Talk Back Announced At Uptown Players DISASTER!

Uptown Players is proud to present the hilarious musical Disaster! This side-splitting musical celebrates the era of bell-bottoms, platform shoes and the hustle. Written by Seth Rudetsky and Jack Plotnick, with concept by Seth Rudetsky and Drew Geraci, the production runs March 22 through April 7 at the Kalita Humphreys Theater.

It's 1979 and New York's hottest A-listers are lining up for the opening of a floating casino and discotheque. What begins as a night of boogie fever quickly changes to panic as the ship succumbs to multiple disasters including earthquakes, tidal waves and infernos. As the night turns into day, everyone struggles to survive and, quite possibly, repair the love that they've lost...or at least escape the killer rats. You'll go wild for this hilarious homage to the disaster movies of the '70s, with some of the era's most recognizable songs including "Knock on Wood", "Hooked on a Feeling" and "I Am Woman".

The production team includes B.J. Cleveland as director, Kevin Gunter as musical director and Trevor Wright as choreographer. The all-star and all-Dallas cast includes: Josh Bangle, Chimberly Carter Byrom, Alyssa Cavazos, Gregory Hullett, Kyle Igneczi, Linda Leonard, Laura Lites, Randy Pearlman, Cara Serber, Quin Solley, Trey Tolleson, Kylie Arnold, Ellen Eberhardt, Jacob Hemsath, Lance Jewett, Gena Loe, Ania Lyons, Rodney Morris, Ryan Nuss, and JT Snyder.

Disaster! runs March 22 through April 7, 2019, with shows at 8 p.m. on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday and 2 p.m. on Sunday (no performance Sunday, March 24). Performances take place at the Kalita Humphreys Theatre at 3636 Turtle Creek Dallas, Texas 75219. Tickets are $35-$50 and can be purchased online at www.uptownplayers.org or by phone at (214) 219-2718.

TALK BACK WITH Seth Rudetsky and Jack Plotnick

THURSDAY, MARCH 28 (AFTER THE SHOW)

Seth Rudetsky, the author of Disaster!, shared that " I grew up obsessed with natural disasters" and "my childhood happened to coincide with the great 1970's disaster films trend, and I loved them all. I also loved the music from that time period because the main radio stations would play pop, rock, disco and folk all on the same channel. In the '90s, I thought it would be funny to do a musical where famous songs were used to advance the plot...similar to a song called "Mr. Jaws" where snippets of songs were used to answer questions." Seth is excited for the talk back on Thursday, March 28 stating "I'm very interested in talking about the path to Broadway and how certain things that happened that we thought would ruin the show...like losing the rights to certain songs...actually made it better!". Seth is also looking forward to answering questions from the Dallas audience.

Seth is the afternoon host on Sirius/XM Satellite Radio's ON BROADWAY as well as the host of SETH SPEAKS on Sirius/XM Stars. As a pianist, Seth has played for more than a dozen Broadway shows including RAGTIME, LES MIZ and PHANTOM. He was the Artistic Producer/Music Director for the first five annual Actors Fund Fall Concerts including DREAMGIRLS with Audra MacDonald (recorded on Nonesuch Records) and HAIR with Jennifer Hudson (recorded on Ghostlight Records, Grammy Nomination). In 2007 he made his Broadway acting debut playing Sheldon (singing "Magic to Do" in a devastating unitard) in THE RITZ directed by Joe Mantello for The Roundabout Theater. Off-Broadway he wrote and starred in the critically acclaimed RHAPSODY IN SETH (directed by Peter Flynn) at the Actors Playhouse and has also appeared on TV on LAW AND ORDER C.I. and had a recurring role on ALL MY CHILDREN. As an author, he penned the non-fiction Q GUIDE TO BROADWAY, the novel BROADWAY NIGHTS and the recently published MY AWESOME/AWFUL POPULARITY PLAN (Random House). BROADWAY NIGHTS is available on Audible.com starring Kristin Chenoweth, Andrea Martin and Jonathan Groff and MY AWESOME/AWFUL POPULARITY PLAN stars Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Ana Gasteyer and Megan Hiltly. Seth played himself on Kathy Griffin; My Life on the D-List, was the vocal coach on MTV's LEGALLYLONDE reality show and starred opposite Sutton Foster in THEY'RE PLAYING OUR SONG for the Actors Fund. Recently, he co-wrote and starred in DISASTER! (which the NY TIMES called a "triumph"), and he currently writes a weekly column on Playbill.com and tours the country doing master classes and performing his one-man show "DECONSTRUCTING BROADWAY".

Jack has a BFA in musical theatre from Carnegie Mellon. He co-wrote/directed the Sony Pictures feature Space Station 76, starring Patrick Wilson, Matt Bomer and Liv Tyler. Jack produced/starred in the awardwinning feature film Girls Will Be Girls and the Lifetime TV series "Lovespring International." As an actor, he's appeared in countless TV shows and features with recurring/regular roles on "The Mentalist," "Buffy," "Reno 911," "Drawn Together," "Ellen" and "Action." His film work includes Meet the Fockers, Down With Love and Gods and Monsters. Jack's acting workshops are highly acclaimed, and his free ebook, New Thoughts for Actors

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