Opel, Barbour, Alexander and More to Star in Music Circus

California Musical Theatre has announced its 2007 Music Circus season with seven large-scale musical productions and seasoned Broadway veterans helming casts!

Nancy Opel will step into the title role of Hello, Dolly! Meanwhile Laura Griffith will appear in Les Miserables, Adinah Alexander plays the mean old Miss Hannigan in Annie, James Barbour stars in 1776, Walter Charles has a turn in Jekyll and Hyde, Michael Gruber appears in Kiss Me, Kate.

The 2007 Music Circus season is performed at the Wells Fargo Pavilion located at 1419 H Street in Sacramento, CA.  Tickets are available at the box office, by phone 916-557-1999 or toll-free 800-225-2277. For more information, visit www.californiamusicaltheatre.com.

The season is as follows:

Les Misérables
July 10 – 22
Book by Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil
Based on the novel by Victor Hugo
Music by Claude-Michel Schönberg
Lyrics by Herbert Kretzmer

"Epic, heroic and romantic - the World's Most Popular Musical marches into the round for the first time.  Les Misérables follows an extraordinary man through three decades of French History as he searches for personal redemption - each step of the way meeting remarkable people: virtuous clerics, desperate women, gutsy children and valiant revolutionaries."

Les Mierables stars Laura Griffith (Cosette), Michael Hunsaker (Marius), Brad Little (Inspector Javert), Andrea Rivette (Fantine), Ivan Rutherford (Jean Valjean), Mary Gutzi (Mme. Thenardier), Juliana Ashley Hansen (Eponine), Will Ray (Enjolras), Ron Wisniski (Thenardier), Isabelle Flores-Jones (Young Cosette), Nicole Kuper (Young Eponine) and Andrew Wilson (Gavroche)

Nunsense
July 24 – 29
Book, music and lyrics by Dan Goggin

"The Little Sisters of Hoboken stage a riotous variety show to dispose of the inhabitants of their freezer.  Join in the fun as the hilarious sisters lift up their voices and kick up their heels to save their order, put a smile on your face and show you the humor of the nun. A mischievous yet sweet look at life inside the convent."

Nunsense stars Allison Blackwell (Sister Mary Hubert), Erin Maguire (Sister Robert Anne), Michelle Ragusa (Sister Mary Amnesia), Taryn Darr (Sister Mary Leo) and Alyson Reed (Reverend Mother)

Kiss Me, Kate
July 31 – August 5
Music and lyrics by Cole Porter
Book by Bella Spewack and Samuel Spewack
Based on The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare

"Battle lines are drawn as a bickering divorced couple finds themselves working on the same musical - a Broadway version of Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew.  A classic Cole Porter musical comedy filled with backstage shenanigans, onstage mishaps and stage-struck mobsters."

Kiss Me, Kate stars Paul Schoeffler (Fred/Petruchio), Bernard Dotson (Paul), Lynne Wintersteller (Lilli/Katharine), Michael Gruber (Bill/Lucentio), Toni Trucks (Lois/Bianca), Zonya Love Johnson (Hattie), Herschel Sparber (First Man), Barry Pearl (Second Man), Robert Stoekle (General Howell) and Dick Decareau (Harry/Baptista)

Annie
August 7 – 12
Music by Charles Strouse
Lyrics by Martin Charnin
Book by Thomas Meehan based on "Little Orphan Annie" by Harold Gray

"Annie can't be beat!  Not by an orphanage, nor mean ol' Miss Hannigan nor the Great Depression.  Annie stands up to presidents and industrialists reassuring them that better times are just around the corner.  A tribute to the optimism and resiliency of youth, Annie is a wondrous musical that brings hope to the hearts of both children and adults."

Annie stars Kelsey Smith (Annie), Mark Zimmerman (Oliver Warbucks), Adinah Alexander (Miss Hannigan), Jim Walton (Rooster Hamilton), Christy Morton (Grace Farrell), Annie V. Ramsey (Lily), Ron Wisniski (FDR), Richard Rice Allen (Drake), Philip Michael Baskerville (Lt. Ward), Miram Mars (Molly), Carly Speno (Pepper), Aubrey Niemi (Duffy), Kendyl Ito (July), Heather McDonald (Tessie) and Hayley Smith (Kate)

Hello, Dolly!
August 14 – 19
Music and lyrics by Jerry Herman
Suggested by "The Matchmaker" by Thornton Wilder

"When shopkeeper Horace Vandergelder, Yonker's foremost half-a-millionaire, needs a new wife, New York's most meddlesome matchmaker is on the job to find a perfect bride.  Like Dolly Levi herself, Hello, Dolly! is an exuberant celebration of sharing and enjoying the best things in life."

Hello, Dolly! stars Nancy Opel (Dolly Gallagher Levi), John Scherer (Cornelius Hackl), Jayne Patterson (Irene Molloy), Shawna Hamic (Ernestina), Bradley Benjamin (Ermengarde), Steve Vinovich (Horace Vandergelder), Mitch McCarrell (Barnaby Tucker), Melissa Bohon (Minnie Fay), Ed Brazo (Rudolph) and Efren Ramirez (Ambrose)

Jekyll & Hyde
August 21 – 26
Music by Frank Wildhorn
Book and lyrics by Leslie Bricusse
From the novella "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" by Robert Louis Stevenson

"Romance and obsession intertwine in this gothic musical based on the classic tale of good and evil. Murder and fear run rampant and evil lurks around every corner, but love and virtue put up a strong fight in this engaging thriller.  Songwriter Frank Wildhorn punctuates his score with one rousing pop anthem after another.  A Music Circus premiere."

Jekyll & Hyde stars Mike McGowan (Jekyll/Hyde), Walter Charles (Sir Danvers), James Judy (John Utterson), Katie Klaus (Emma Carew), Maria Eberline (Lucy) and Peter Reardon (Stride)

1776
August 28 – September 2
Music and lyrics by Sherman Edwards
Book by Peter Stone

"What were the founding fathers really like?  Inspiring, idealistic and passionate ... but also sarcastic, lovelorn, pugnacious and exasperating.  This heartwarming, humorous and profoundly moving musical is an entertaining exposé of the ordinary men who overcame crises of values and personality to shape our country."

1776 stars James Barbour (Edward Rutledge), James Brennan (John Adams), Kevin Covert (Robert Livingston), Conrad John Schuck (Benjamin Franklin), Mark Zimmerman (John Dickinson), John Scherer (Richard Henry Lee), Bets Malone (Martha Jefferson), William McCauley (John Hancock), N. Cameron Doyel (Dr. Josiah Bartlett), Dick Decareau (Stephen Hopkins), Michael Dotson (Roger Sherman), Ed Brazo (Lewis Morris), Jim Lane (Rev. John Witherspoon), John Dwar (James Wilson), Gary Lee Reed (Caesar Rodney), Will MacMillan (Col. Thomas McKean), Joe Paparella (George Read), Ric Stoneback (Samuel Chase), Matthew Ashford (Thomas Jefferson), Brian Kuchta (Joseph Hewes), Rodger McDonald (Dr. Lyman Hall), Stephen Crandall (Charles Thomson), Bill Bateman (Andrew McNair), Teri Bibb (Abigail Adams), Tristan Rumery (Leather Apron, Painter) and Alex Robert Holmes (Courier)