PHOENIX, ARIZ.: Phoenix Theatre has announced its musical-filled 2017-18 season, featuring eight shows.
The season will begin with Mamma Mia! (Sept. 6-Oct. 15), the feel-good musical about a mother, a daughter, and three possible fathers told through the music of ABBA.
Following will be a show that will be announced at a later date (Sept. 20-Oct. 8).
For the holidays will be Newsies (Nov. 15-Dec. 31), the Disney musical inspired by the newsboys’ strike of 1899 and based on the 1992 film of the same name.
Up next will be Terrence McNally’s It’s Only a Play (Jan. 24-Feb. 11, 2018), a comedy about a playwright and the unlikely group of theatre folk anxiously awaiting the late-night newspaper reviews of his new play.
Following will be The Boob Show (Feb. 14-March 4, 2018), written by Phoenix artists Sally Jo Bannow and Craig Bohmler. Having appeared at Phoenix Theatre’s Festival of New Plays and Musicals, this will be the world premiere of the uplifting, comedic musical that celebrates women—and their bodies—through song.
Next up will be Million Dollar Quartet (March 7-April 8, 2018), which imagines the now-legendary 1956 recording session of Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, and Jerry Lee Lewis, and features renditions of such songs as “Blue Suede Shoes,” “Great Balls of Fire,” “Walk the Line,” and “Hound Dog.”
After that will be Stephen Schwartz and John-Michael Tebelak’s musical Godspell (April 18–May 13, 2018), based on the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament.
The final show of the season will be the cult-classic sci-fi musical Little Shop of Horrors (May 16-June 10, 2018) about nerdy floral clerk Seymour and the foul-mouthed singing plant that could either help him win the girl of his dreams or ruin his life.
Founded as the Phoenix Players in 1920 and renamed in 1981, Phoenix Theatre is the largest producing regional theatre company in Arizona, offering performances on multiple stages as well as outreach programs.
