SOMETHING ROTTEN This Way Comes: TPAC Reveals 2016-17 Broadway Series

Something Rotten! this way comes - along with a healthy assortment of recent Broadway hits, a homegrown version of an Andrew Lloyd Webber hit and a transfer from London's West End - as the Tennessee Performing Arts Center revealed the list of shows included in their 2016-17 HCA/TriStar Health Broadway at TPAC series during a Monday night event.

Something Rotten!, the Tony Award-winning musical by Karey Kirkpatrick and Wayne Kirkpatrick (winner of a special 2015 First Night Award) that has a Nashville-borne pedigree, is one of the season's highlights, landing at TPAC's Andrew Jackson Hall for a June 27-July 2 run. The season opens with a Studio Tenn production of Evita, starring Broadway's Eden Espinosa in the title role.

Other 2016-17 offerings include the 20th anniversary tour of Jonathan Larsen's Rent; the Tony Award-winning Gentlemen's Guide to Love and Murder; the Jack O'Brien-directed tour of Rodgers and Hammerstein's The Sound of Music; the national tour of The Bodyguard, the musicalized version of the Whitney Houston-starring film that debuted in London's West End; the critically acclaimed and Tony Award-winning The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime; and the Tony Award-winning Beautiful: The Carole King Musical. The Book of Mormon returns to Nashville for a one-week engagement as a Broadway series add-on, along with a new touring production of Riverdance.

"I am so excited for Something Rotten! to come to Nashville," Wayne Kirkpatrick told BroadwayWorld Nashville. "I just love this town so much and I can't wait to share the show with this great community that I have been a part of for so long. I can't believe I get to see it performed at TPAC where, as a patron, I have gone to see so many musicals over years. How did this happen? It's truly an honor!"

TPAC partners with Studio Tenn, the homegrown theater company launched a few years ago by Nashville natives and Broadway veterans Matt Logan and Jake Speck, for an eagerly anticipated revival of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Evita, starring Broadway diva Eden Espinosa in the title role as Argentina's iconic first lady Eva Peron.

"Evita is a true contemporary classic musical with the total package: dynamic lead roles, tremendous music, and a riveting plot powered by a dramatic true story," says Studio Tenn managing director Speck. "We are thrilled to produce this modern epic for the TPAC stage starring Broadway's magnificently talented Eden Espinosa in a role she was born to play."

The national touring company of Evita was slated to be a part of the TPAC series a couple of seasons back, but that production was shuttered before making it to Music City, only to be replaced by a production of Camelot.

Studio Tenn's artistic director Logan says "I am most excited to be partnering with TPAC on this venture because it is giving Studio Tenn a platform to present a homegrown Broadway show. Our sets will be bigger, our talent will be broader, and our stage will be grander."

A grandly conceived, full production of Evita is a long-nurtured project for Logan and his friend Espinosa (currently onstage at California's Old Globe Theatre in San Diego, playing Sadie Thompson is the Michael John LaChiusa musical Rain, based on the short story by W. Somerset Maugham).

"It has long been a dream of mine to do Evita with Eden Espinosa. She is a dear friend from our days in California where we meet in regional theatre. She and I moved to New York with a group of friends in 2003," Logan says. "I have discussed this idea in many forms with her but now it is going to become a reality as we make history with the first local show commissioned for TPAC's Broadway series. We hope this is the first of many productions to be featured in Jackson Hall."

The TPAC season calendar includes:

• Evita with Studio Tenn - September 9 to September 18, 2016: Activist, suffragist, and venerated celebrity, Eva Perón captivated a nation as Argentina's First Lady. The international musical sensation Evita chronicles her life and work, from her humble beginnings in the rural lowlands of South America through her ascent to fame, fortune, and untimely death. Broadway powerhouse Eden Espinosa stars in Studio Tenn's custom-designed presentation, a collaboration with the Tennessee Performing Arts Center built here in Music City, using the finest talents from Nashville and New York. Following its initial debut as rock opera concept album in 1976, Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber's smash hit stage production of Evita swept the 1980 Tony Awards - winning Best Musical, Best Original Score, Best Book of a Musical, and others - and has been performed all over the world.

• Rent 20th Anniversary - October 18 to October 23, 2016: In 1996, an original rock musical by a little-known composer opened on Broadway and forever changed the landscape of American theatre. Two decades later, Jonathan Larson's RENT continues to speak loudly and defiantly to audiences across generations and all over the world. And now, this Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning masterpiece returns to the stage in a vibrant 20th anniversary touring production. A re-imagining of Puccini's La Bohème, RENT follows an unforgettable year in the lives of seven artists struggling to follow their dreams without selling out. With its inspiring message of joy and hope in the face of fear, this timeless celebration of friendship and creativity reminds us to measure our lives with the only thing that truly matters - love.

• A Gentlemen's Guide to Love and Murder - January 24 to January 29, 2017: The most celebrated musical of the 2013-14 Broadway season, Gentlemen's Guide received ten 2014 Tony Award nominations, eventually winning four awards: Best Musical, Direction of a Musical, Book of a Musical, and Best Costume Design. In addition, it won the Best Musical prizes from the Drama League, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle, and received a 2015 Grammy Award nomination for Best Musical Show Album.

• The Sound of Music - February 14 to February 19, 2017: The Sound of Music is a brand new production directed by three-time Tony Award winner Jack O'Brien. The spirited, romantic, and beloved musical story of Maria and the von Trapp Family will once again thrill audiences with its Tony, Grammy, and Academy Award winning Best Score, including "My Favorite Things," "Do-Re-Mi," "Climb Ev'ry Mountain," "Edelweiss," and the title song. The Sound of Music features music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse, suggested by "The Trapp Family Singers" by Maria Augusta Trapp. The Sound of Music enjoyed extraordinary success as the first live television production of a musical in over 50 years when The Sound of Music Live! aired on NBC in December, 2013, and was seen by over 44 million people. 2015 marked the 50th anniversary of the film version, which continues to be the most successful movie musical ever.

• The Bodyguard - March 21 to March 26, 2017: The Bodyguard is the award-winning musical, based on the smash hit film, starring Grammy Award-nominee and R&B superstar Deborah Cox. Former Secret Service agent turned bodyguard, Frank Farmer, is hired to protect superstar Rachel Marron from an unknown stalker. Each expects to be in charge; what they don't expect is to fall in love. A breathtakingly romantic thriller, The Bodyguard features a host of irresistible classics including "Queen of the Night," "So Emotional," "One Moment In Time," "Saving All My Love," "Run to You," "I Have Nothing," "I Wanna Dance With Somebody," and one of the biggest selling songs of all time - "I Will Always Love You."

• The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime - April 25 to 30, 2017: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime on Broadway is the recipient of five Tony Awards including Best Play, six Drama Desk Awards including Outstanding Play, five Outer Critics Circle Awards including Outstanding New Broadway Play, and the Drama League Award for Outstanding Production of a Broadway or Off-Broadway Play. The production was named among the Top 10 productions of 2014 by amNY, Asbury Park Press, Associated Press, Bergen Record, Broadway.com, Broadway Insider, Chicago Tribune, Daily News, Deadline, Entertainment Weekly, Hollywood Reporter, Huffington Post, New York Magazine, New York Post, NY-1, The New York Times, Playbill, Star Ledger, Time Magazine, Time Out New York and Towleroad.

• Beautiful: The Carole King Musical - May 23 to May 28, 2017: Long before she was Carole King, chart-topping music legend, she was Carol Klein, Brooklyn girl with passion and chutzpah. She fought her way into the record business as a teenager. By the time she reached her twenties, King had the husband of her dreams and a flourishing career writing hits for the biggest acts in rock 'n' roll. But it wasn't until her personal life began to crack that she finally managed to find her true voice. Beautiful tells the inspiring true story of King's remarkable rise to stardom, from being part of a hit songwriting team with her husband Gerry Goffin, to her relationship with fellow writers and best friends Cynthia Weil and Barry Mann, to becoming one of the most successful solo acts in popular music history. Along the way, she made more than beautiful music, she wrote the soundtrack to a generation. Beautiful features a stunning array of beloved songs written by Gerry Goffin/Carole King and Barry Mann/Cynthia Weil, including "I Feel The Earth Move," "One Fine Day," "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman," "You've Got A Friend," and the title song.

• Something Rotten! - June 27 to July 2, 2017: Something Rotten! is "Broadway's big, fat hit!" (New York Post). Set in 1595, this hilarious smash tells the story of Nick and Nigel Bottom, two brothers who are desperate to write a hit play. When a local soothsayer foretells that the future of theatre involves singing, dancing, and acting at the same time, Nick and Nigel set out to write the world's very first musical! With its heart on its ruffled sleeve and sequins in its soul, Something Rotten! is "The Producers + The Book of Mormon x The Drowsy Chaperone. Squared!" (New York Magazine).

2016-17 HCA/TriStar Health Broadway at TPAC Add-ons:

• The Book of Mormon - November 15 to November 20, 2016: The New York Times calls it "the best musical of this century." The Washington Post says, "It is the kind of evening that restores your faith in musicals." And Entertainment Weekly says, "Grade A: the funniest musical of all time." Jimmy Fallon of The Tonight Show says "It's genius. It's brilliant. It's phenomenal." It's The Book of Mormon, the nine-time Tony Award winning Best Musical from the creators of South Park. Contains explicit language.

• Riverdance - April 21 to 23, 2017: The international Irish dance phenomenon is back by popular demand in Riverdance - The 20th Anniversary World Tour. Drawing on Irish traditions, the combined talents of the performers propel Irish dancing and music into the present day, capturing the imagination of audiences across all ages and cultures in an innovative and exciting blend of dance, music and song. Of all the performances to emerge from Ireland - in rock, music, theatre and film - nothing has carried the energy, the sensuality and the spectacle of Riverdance.

For further information and for details about ticket sales, go to www.TPAC.org.

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