 2008, this smart, hilarious show died an ignominious New York death at the hands of a clueless Broadway director. But in 2011, I sought out the writers and asked them if I could see the script and score. Both are wickedly funny incredibly smart, and extremely well-crafted. So we literally brought the show back to life in 2012. The writing team paid to have new orchestrations created for us, to at last give the show the sound of a six-piece rock band, which is what they had wanted (but couldn't get) on Broadway. We got rave reviews, we sold out most of the run, a couple of the writers flew in to see us, and now, other companies are producing it around the country. New Line to the rescue once again! If you saw New Line's Cry-Baby in 2012, you know you want to see it again. If you didn't, you really have to, if only for "Girl, Can I Kiss You With Tongue?"...
For more info, click here.
Cry-Baby (the film), Weds. Oct. 9, Marcelle Theater
The New Line Theatre Film Series kicks off with John Waters' original Cry-Baby movie with Johnny Depp. If you haven't seen the movie, it's really wonderful, so crazy but so big-hearted. And it will be really interesting to see both the stage musical and the film, which are fairly different from each other. Tickets for our film series will be available only at the door, and just $10. How can you beat that?
For more info, click here.
The Annual New Line Holiday Dinner, Dec. 4, Favazza's Restaurant
This is nothing formal, just an excuse for all the New Liners to get together once a year, reconnect, and have some fun, some drinks, and some dinner. But our audience, our donors, our subscribers, etc., are all very welcome to join us!
For more info, click here.
After the huge success of The Zombies of Penzance, I thought, why not impose even more indignities on poor Gilbert & Sullivan! So I "discovered" yet another "lost" G&S opera, this time based on the ancient Greek tragedy Oedipus the King -- you know the one where he marries his mother and murders his father, and everybody ends up dead or disfigured. As I did with Zombies, I thought, what would be the most inappropriate, most ill-fitting story to turn into a comic light opera? The obvious answer was Oedipus. Even after working on it for a year, I still find myself giggling just looking at the song titles -- “I Can See Now I Was Blind,” “Now This is Quite Awkward,” “So Our King Just Might Have Murdered Our Last King,” “He Hasn’t Taken It Too Well”... you get the idea. Two years ago, we had 150 people show up for the Zombies reading, and it was incredibly helpful to me. So come join us in January. I promise you'll have fun. BTW, it's pretty R-rated.
For more info, click here.
This is another of those shows (like Cry-Baby) that got decidedly mixed reviews in New York and didn't last long. But as soon as I heard the premise -- a subversive comic novel from 1580 set to the songs of the Go-Go's -- I thought, this sounds New Liney! So I got the script and score, and sure enough, it's really smart, wild, insightful, hilarious, and endlessly surprising, and maybe the biggest surprise of all, the 1580s and the 1980s both have a lot to say about Right Now. It's mind-blowing how NOW this show feels! Plus, if that's not enticing enough, this will be the most choreography we've ever had in a show -- in fact, we've doubled our usual number of choreography rehearsals. Our actors may keel over, but you will love this.
For more info, click here.
Absolute Beginners, Weds. March 18, Marcelle Theater
Our film series continues in March with one of my favorite movie musicals of all time, a very dark but incredibly entertaining rock and roll fable set in late 1950s London, with an amazing, eclectic score by David Bowie, Sade, Ray Davies, and other songwriters. I think it's fair to say that without Absolute Beginners, there might not be a Moulin Rouge or Greatest Showman. It really did create a whole new rule book for movie musicals, back in 1986. It's truly like nothing else you've ever seen. And its themes of teenage sexuality, race, pop culture, and music are a perfect match for Head Over Heels.
For more info, click here.
I first saw this show in 2001, right after it moved to Broadway, and I fell in love with it -- so subversive, so funny, so outrageous -- and yet also really harrowing and intense! It's about politics, big business, populist movements, the environment, economic justice, and lots more, but all in this ridiculous hyper-serious style. We first produced this show back in 2007 at the ArtLoft, using the entire theatre space as our playground, and we've been waiting to get back into a blackbox theatre again, so we could bring that inspired lunacy back again. And here we are...
For more info, click here.
Mack the Knife, Weds. June 17, Marcelle Theater
Our film series closes in June with a very rare film. There are three movie versions of The Threepenny Opera, and the first two suck. But this one, Mack the Knife, is imperfect but awfully good. Though it does cut a couple songs, it's about as close to Brecht's original style and ideas as any movie's gonna get. And the cast rocks -- Raul Julia as Mack, Richard Harris, Julie Waters. Roger Daltry, Clive Revill, Julia Migenes... The film has never been released on DVD, so this might be your only chance to ever see it...
For more info, click here.
And can you believe it, we're already talking about shows for our 30th season!
The New Liners invite you to join us this season and share all of this mad, wonderful art. We're going to have so much fun. We've been selling out a lot recently, so it's time to order your season tickets! You know you want to... Just click here!
It's going to be a crazy busy year for me, but I can't wait to share it all with you!
Long Live the Musical!
Scott
P.S. Since we're starting a new season...
Remember to go to Smile.Amazon.com when you shop at Amazon, and pick New Line as your charity; then New Line will get a small donation every time you buy something!
Meanwhile, check out this terrific RFT feature story about New Line.
Also, check out this American Theatre article about New Line.
And check out this video of the New Liners talking about our company.
To order New Line season tickets, just click here.
To make a tax-deductible contribution to New Line, click here.
For more about New Line, go to www.newlinetheatre.com
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