AUSTIN, TEX.: Governor Ann Richards will return to the government seat in Texas, theatrically at least. ZACH Theatre announced its 2015–16 season today, which will include classic musicals, new plays and one-woman show Ann, about the late Texas governor.
The season will open with Evita, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s musical about the former First Lady of Argentina. The production will be under the musical director of Allen Robertson.
Next will be Nina Raine’s Tribes, about Billy, the only deaf member of his family, who meets a young woman on the brink of losing her hearing. Russell Harvard, a deaf actor and Austin native who acted in the original Off-Broadway production of Tribes, will reprise his role as Billy, alongside Austin-based actress Lauren Lane.
The Tony-winning comedy One Man, Two Guvnors by Richard Bean will follow. The show follows a manservant who tries to keep his two employers, both criminals, from finding out the nature of his dual employment. Associate artistic director Abe Reybold will direct.
Director Benjamin Endsley Klein will helm Ann, a one-woman show about the late Texas governor, which Klein previously collaborated on with Emmy-winning actor Holland Taylor for productions at the Kennedy Center and Lincoln Center Theater.
Closing out the season during summer 2016 will be Disney and Cameron Mackintosh’s production of Mary Poppins, based on the 1964 film, and the earlier P.L. Travers books, about a magical and “practically perfect” nanny.
In addition to the mainstage productions, ZACH will also mount two holiday shows. First will be A Christmas Carol: A Rockin’ Musical, a contemporary adaptation of Charles Dickens’s tale created and directed by Dave Steakley, with musical direction by Robertson. Following will be The Santaland Diaries, adapted for the stage by Joe Mantello, and directed by associate artistic director Reybold. The show is based on David Sedaris’s short story about working as a Christmas elf at a Macy’s.
