SRO Theatre Company to Stage Columbus Premiere of THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY

SRO Theatre Company's 2016-2017 season continues with the Central Ohio premiere of the Tony Award- (Best Score and Best Orchestrations) winning musical The Bridges of Madison County. The sweeping, romantic musical was written by Pulitzer Prize winner Marsha Norman ('night Mother) with music and lyrics by Tony Award winner Jason Robert Brown (Parade).

The production, directed by SRO Theatre Artistic Director Kristofer Green with music direction by Joshua Cutting, will play the Columbus Performing Arts Center's Van Fleet Theatre beginning with a preview performance on Thursday, April 27, 2017. The musical will officially open on Friday, April 28, 2017 and will run through Sunday, May 7, 2017.

Based on Robert James Waller's 1992 best-selling novel, The Bridges of Madison County captures the lyrical expanse of America's heartland along with the yearning entangled in the eternal question "What if...?"

This sweeping romance about the roads we travel, the doors we open and the bridges we dare to cross tells the story of Francesca Johnson, a beautiful Italian woman who married an American soldier to flee war-ravaged Italy. When her family leaves her alone for four days to head to the Iowa State Fair, Francesca looks forward to some rare time alone. But when ruggedly handsome, National Geographic photographer, Robert Kincaid pulls into her driveway seeking directions, the course of Francesca's life may very well be changed forever.

The book was also adapted into a film in 1995 starring Clint Eastwood and Meryl Streep, who was nominated for an Academy Award for her performance.

Marsha Norman (Book) is a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright ( 'night Mother) and co-chair of Playwriting at Juilliard. She won a Tony for The Secret Garden , and another nomination for The Color Purple . Her first play, Getting Out , received the John Gassner Playwriting Medallion, the Newsday Oppenheimer Award, and a citation from the American Critics Association. Other plays include The Laundromat, The Pool Hall, Loving Daniel Boone, Trudy Blue , and her newest play, Last Dance .

Jason Robert Brown (Music/Lyrics) is the composer and lyricist of Parade, The Last Five Years, 13, Songs for a New World, and Honeymoon In Vegas and has been hailed as one of Broadway's smartest and most sophisticated songwriters. Jason is the winner of the 2002 Kleban Award for Outstanding Lyrics and the 1996 Gilman & Gonzalez-Falla Foundation Award for Musical Theatre. Jason's songs, including the cabaret standard "Stars and the Moon" have been performed and recorded by Audra McDonald, Betty Buckley, Karen Akers, Rene Fleming, Philip Quast, Jon Hendricks and many others.

The Bridges of Madison County features a talented local cast that includes Taryn Hammond and David Hammond as Francesca and Robert, Michael Ruehrmund as Francesca's well meaning husband Bud and Johnny Robison and Anneke Keesing as Francesca and Bud's children Michael and Carolyn.

Bill Hafner and Elisabeth Tate play Francesca and Bud's neighbors Charlie and Marge and Kasey Meininger plays the double role of Marian (Roberts ex-wife) and Chiara (Francesca's sister).

The ensemble includes Kristin Lawler, T. JohnPaul Adams , Ethan White , Anita McFarren, and Marisa Fox.

IF YOU GO:

The Bridges of Madison County

SRO Theatre Company

Columbus Performing Arts Center Van Fleet Theatre, 549 Franklin Avenue

Showtimes: 8 p.m. Friday Apr. 28, 8 p.m. Saturday Apr. 29, 2 p.m. Sunday Apr. 30, 8:00 p.m. Thursday May 4, 10:30 a.m. Friday May 5, 8 p.m. Friday May 5, 8 p.m. Saturday May 6, 2 p.m. Sunday May 7.

Tickets: $25, $20 for students and senior citizens

Contact: 614-427-3324, www.srotheatre.org

Committed to producing both classic and contemporary works that break cultural and generational boundaries, SRO Theatre Company continues to operate as one of Columbus' oldest not-for-profit theaters. In SRO's 33 year history, it has won international acclaim for the quality of its productions, its depth and diversity and the excellence of its many community programs.

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