Winner of six TONY Awards including Best Original Score, THE LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA is set to romance Melbourne audiences this year when it opens at the Arts Centre Melbourne, Playhouse for 2 weeks only from 28th October. Tickets on sale from Ticketmaster on Thursday 28th July.
Produced by Life Like Company, best known for the 2014 production of Sondheim and Lapine's PASSION and the award-winning CITY OF ANGELS in 2015, this new Australian production of THE LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA is the first fully staged professional production of the show to be seen in Australasia.
This new production stars Chelsea Plumley, Josh Piterman, Anton Berezin, Madison Green and Jeremy Stanford, some of Australia's most established musical theatre talent alongside impressive newcomers Genevieve Kingsford and Jonathan Hickey.
THE LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA is written by Adam Guettel (music and lyrics) and Craig Lucas (book) and is an adaptation of ElizaBeth Spencer's novella of the same name. The award-winning score by Adam Guettel (Floyd Collins, Saturn Returns) is romantic and passionate with music and lyrics that explore and illustrate emotions through soaring melodies.
"The most intensely romantic score of any musical since West Side Story!"
The New York Times
"A work of such consummate beauty, truth, energy and accomplishment that you leave the theatre filled with joy and revived by hope for the future."
The New York Observer
THE LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA takes place in Florence, Italy in the summer of 1953. Margaret Johnson (Chelsea Plumley), an elegant and strong-willed Southern woman, is touring the Tuscan countryside with her daughter, Clara (Genevieve Kingsford). When a gust of wind blows Clara's hat into the hands of Fabrizio (Jonathan Hickey), a young Italian gentleman, neither age nor language nor familial disapproval can stop their whirlwind love affair. As THE LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA unfolds, a secret is revealed: in addition to the cultural differences between the young lovers, Clara is not quite all that she appears. Unable to suppress the truth about her daughter, Margaret is forced to reconsider not only Clara's future, but her own hopes as well.
The sumptuous and breathtaking score underpins two heart-warming love stories - Margaret's love of Florence and her daughter Clara's love for Fabrizio, her Italian suitor.
This new Australian production of THE LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA is directed by Theresa Borg with musical direction by Vanessa Scammell and choreography by Jo-Anne Robinson.
With soaring operatic melodies that set it apart from most contemporary musical theatre, THE LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA is a story about mothers and daughters, fathers and sons, and the deeply intertwined emotions of love and loss.
THE LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA plays Arts Centre Melbourne, Playhouse from 28th October to 6th November 2016.
Tickets on sale Thursday 28th July from Ticketmaster and Arts Centre Melbourne and lifelikecompany.com
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