Star-Studded HOOD: THE ROBIN HOOD MUSICAL ADVENTURE at Begins at Dallas Theater Center

2017 Regional Theatre Tony Award Recipient Dallas Theater Center will present the world premiere of Hood: The Robin Hood Musical Adventure, a new musical comedy written and directed by five-time Tony-nominated playwright Douglas Carter Beane with music and lyrics by Lewis Flinn.

Beginning with a Pay-What-You-Can performance tonight, June 29 at 7:30 p.m., the production runs through Sunday, Aug. 6 at the Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre. Press Night will be Friday, July 7 at 8 p.m. Tickets to Hood: The Robin Hood Musical Adventure are on sale now at www.DallasTheaterCenter.org and by phone at (214) 880-0202.

"I'm excited to produce the world premiere of Hood: The Robin Hood Musical Adventure at Dallas Theater Center because of the caliber of artists involved and because this musical will inspire meaningful dialogue in our community about heroism, justice and leadership," said Artistic Director Kevin Moriarty. "I love Hood's glorious songs, dances, puppets, jokes and delightful theatricality. And it's a further joy to welcome back to Dallas Douglas Carter Beane and Lewis Flinn, who wrote the first musical we produced in the Wyly Theatre. Their artistry is matched equally by their humanity."

"Dallas is a town that has great meaning to Lewis, me, and our family, and DTC is our theatrical home. We are thrilled to be back to bring the audience Hood: The Robin Hood Musical Adventure," said Beane. "We all have a need for the stories of Robin Hood because they show us that we have a responsibility to be there for one another. Anyone can be a hero when faced with a tough situation. Our musical adventure will bring you extraordinary music, great humor, wonderful dancing, thrilling performances, jaw dropping puppetry and yes, sword fights and English accents. The original Robin Hood stories remind us that we all have responsibility for our fellow man. I think that moral is always timely, but these days it roars out like a siren! I hope you can all join us for this classic tale of history's renegade hero."

Beane, who re-invented Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella, joins up with Flinn, his collaborator from DTC's wildly popular production of Give it Up that was later re-named Lysistrata Jones for its Broadway run. The dynamic duo return to Dallas to bring a twist on the ancient legend of Robin Hood in Hood: The Robin Hood Musical Adventure. Audiences will learn what makes a hero in this hilarious and stirring world-premiere musical with larger-than-life puppetry and stories of rebellion, hope and love.

Nick Bailey will play Robin Hood alongside Broadway stars Alysha Umphress (Broadway's On the Town) as Meg and Ashley Park (Broadway's Sunday in the Park with George) as Marian.

Completing the cast is Diane and Hal Brierley Resident Acting Company member Tiana Kaye Johnson (Electra, A Christmas Carol 2016, Dreamgirls) as Lady Jane; Billie Aken-Tyers as Much; Ricco Fajardo as Gamble Gold; Ian Ferguson as Alan A'Dale; Austin Scott as Sheriff Of Nottingham; Beth Lipton as Lady Anne; Luke Longacre (Inherit the Wind) as Little John; Chris Ramirez as Friar Tuck and Jacob ben Widmar as Will Scarlett.

The creative team of Hood: The Robin Hood Musical Adventure includes set design by Tony Award-winner John Lee Beatty (MOONSHINE: That Hee Haw Musical), costume design by Gregory Gale, sound design by Tony Award-winner John Shivers (MOONSHINE: That Hee Haw Musical), lighting design by Philip Rosenberg (MOONSHINE: That Hee Haw Musical), choreography by Joseph Pizzi and Robert Bianca, music direction and supervision by Brad Simmons, wig design by Tom Watson and puppet design by James Ortiz and Stefano Brancato.

DTC's Come Early, a pre-show lecture about the play, will take place one hour before every performance and DTC's Stay Late sponsored by Wells Fargo, a post-show discussion led by a member of the cast, will take place after each performance.

Hood: The Robin Hood Musical Adventure is a recipient of an Edgerton Foundation New Play Award. DTC gratefully acknowledges the support of Executive Producing Partner The Brierley Group/Diane and Hal Brierley and Associate Producing Partner Mona and Bill Graue/Graue Family Foundation.

One of the leading regional theaters in the country and the 2017 Regional Theatre Tony Award Recipient, Dallas Theater Center (DTC) performs to an audience of more than 100,000 North Texas residents annually. Founded in 1959, DTC is now a resident company of the AT&T Performing Arts Center and presents its Mainstage season at the Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre, designed by REX/OMA, Joshua Prince-Ramus and Rem Koolhaas and at its original home, the Kalita Humphreys Theater, the only freestanding theater designed and built by Frank Lloyd Wright. DTC is one of only two theaters in Texas that is a member of the League of Resident Theatres, the largest and most prestigious non-profit professional theater association in the country. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Kevin Moriarty and Managing Director Jeffrey Woodward, DTC produces a seven-play subscription series of classics, musicals and new plays and an annual production of A Christmas Carol; extensive education programs, including the National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award-winning Project Discovery, SummerStage and partnerships with Southern Methodist University's Meadows School of the Arts, Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts and South Oak Cliff High School; and community collaboration efforts with the Sixth Floor Museum, the City of Dallas, North Texas Food Bank, the Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas Public Library, Dallas Holocaust Museum, Dallas Opera, Dallas Black Dance Theatre, and leading the DFW Foote Festival. In 2017, DTC launched Public Works Dallas, a groundbreaking community engagement and participatory theater project designed to deliberately blur the line between professional artists and community members, culminating in an annual production featuring over 200 Dallas citizens performing a Shakespeare play. Throughout its history, DTC has produced many new works, including The Texas Trilogy by Preston Jones in 1978; Robert Penn Warren's All the King's Men, adapted by Adrian Hall, in 1986; and recent premieres of Bella: An American Tall Tale by Kirsten Childs; Deferred Action by Lee Trull and David Lozano; Clarkston by Samuel D. Hunter; Moonshine: That Hee Haw Musical by Robert Horn, BRandy Clark and Shane McAnally; FLY by Rajiv Joseph, Bill Sherman and Kirsten Childs; Fly by Night by Kim Rosenstock, Michael Mitnick and Will Connolly; Giant by Michael John LaChiusa and Sybille Pearson; The Trinity River Plays by ReGina Taylor; the revised It's a Bird... It's a Plane... It's Superman by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, Charles Strouse and Lee Adams; Give It Up! (now titled Lysistrata Jones and recently on Broadway) by Douglas Carter Beane and Lewis Flinn; Sarah, Plain and Tall by Julia Jordan, Laurence O'Keefe and Nell Benjamin; and The Good Negro by Tracey Scott Wilson. Dallas Theater Center gratefully acknowledges the support of our season sponsors: Texas Instruments, American Airlines, Lexus, City of Dallas Office of Cultural Affairs, Time Warner Cable and WFAA.