CLOSBC Announces Their 20th Anniversary Season

2011 will mark the 20th Anniversary Season for the Civic Light Opera of South Bay Cities (CLOSBC) at the Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center. James A. Blackman, Executive Producer, & Founder, Stephanie Coltrin, Artistic Director and Christopher Beyries, Managing Director, have put together a season of shows never before seen by CLOSBC audiences. "The thought process behind the selection of the 2011 Season is specific to the growing sophistication of our audiences," states Blackman, "the South Bay is rapidly becoming Beverly Hills by the Beach with shops, restaurants and attractions to entertain the residents. We feel this new anniversary season truly salutes the growth of South Bay and Southern California."

Show #1
Feb. 16 - Mar. 6, 2011
"Funny, intelligent, honest, enchanting and sentimental"
She Loves Me
Book by Joe Masteroff
Music by Jerry Bock
Lyrics by Sheldon Harnick
Based on Parfumerie by Miklos Laszlo

Considered by many the most charming, intelligent, honest, enchanting and sentimental musical ever written. It is a rare musical theatre aficionado who doesn't have a soft spot in his heart for this intimate show. She Loves Me is a warm romantic comedy with an endearing innocence and a touch of old world elegance and nostalgia, yet as universal and relevant as ever in this age of Internet romances.

Opening on Broadway April 1963 and running 301 performances, She Loves Me garnered 5 Tony Nominations and 1 Tony win for Jack Cassidy as Best Actor in a musical. Revived on Broadway in 1993 running 354 performances garnering 9 Tony Nominations and 1 Tony win for Boyd Gaines as Best Actor in A Musical.

The musical is the fifth adaptation of the play Parfumerie by Hungarian playwright Miklos Lazlo, following the 1940 Jimmy Stewart/Margaret Sullivan film The Shop Around the Corner and the 1949 Judy Garland/Van Johnson musical version In the Good Old Summertime. It would surface yet again in 1998 as the Tom Hanks/Meg Ryan feature You've Got Mail.

Show # 2
April 20 - May 8, 2011
"Breathtaking! Original and Daring!" (New York Magazine)
The Light in the Piazza
Book by Craig Lucas
Music & Lyrics by Adam Guettel
Based on a novella by ElizaBeth Spencer

The Light in the Piazza is set in Florence and Rome in the summer of 1953. A young American tourist, Clara Johnson, meets and falls for young Italian Fabrizio Naccarelli. When Clara's mother Margaret learns of the affair, she opposes it for reasons that only gradually become clear to the audience. The score breaks from the traditional Broadway popular or rock sound by moving into the territory of Neoromantic classical music and opera, with unexpected harmonic shifts and extended melodic structures, and is more heavily orchestrated than most Broadway scores.
Many of the lyrics are in Italian or broken English, as many of the characters are fluent only in Italian. The six-time Tony Award-winning Piazza combines the romance of Italy with a passionate love story. Margaret Johnson, a woman escaping her crumbling marriage, is traveling in Tuscany with her daughter Clara. When a handsome young Florentine captures Clara's heart, Margaret must decide if she'll risk revealing truths that could threaten her daughter's happiness.

Winner of 6 Tony Awards for the Original Broadway Production including: Best Original Score, Best Orchestrations and Best Actress, Victoria Clark.

Show #3
Sept. 14 - Oct. 2, 2011
"Never before and never again --Sondheim's most exciting concept musical"
COMPANY
Book by George Furth
Music & Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim

Sondheim collaborated with George Furth (book) and Harold Prince (director) to create Company, the first of the Sondheim/Prince shows that were to lay the foundation for the post-Golden Age Broadway musicals. Company was the first non-linear, "concept," musical.
Set firmly in, and often about, New York, Company follows five married, once married, or soon to be married couples and their mutual friend, Robert, a 35 year old bachelor who has been unable to connect in a long-term relationship. The relationships are presented in a series of vignettes, primarily through Bobby's eyes, so that we see the less than ideal aspects of commitment. Eventually, Bobby learns that while relationships aren't perfect, they are a necessary part of "Being Alive." Includes the songs "Getting Married Today," "The Ladies Who Lunch," and "Being Alive."

Opening on Broadway in April 1970 and running 705 performances, Company garnered 14 Tony Award Nominations, winning 6 Tony Awards, including Best Musical, Best Book, Best Score, Best Lyrics. Company was revived on Broadway in 1995 for 60 performances garnering 2 Tony Nominations and revived again in 2006 running 246 performances garnering 3 Tony Nominations and winning for Best Revival of a Musical

Show # 4
Nov. 30 - Dec. 18, 2011
"It's a winner anyway you look at it --a great festive and holiday treat!"
Thoroughly Modern Millie
Book by Richard Henry Morris
Music by Jeanine Tesori
New Lyrics by Dick Scanlan

Thoroughly Modern Millie is a high-spirited musical romp that had all of New York dancing the Charleston. It's the zany new 1920's musical that has took both Broadway and London by storm in 2002! Taking place in New York City in 1922, Thoroughly Modern Millie tells the story of young Millie Dillmount, who has just moved to the city in search of a new life for herself. It's a New York full of intrigue and jazz - a time when women were entering the workforce and the rules of love and social behavior were changing forever.

Based on the popular 1967 movie, which starred Julie Andrew, Mary Tyler Moore and Carol Channing, the stage version of Thoroughly Modern Millie includes a full score of new songs and bright dance numbers.

The original 2002 Broadway production won six Tony Awards and five Drama Desk Awards including the win for Best Musical at both award ceremonies. Sutton Foster achieved stardom with the role of "Millie".
Opening in 2002 and running 903 performances Thoroughly Modern Millie garnered 11 Tony Nominations with 6 wins including Best Musical.

The largest producing civic light opera in all of Southern California, the Civic Light Opera of South Bay Cities is a not-for-profit cultural arts institution dedicated to the preservation and presentation of our unique American musical art forms. In the past ten years CLOSBC has received the most (4) Best Musical Awards from the OVATION AWARDS. Performances are presented at the 1,445 seat Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center, 1935 Manhattan Beach Boulevard, Redondo Beach, California 90278. The Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center is located on the Northeast corner of Aviation and Manhattan Beach Boulevards.

For information please visit our website at www.civiclightopera.com or call 310-372-4477.

To post a comment, you must register and login.