'HEDWIG,' THE NANCE & More Set for Uptown Players' 2015 Season

Uptown Players, a professional theater group located in the Uptown area of Dallas, has announced its 2015 season at the Kalita Humphreys Theater complex, which will feature the regional premiere of the 2013 Tony Award nominated play, The Nance, the professional area premiere of the 2011 Tony nominated musical Catch Me If You Can, the 2014 Tony award winning musical, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, plus a new play entitled Harbor, which just completed a successful off-broadway run. Uptown Players will also present its annual fundraising performance, this year entitled Christmas Our Way, which will be held in December 2014. Uptown Players will present Gilligan's Fire Island, another world premiere parody from the creator of Re-Designing Women and The Facts of Life this spring in the Rose Room Theater at S4.

2015 SEASON OVERVIEW

Christmas Our Way: December 11 - 14, 2014
Now in its 13th year, Uptown Players' annual fundraiser light-heartedly pits the men against the women to determine who the true Divas of the Dallas stage really are. This year's event will have a holiday theme, and will feature many popular holiday tunes along with Broadway show tunes both past and present, all done with an Uptown Players twist! It is sure to be a hot ticket for the holidays with just four performances from December 11 - 14, 2014.

Gilligan's Fire Island: February 13 - March 15, 2015
From Jamie Morris, the creator of The Facts of Life: The Lost Episode and Re-Designing Women, Uptown Players is thrilled to announce the world premiere of his latest creation Gilligan's Fire Island. When hot young twink Cody Tanner boards the ferry in Sayville, Long Island, he is over the moon excited for his first trip to Fire Island. Soon he is overboard, knocked unconscious by an overzealous drag queen. He washes ashore on a certain "uncharted desert isle" and meets seven stranded castaways who are suffering from a bad case of island fever.

The skipper, his "little buddy," the millionaire and his wife, the movie star and "the rest" are all at each other's throats. Soon, the charming Cody wins them over and brings them all together as a family as they show him the perfect gay getaway and a vacation he will never forget. This parody of the beloved TV series that ran from 1964 to 1967 and has had three television movie sequels will run from February 13 through March 15, 2015 in the Rose Room Theater inside the S4 nightclub on Cedar Springs.

The Nance: June 19 - July 5, 2015
Uptown Players will kick off its main stage season on the Kalita Humphreys stage with the regional premiere of The Nance, the 2013 Tony Award and Outer Critics Circle Award winning play written by Douglas Carter Beane. The Nance recreates the naughty, raucous world of burlesque's heyday and tells the backstage story of Chauncey Miles and his fellow performers. At a time when it is easy to play gay and dangerous to be gay, Chauncey's uproarious antics on the stage stand out in marked contrast to his offstage life. The production will star B.J. Cleveland as Chauncey, the role that won Nathan Lane a 2013 Tony Award and a 2013 Outer Critics Circle Award. The show runs June 18 through July 5, 2015.

Catch Me If You Can: July 24 - August 9, 2015
Uptown Players will present the professional area premiere of the 2011 Tony Award winning musical, Catch Me If You Can, with book by Terrence McNally, and a theatrical score by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman. Based on the hit DreamWorks film and the incredible true story that inspired it, Catch Me If You Can is the high-flying, splashy musical that tells the story of Frank W. Abagnale, Jr., a teenager who runs away from home in search of the glamorous life. With nothing more than his boyish charm, a big imagination and millions of dollars in forged checks, Frank successfully poses as a pilot, a doctor and a lawyer - none of which he has any qualifications for. But when Frank's lies catch the attention of FBI agent Carl Hanratty, Carl chases Frank to the end...and finds something he never expected. Running July 24 - August 9, 2015, you won't want to miss this big-hearted musical adventure based on an astonishing real-life story of being young, in love...and in deep, deep trouble!

Hedwig and the Angry Inch: August 28 - September 13, 2015
Uptown Players continues its season with the 2014 Tony Award winner for Best Revival of a Musical, Hedwig and the Angry Inch. With text by John Cameron Mitchell, music and lyrics by Stephen Trask, Hedwig tells the story of "internationally ignored song stylist" Hedwig Schmidt, a fourth-wall smashing East German rock 'n' roll goddess who also happens to be the victim of a botched sex-change operation. This outrageous and unexpectedly hilarious story is dazzlingly performed by Hedwig (née Hansel) in the form of a rock gig/stand-up comedy routine backed by the hard-rocking band "The Angry Inch." Using songs and monologues, Hedwig tells her story, which began in the former East Berlin where as Hansel he meets Luther, an American GI who promises to take the young man to the States on the condition that he switch his sex. It's a rocking ride, funny, touching and ultimately inspiring to anyone who has felt life gave them an inch when they deserved a mile. The show runs August 28 through September 13, 2015.

Harbor: October 9 - November 7, 2015
To close its fourteenth season, Uptown Players will move next door to Bryant Hall (still within the Kalita Humphreys Theater complex) to present the regional premiere of Harbor, which just completed a successful off-broadway run. When fifteen-year-old Lottie and her ne'er-do-well mother Donna drop in unannounced on the beautiful Sag Harbor home of Donna's brother and his new husband, all hell breaks loose. The bonds between kith and kin are tested in this alternately biting and touching comedy about the constantly shifting nature of the meaning of family. Harbor is from playwright Chad Beguelin, the author of Disney's stage version of Aladdin, and author/lyricist of Broadway's The Wedding Singer, and will run from October 9 through November 7, 2015.

Ticket prices for all shows range from $20 to $50. Performances at the Kalita Humphreys Theater complex, 3636 Turtle Creek Blvd at Blackburn, will run at 8 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings and 2 p.m. on Sundays. Performances at the Rose Room Theater, 3911 Cedar Springs Road, will run at 8 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays and select Sundays throughout the run. Four, five, or six show season ticket flex packages are available and include great discounts on both premium and regular seating. Individual and season tickets can be purchased online at www.uptownplayers.org or by phone at 214-219-2718.

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