Cape Playhouse Announces Creative Teams For 2018 Season

Michael Rader, Artistic Director of The Cape Playhouse, today announced the creative teams for the 2018 summer season. The six-play schedule, features three plays and three musicals-including three Playhouse premieres-in a season featuring Tony and Drama Desk Award-winning shows and the Pre-National Tour Engagement and New England premiere of an exciting new production of the classic movie Clue: On Stage.

Kicking off the 2018 season will be Robert Harling's poignant Steel Magnolias, playing June 13-23. Director Pamela Hunt returns to the Cape Playhouse where she has directed sixteen plays and nine musicals, including The Mousetrap, Moon Over Buffalo, starring Gavin MacLeod, Millicent Martin and Jane Connell, and Don't Dress For Dinner; her production of Carnival won the 1993 Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Revival. She is joined by set designer Daniel Whiting (Murder For Two , Cape Playhouse, Utah Reparatory Theater Company, The Neil Simon Festival); costume designer David Toser (Broadway credits include, "The Great White Hope", "Very Good Eddie", "Whoopee" and "Our Town") and lighting designer Jaron Kent Hermansen (The Cape Playhouse: Art, RED, The Foreigner, Murder for Two ).

Sylvia, the acclaimed comedy by two-time Pulitzer Prize-nominee A.R. Gurney, is second on the roster, playing June 26-July 7. Directed by Matt Lenz (Cape Playhouse: Art; Broadway: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Hairspray, Catch Me If You Can, The Velocity of Autumn, Beauty and the Beast; national tours: The Sound of Music, A Christmas Story), the creative team includes set design by Michael Carnahan (Cape Playhouse: Art, Tours: Cheers, Live On Stage; A Christmas Story The Musical); costumes by Sky Switzer (Broadway: Aladdin, Escape to Margaritaville, Tuck Everlasting); with lighting designer by Jaron Kent Hermansen.

Hunter Foster (The Bridges of Madison County, Million Dollar Quartet, The Producers, Little Shop of Horrors), directs Million Dollar Quartet, joined by music director James Barry (Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, Million Dollar Quartet), set designer Josh Smith, costume designer Gail Baldoni (20 Productions at The Cape Playhouse) and lighting designer Kirk Bookman (Broadway: The Sunshine Boys, The Gin Game, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and Right You Are.) An unforgettable fun night of rock 'n' roll, Million Dollar Quartet runs July 10-21.

Jason Sparks (Hello, Dolly! starring Bette Midler, She Loves Me, After Midnight) directs and choreographs the fourth show of the season, Altar Boyz, running July 24-August 4. The creative team includes music direction by Jordan Jones- Reese (Miss Saigon, Waitress), set design by Ryan Howell (Pretty Hunger, Teenage Dick ), costumes by Ryan Park (Warpaint, The King and I, Fiddler on the Roof, The Bridges of Madison County), and lighting by Jaron Kent Hermansen.

Cape Playhouse, Artistic Director, Michael Rader (A Christmas Story, Gypsy starring Julia Murney, Cirque du Soleil) directs the final musical of the Playhouse season, South Pacific, running August 7-18. Joyce Chittick (Beautiful: The Carole King Musical) choreographs, with music direction by Garrett Taylor (Wicked, Annie, Irving Berlin's White Christmas), set design by David Arsenault, costumes by Gail Baldoni, and lighting by Andrew Scharwath (The Country House, A Christmas Story).

Hunter Foster directs the season finale, the pre-national tour of Clue: On Stage, August 21-September 1. Jen Cody (A Christmas Story, Shrek the Musical, Pajama Game) choreographs; Adam Koch designs the sets, costumes by Nicole V. Moody, and lighting by Jaron Kent Hermansen.

Season subscriptions and individual tickets are on sale at CapePlayhouse.com or by phone at 508-385-3911.

The non-profit Cape Playhouse was founded in 1927 by Californian Raymond Moore, who spent several summers in Provincetown painting scenery, writing plays, and acting in local theatre. His vision, however, was to have a theatre of his own-a smart, sophisticated summer theatre that would bring Broadway to Cape Cod. He purchased a 19th-century former Unitarian Meeting House for $200, had it moved to 3½ acres of pasture land fronting the Old Kings Highway in Dennis, and converted it into a professional theatre. The Cape Playhouse has been kept true to its original structure-even the original pews still serve as seats. The opening performance on July 4, 1927 was The Guardsman, starring Basil Rathbone. Over the years, many big- name stars from Broadway and the silver screen have acted there, including Bette Davis (who first worked as an usher), Gregory Peck, Gertrude Lawrence, Lana Turner, Ginger Rogers, Humphrey Bogart, Tallulah Bankhead, Helen Hayes, Julie Harris, and Paulette Goddard. It's no wonder the Cape Playhouse is known as "The Birthplace of the Stars." Many young, aspiring performers have spent their summers here. In 1956, a young student was given a small part in The Male Animal, starring Henry Fonda (his daughter, Jane)! Today, most of the stars still come from Broadway, but it seems that almost every well-known star of stage, screen, and TV has walked the stage of the Cape Playhouse.

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