HAVANA By Wildhorn and Cruz, Coward's FALLEN ANGELS, CAMELOT Among Highlights Of 2010 Pasadena Playhouse Season

Pasadena Playhouse (Sheldon Epps, Artistic Director; Stephen Eich, Executive Director; and Tom Ware, Producing Director) today announced the theatre's 2010 Season. The season will include two world premiere musicals, a world premiere play, a fresh look at a favorite musical, a revival of a sultry farce and an award-winning contemporary play.

"I am tremendously excited about our programming plans for our 2010 Season. Once again, our theatre will demonstrate the tremendous theatrical diversity for which we have become celebrated. I think that this season allows us to touch a wide variety of theatrical bases, which are all fascinating and exciting. And I also believe that this is kind of an ideal mixture of the old and the new, combining a wonderful focus on longtime and recent classics, with the exploration and development of new material," said Pasadena Playhouse Artistic Director Sheldon Epps.

"Premiering new plays and musicals on our stage has been a much more frequent occurrence for The Playhouse over the past few years, and I believe that our audiences are thrilled to have the opportunity to see it here first, before these projects move on to life at other theatres all over the country and in fact all over the world."

The Pasadena Playhouse 2010 Season includes:

CAMELOT

Music by Frederic Loewe

Book and Lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner

Directed by David Lee
Longtime Playhouse collaborator David Lee has helmed some of the most successful productions in Pasadena Playhouse history including the multi Ovation Award-winning revival of Cole Porter's Can-Can. In 2010, Mr. Lee returns to kick off the season with a fresh take on this iconic American musical focusing on the three central characters, the power of a timeless love story and the magnificent score.
Camelot begins previews January 2010.

FALLEN ANGELS

By Noel Coward

Coward (Private Lives, Present Laughter) brings us the story of two women, bored with their husbands and eager to reclaim their lost youth, who plan adulterous affairs with the same French lover. As they prepare for their lover's return, the two housewives work themselves into a hilarious, drunken state of deceit and jealousy in this giddy comedy of manners.

Fallen Angels is produced by special arrangement with Bill Kenwright (London) prior to an anticipated Broadway run immediately following The Playhouse engagement.
Fallen Angels begins previews late February 2010.

SIGHT UNSEEN

By Donald Margulies

Directed by Dámaso Rodriguez
Playhouse Associate Artistic Director Rodriguez (Orson's Shadow and this year's acclaimed The Little Foxes) stages a revival of the 1992 Obie Winner for Best New American Play. Pulitzer Prize winner Margulies (Dinner with Friends, Collected Stories) in a play that was a hit both on and off Broadway, tells the story of a controversial young artist who has become so successful he can claim astronomicAl Prices for his works sight unseen from a waiting list of wealthy patrons. When he visits his original muse and lover to reclaim an early painting, he must confront the opulent life that devours him. A riveting, sexy look at the price we pay to achieve fame and fortune.

Sight Unseen begins previews April 2010.

HAVANA

Book by Nilo Cruz

Music by Frank Wildhorn

Lyrics by Jack Murphy

Directed by Sergio Trujillo
From the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright who brought us Anna In The Tropics (Pasadena Playhouse, 2005), and the incomparable composer Frank Wildhorn (Broadway's Jekyll & Hyde and The Scarlet Pimpernel), comes a majestic new musical about the city whose blazing tropic days and seductive stormy nights are the stuff of legend. The story centers on Natalie, an ambitious North American writer who has recently inherited a nightclub and a lavish home from her auntie. She ventures to Cuba to sell her assets in order to fund her creative ambitions, but will she be able to resist the tantalizing call of the city and her newfound love interest?
Havana begins previews June 2010.

by Frank Tangredi

In Frank Tangredi's world premiere play, life is pretty good for Pastor Emily Brendel. She has a great new position at the Community Presbyterian Church on Long Island and a precocious teenage son who keeps her on her toes. Pastor Brendel's path begins to get cloudy when a dark figure from her past resurfaces with the most unexpected and desperate of requests. Torn between her heart and her calling, the pastor must put three souls on the line and make the most difficult decision of her life.

Pastoral begins previews September 2010.

The final production, which will be a new family musical, will be announced at a later date. Previews for the final production will begin mid-October 2010.

Pasadena Playhouse is located at 39 South El Molino Avenue in Pasadena. Subscriptions are available by calling the Pasadena Playhouse at 626-356-7529, by visiting the Pasadena Playhouse

Box Office (open from 12:00 p.m. until 6:00 p.m. daily excluding holidays), and online at www.Pasadenaplayhouse.org.

Full casting and creative teams for all productions will be announced at later dates.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride/Retna Ltd.