Blue Hill Troupe Launches 86th Season With Lerner and Loewe's Classic BRIGADOON

Blue Hill Troupe, Ltd., the only musical theater group in New York City to donate its net proceeds to charity, kicks off its travel-themed 86th season with BRIGADOON, October 30 through November 7, 2009 at the Theatre at St. Clement's. The Blue Hill Troupe produces a musical every fall and a Gilbert & Sullivan operetta every spring, and has donated over $3 million to local charities since its inception in 1924.

The 2009-2010 Season will benefit The New York Foundling, funding Mott Haven Academy's Arts and Music Program, which enables its students to participate regularly in dance, music, visual arts, and theater.

BRIGADOON, with music by Frederick Loewe and book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner, premiered on Broadway in 1947 and featured choreography by Agnes De Mille. It tells of two modern tourists who stumble upon a mysterious village that emerges from the Highland mists for only one day every century. The score includes such enduring classics "Almost Like Being In Love," "Come to Me, Bend to Me," and "The Heather on the Hill."

Tony Parise directs the Blue Hill Troupe's production, with musical direction by Matthew Rupcich. Parise has directed and/or choreographed Mame (Sandy Duncan), Hello Dolly! (Madeline Kahn), Where's Charley? (Emily Loesser), Oliver (Ellen Greene), Grease! (Cindy Williams), Me And My Girl (Tim Curry), and choreographed Bernadette Peters in both her Carnegie Hall and Radio City debuts. He has staged companies of 42nd Street in London, Australia, New Zealand, and Korea, Me And My Girl in Mexico City, Anything Goes in Berlin, and has choreographed for Italian TV in Milan. Rupcich is the Blue Hill Troupe's resident concert and choral director, and led the group's recent productions of Follies and Into the Woods.

BRIGADOON plays Oct 30, 31, Nov 4, 5, 6, 7 at 8:00 p.m., with family-friendly matinees at 2:00 p.m. on Oct 31, Nov 7 and at 3:00 p.m. on Nov 1. Tickets are $35 and $45. For additional information and events for children, visit www.bht.org or call 866-811-4111.

The Blue Hill Troupe has been featured on CBS Sunday Morning and appeared with The New York Pops at Carnegie Hall. For fifteen years, they have presented a Gilbert & Sullivan concert as part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Concerts and Lectures series, where they will return on December 12, 2009. In 2005, the Blue Hill Troupe was honored with three awards at the 12th Annual International Gilbert & Sullivan Festival in Buxton, UK, for their innovative production of the G&S rarity, The Grand Duke.

For more information about the Blue Hill Troupe, Ltd., contact Joanne Lessner at (212) 222-7436 or visit www.bht.org.

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