Reprise Theatre Company Announces THE APPLE TREE and CABARET

Reprise Theatre Company will present "The Apple Tree" with book music and lyrics by Sheldon Harnick and Jerry Bock, additional book material by Jerome Coopersmith, and based on stories by Mark Twain, Frank R. Stockton, and Jules Feiffer as the third production of its 2011-2012 season, playing April 17 to 29, 2012 at the Freud Playhouse. The original production of "The Apple Tree" was directed by Mike Nichols, and originally produced on the Broadway Stage by Stuart Ostrow.

Reprise has also just announced Tony nominated director Marcia Milgrom Dodge as the
Director /Choreographer of its first production of the 2011-2012 season "Cabaret" (September 13 to September 25, 2011), based on the play by John Van Druten and stories by Christopher Isherwood, music by John Kander, lyrics by Fred Ebb, Broadway production directed by Harold Prince. The 2011-2012 Reprise season will also include the previously announced production of "The Baker's Wife" (February 14 to 26, 2012), with book by Joseph Stein and music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz, based on the film "La Femme de Boulanger" by Marcel Pagnol and Jean Giono.

Jason Alexander is the artistic director of Reprise Theatre Company. Christine Bernardi Weil is Managing Director and Gilles Chiasson is Producing Director of Reprise Theatre Company.

From the songwriting team of "Fiddler On The Roof" and "She Loves Me" comes a unique evening of three one-act musicals about men, women and a little thing called temptation. The first, "The Diary Of Adam And Eve," is a spin on the tale of the world's first couple, adapted from Mark Twain's "Extracts From Adam's Diary." The second, "The Lady Or The Tiger?" explores the fickleness of love in a fable set in a mythical barbarian kingdom. Finally, "Passionella" is based on Jules Feiffer's offbeat Cinderella-story about a chimney sweep whose dreams of being a movie star nearly sabotage her one chance for true love.

"The Apple Tree" was Harnick and Bock's follow up musical to "Fiddler On The Roof", and opened on October 9, 1966 at the Shubert Theatre, starring Alan Alda, Barbara Harris and Larry Blyden with Mike Nichols serving as director, following his Tony Award winning direction of the original Broadway productions of Neil Simon's "Barefoot In the Park" and "The Odd Couple." (Following "The Apple Tree," Nichols would go on to win the 1968 Oscar for Best Director with "The Graduate.") Alan Alda continued his family's Broadway musical lineage with his appearance in "The Apple Tree," following in the footsteps of his father, Robert Alda, who originated the role of Sky Masterson in "Guys and Dolls." The production brought Barbara Harris the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical, and "The Apple Tree" also received several other major Tony nominations: Bock and Harnick for Best Composer and Lyricist, Nichols for Best Direction of a Musical, Lee Theodore for Best Choreography, and the show itself for Best Musical.

Marcia Milgrom Dodge, whose critically acclaimed Broadway production of "Ragtime" was nominated for seven 2010 Tony Awards including Best Revival of a Musical and Best Direction of a Musical, and who directed and choreographed the Reprise production of "How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying" will direct the first production of the 2011-2012 Reprise Theatre Company Season, "Cabaret." Dodge directed and choreographed "Ragtime" at the Kennedy Center, where it won the Helen Hayes Awards for Outstanding Resident Musical and for Direction. The production was transferred to Broadway, where it was nominated for seven Tony Awards including Best Musical Revival and Best Director of a Musical.

Variety said Dodge's revival of "Ragtime" "not only feels trenchant and timely but its multistrand story is delivered with fresh clarity and emotional immediacy. This is big-brain, bold-strokes musical-theater storytelling at its most vibrant." Her 2006 Theatreworks/USA production of "Seussical" helped establish the property for future productions. The director and choreographer of dozens of musicals, she is highly associated with The Kennedy Center, Pittsburgh Public Theatre, Bay Street Theatre and Sacramento Music Circus.

More information, including casting and creative staff for all three shows, will follow. 2011-2012 Season Tickets are available online now at www.reprise.org or the UCLA Central Ticket Office at (310) 825-2101.