FOLLIES and THE GLORIOUS ONES Take The Stage At Theatre Hopkins

Celebrating its 88th season, Theatre Hopkins will present two musicals in the winter and summer of 2010 at the Swirnow Theater on the Johns Hopkins University's Homewood campus, 3400 N. Charles St. in Baltimore. Opening in February will be Follies: Concert Version, and in June, the Maryland premiere of The Glorious Ones.

The concert version of Follies, featuring Stephen Sondheim's celebrated score and lyrics, with book by James Goldman, will open Friday, Feb. 12, running weekends through Sunday, Feb. 28. Directed and choreographed by Todd Pearthree, the company portrays a host of players who have assembled to bid adieu to the ruin of a vaudeville theater. They caress memories of faded youth accompanied by Sondheim's Tony Award-winning score. The cast includes Jeff Burch and Patty Colman. Also included in the cast are Nancy Asendorf and Amy Pierson, who, as mother and daughter, led the cast of last season's The Light in the Piazza.

Opening Friday, June 11, will be the area premiere of a new high spirited musical, The Glorious Ones, created by the Tony Award-winning team of Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty, whose book and music were honored for their musical Ragtime. Adapted from a novel by Francine Prose, the central character, played by Edward J. Peters, is based on a real-life actor whose small commedia dell'arte troupe tours the village squares of Europe during Italy's Renaissance. Also included in the cast are Tom Burns, Lauren Spencer-Harris, Shannon Wollman and once again the director/choreographer is Todd Pearthree. The Glorious Ones will run four weekends through Sunday, July 4.

For both productions, curtain time for Friday and Saturday performances is 8 p.m.; Sunday matinees begin at 2 p.m. Ticket prices are $20. If space permits, student rush tickets will be available the hour before show for $5. For reservations or further information, contact Theatre Hopkins at (410) 516-7159 or by e-mail at thehop@jhu.edu, or visit http://www.jhu.edu/~theatre .