PUTTING IT TOGETHER, THE GRAPES OF WRATH and More Set for WaterTower's 2012-13 Season

Terry Martin, WaterTower Theatre Producing Artistic Director, announced this evening the Company's 2012-2013 Main Stage season at a special VIP Sneak Preview held at the Addison Theatre Centre.

The season opens with The Mystery of Irma Vep (September 28 – October 21, 2012) followed by a popular holiday show It's A Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play (November 24 – December 16, 2012). The season continues in early January with Putting It Together (January 11 – February 3, 2013), the Tony Award-winning play The Grapes of Wrath (April 5 – 28, 2013), the new comedy Black Tie (May 31 – June 23, 2013) and Xanadu (July 26 – August 18, 2013). The 12th annual Out of the Loop Fringe Festival will be held March 7– 17, 2013. All productions will be staged at the Addison Theatre Centre at 15650 Addison Road, Addison, Texas 75001.

Terry Martin will direct Putting It Together and The Grapes of Wrath in addition to another show(s) to be announced at a later date.

Singer/Actress Diana Sheehan will star in Putting it Together. Sheehan has previously worked with Martin on several WaterTower Theatre productions including Grey Gardens and Black Pearl Sings!

There will be no price increase in subscriptions or single tickets for the 2012-2013 season.

The season includes:

The Mystery of Irma Vep
By Charles Ludlum

Who is Irma Vep? That's the mystery at the heart of this outrageously funny tour de force. On a "dark and stormy night," Lady Enid arrives at an estate with her new husband, who is under the spell of his deceased first wife and haunted by something that's prowling the grounds. Strange things begin to happen around her and she soon discovers the mystery of Irma Vep, whose portrait hangs over the fireplace. This hilarious comedy satirizes everything from Hitchcock's Rebecca and Victorian Melodrama to The Mummy's Curse.

It's A Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play
By Joe Landry

Adapted from the original film starring Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed, this beloved American Holiday classic brings Bedford Falls to life as a 1940's radio broadcast. Five actors create more than fifty memorable characters to bring to life Frank Capra's beloved film. This unique stage adaptation is performed as a radio play, broadcast on Christmas Eve in 1949. Everyman George Bailey gets the chance to see what the world would be like if he'd never been born.

Putting It Together
A musical revue by Stephen Sondheim
Directed by Terry Martin

Putting It Together features the words and music of Stephen Sondheim. It's a musical compilation from such Sondheim hits as Sweeney Todd, Company, A Little Night Music, Merrily We Roll Along, Follies and more, all linked together with an inventive storyline about the entangled relationships of five guests attending a Manhattan cocktail party as they are confronted with the troubles of marriage, infidelity and divorce. The revue first premiered in the U.K. in 1992 and opened on Broadway in 1993, with a cast including Julie Andrews. WaterTower Theatre's production stars the incomparable Diana Sheehan.

The Grapes of Wrath
Adapted by Frank Galati
Based on the novel by John Steinbeck
Directed by Terry Martin

Having survived the drought of the 1930s Dust Bowl only to see their home repossessed by the bank, the Joad family embarks on a harrowing trek from Oklahoma to California, intending to begin anew as migrant farm workers. Their arrival in this "promised land," however, brings its own test of the human spirit. Frank Galati's groundbreaking adaptation of Steinbeck's epic novel won two Tony Awards on Broadway. A plea for social justice and compassion, The Grapes of Wrath provides the perfect canvas for a vast ensemble cast and is an all too timely examination of a nation in search of itself.

Black Tie
By A.R. Gurney

Father of the groom, Curtis, simply wants to make a memorable toast. But before he is able to raise his glass, he must defend the time-honored ways of his past, including his attire. Cultures clash when a surprise guest is announced, threatening to throw convention out the window. Curtis finds that balancing the standards of his late father and the needs of his future family may prove too messy for a black-tie affair.

Xanadu
Book by Douglas Carter Beane
Music and Lyrics by Jeff Lynne
Based on the Universal Pictures film
Put a bunch of smash hit songs, Tony Award nominee Douglas Carter Beane and the cutest couple in town into a Broadway musical comedy blender, and what do you get? "Heaven on Wheels" says The New York Times. Taking audiences back to 1980 California, this hilarious new musical follows the beautiful Kira, who travels to Earth to inspire a struggling young artist named Sonny, as she helps this aspiring painter to find his voice, discover true love and build the world's first roller disco (not necessarily in that order).

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