EAST HADDAM, CONN.: Goodspeed Musicals has announced its 2015 season. Its mainstage will host the world premiere of a musical adaptation of The Honeymooners, as well as revivals of two classics.
In addition, Goodspeed will also produce three works at their Norma Terris Theatre (located in nearby Chester, Conn.), dedicated exclusively to world premiere musicals.
The 2015 season will kick off at the mainstage Opera House with Frank Loesser’s gamblers-and-missionaries romance Guys and Dolls (April 10–June 20), to be directed by Don Stephenson, the husband of the composer’s daughter, Emily Loesser.
The opening production at the Norma Terris Theatre will be The Theory of Relativity (May 7–31), which was a Goodspeed Festival favorite when it was given a reading at the 2014 Festival of New Musicals. Described as “A Chorus Line for millennials,” this story of the ups and downs of the human experience features music and lyrics by Neil Bartram and book by Brian Hill; Hill will also direct.
Next at the Opera House will be Jerry Herman and Harvey Fierstein’s drag comedy La Cage aux Folles (June 26–Sept. 6). It will be directed by Rob Ruggiero.
The life and work of artist Toulouse-Lautrec is the subject of My Paris (July 23–Aug 16), the next show in the Terris. The show will be directed by Tony–winning director/choreographer Katheen Marshall. Music and lyrics are by French singer/songwriter Charles Aznavour, with a book by Alfred Uhry and English lyrics by Jason Robert Brown.
The final show at the Opera House will be a musical treatment of the 1950s sitcom The Honeymooners (Sept. 18–Nov. 29). The show was previously slated to play at San Diego’s Old Globe last year, but was canceled after reported scheduling conflicts. Honeymooners will be directed by Tony winner John Rando, with a book by Dusty Kay and Bill Nuss, music by Stephen Weiner and lyrics by Peter Mills.
Closing out the Norma Terris season will be Indian Joe (Oct. 22–Nov. 15, 2015), the story of a developing friendship between a homeless Native American and a Texas beauty queen. It will be directed by Kim Weild, and features music and lyrics by Elizabeth A. Davis, and book by Davis and Christine Henry.
Goodspeed musicals was founded in 1963 as a professional musical theatre. It has produced over 250 musicals, 72 of them world premieres. It also hosts an annual festival of new musicals.
*UPDATE: The previously announced run of Honeymooners at Goodspeed has been cancelled; the musical will instead head straight to Broadway (a date and theatre has not been announced). The replacement for the mainstage slot will be a musical adaptation of the Frank Capra film It’s a Wonderful Life, with book and lyrics by Tony-, Grammy- and Pulitzer-winner Sheldon Harnick (Fiddler on the Roof) and music by Grammy- and Emmy-winner Joe Raposo (Sesame Street).
