HIGH FIDELITY to Launch Refuge Theatre Project's 2016 Season

For its second season, Refuge Theatre Project will continue its mission of showcasing the work of a new generation of musical theater writers.

Company co-founders Ross and Morgan Glynn Egan announced today that the season will open with High Fidelity -- the musical based on Nick Hornby's 1995 novel and on Stephen Frears' 2000 feature-film adaptation that starred Chicago natives John Cusack, Joan Cusack and Lili Taylor. The musical, with a score by Tom Kitt (Next to Normal, Bring It On The Musical, If/Then), book by David Lindsay-Abaire (Rabbit Hole, Shrek the Musical, Good People) and lyrics by Amanda Green (Bring It On The Musical, Hands on a Hardbody) enjoyed a short run on Broadway in 2006, but has found many admirers of its rock-pop score and witty re-imagining of Hornby's novel and Frears' film.

While the British writer Hornby originally set High Fidelity's story in London, the film transferred the locale to Chicago's Wicker Park, reportedly because the city was more familiar to Cusack, who co-authored the screenplay with Steve Pink, Scott Rosenberg and D.V. DeVicentis. For the Broadway musical, Lindsay-Abaire again relocated the setting -- this time to Brooklyn, New York.

While a 2009 Chicago production of High Fidelity moved the story back to the film's setting of Wicker Park, the Refuge Theatre Project's production will be the first to actually be performed in Wicker Park. The musical will be staged in Collaboration's Pentagon space in the Flatiron Arts Building, just a few blocks up Milwaukee Ave. from the storefront that was the film's location for "Championship Vinyl," the fictional vintage record store owned by John Cusack's character.

Performances will be January 28 - February 28, 2016, with a director and cast to be announced.

The second show in Refuge's 2016 season will be the rock musical bare, by Jon Hartmere and Damon Intrabartolo. The musical, which debuted in Los Angeles in 2000 before an off-Broadway production in 2004, has enjoyed a cult-like following, particularly among young musical theater fans.

The musical is set in an exclusive co-educational Catholic boarding school and is concerned with issues of identity -- sexual and otherwise -- among its teenaged students. bare has since been a hit across the U.S., Canada and Europe and had a major an off-Broadway revival in 2012.

The Refuge Theatre Project production will be performed in Collaboraction's Room 300 from August 4 - September 4, 2016. Director and cast to be announced.

Ticket information and pricing will be announced at a later date.

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High Fidelity
Book by David Lindsay-Abaire, Music by Tom Kitt, Lyrics by Amanda Green
January 28 - February 28, 2016
The Pentagon @ Collaboraction
In the Flat Iron Arts Building
1579 N. Milwaukee Ave., Chicago

bare
Book by Jon Hartmere and Damon Intrabartolo, Music by Intrabartolo, Lyrics by Hartmere
August 4 - September 4, 2016
Room 300 @ Collaboraction
In the Flat Iron Arts Building
1579 N. Milwaukee Ave., Chicago

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Refuge Theatre Project was founded in 2014 by Ross and Morgan Glynn Egan. Their first season included the Chicago premiere of the off-Broadway musical Next Thing You Know, and opening August 29th - the Chicago premiere of the Broadway musical Glory Days.

Refuge Theatre Project strives to utilize the appeal of musical theatre to foster a broader and more accessible theatre community. We aim to further our mission by producing contemporary musical theatre that is free from anything extra. We tell stories about people dealing with life in a way that is meaningful and fun. Musical theatre for real people.

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