PTC's 2015-16 Season to Feature FIDDLER ON THE ROOF, THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO & More

Pioneer Theatre Company, Utah's premier professional theatre, has announced its 2015-2016 season. The season is bookended by two blockbuster musicals, Fiddler on the Roof and the professional U.S. premiere of the new Frank Wildhorn musical The Count of Monte Cristo. The season also includes two more musicals and three plays, two of which are world premieres and one of which is a Utah premiere.

The season opens with the beloved family musical Fiddler on the Roof, which runs September 18 through October 3, 2015. Fiddler will be followed October 30 through November 14 by the Utah premiere of Outside Mullingar, an Irish romantic comedy by John Patrick Shanley, the author of the Pulitzer-prize winning play Doubt and the Academy Award-winning movie Moonstruck. From December 4 through December 19 the theatre will produce the world premiere of a holiday musical, It Happened One Christmas, created by PTC Artistic Director Karen Azenberg just for PTC audiences. The world premiere of a riveting drama set in the academic world, Two Dollar Bill by T.J. Brady, will run January 15 through January 30, 2016. The classic British mystery-drama, An Inspector Calls by J.B. Priestley, will follow February 19 through March 5, 2016. Cowgirls, a musical the New York Times called "a joyous slapstick hoe-down," will run March 25 through April 9, 2016. The season will close with the professional U.S. premiere of the Frank Wildhorn musical The Count of Monte Cristo, which will run May 6 through May 21, 2016.

In addition, PTC will reprise its successful concert version of Richard O'Brien's cult hit musical The Rocky Horror Show for a limited four performance run on Thursday, October 22 at 8 PM, Friday, October 23 at 8 PM, and Saturday, October 24 at 5 PM and 10 PM.

PTC will continue with its third season of Play-By-Play, a new play reading series, in the spring of 2016. Dates and titles are still to be determined, but the theatre will present readings of three brand new plays, with the playwright and director in residence for a week working with a cast of mostly local actors. The readings are offered to the public at a very modest cost ($5 - $10), and give theatre lovers a chance to witness the development of new work in an intimate environment.

PTC Artistic Director Karen Azenberg said of the season, "You can't find theatre that gets any more spectacular than the two musicals that open and close our season. Fiddler on the Roof is one of the most beloved musicals ever written, and we have not produced it here at PTC in over twenty years. Frank Wildhorn's The Count of Monte Cristo recently played for long sold-out runs in Europe and Asia, and I'm delighted that Frank has asked us to produce the professional U.S. premiere of this epic musical." Wildhorn is best known as the composer of the musicals Jekyll & Hyde, The Scarlet Pimpernel and The Civil War.

"On the dramatic side, we're producing the world premiere of a play, Two Dollar Bill by T.J. Brady, with a storyline that has a ripped-from-the headlines hook and a setting, in an elite American University, which should be of particular interest to our audience. T.J. is a West Point graduate turned television writer whose credits include Army Wives and Lie To Me; he has a terrific ear for dialogue and plot, and Two Dollar Bill just crackles with electricity. We're also producing the Utah premiere of John Patrick Shanley's Outside Mullingar, which recently enjoyed a successful run in New York. If you cross Shanley's play Doubt with his movie Moonstruck, you'll get a good idea of the romantic comedy at the heart of Outside Mullingar."

In the December holiday slot, Azenberg is collaborating with playwright Kenneth Jones, author of last season's Alabama Story, to create It Happened One Christmas, a new musical. "We want to give our audiences the kind of family friendly, razzle-dazzle entertainment, complete with some of our favorite holidays songs and some good old fashioned singing and dancing, that's perfect for the season and will warm the heart of even the scroogiest Scrooge," says Azenberg.

"An Inspector Calls, by British playwright J.B. Priestley, is generally regarded as a major play in the canon of twentieth century drama," says Azenberg. "It's taught to English schoolchildren the way The Crucible is taught in America, and it's a fascinating cross between an old-fashioned mystery and a compelling plea for social responsibility-for the moral idea that we are all responsible to look after our fellow man."

"Cowgirls is, I have to admit, a guilty pleasure of mine. The storyline of a trio of classical musicians being mistakenly booked in a country-western honky-tonk saloon, and having 48 hours to actually turn themselves into a country-western trio, is just irresistible, and to have a show in which all six cast members play their own musical instruments makes for a special kind of theatrical magic."

Commenting on the return of a script-in-hand concert version of The Rocky Horror Show, Azenberg said, "I have never seen an audience in this theatre have as much fun as the sold out houses for last year's Rocky did. I worry that theatre sometimes has this staid, conservative reputation as an art form, and Rocky is a show where you get to dress up, interact with the performers, and really let yourself go. We loved having that energy in Simmons PMT last year, and are looking forward to having it again this year."

Regarding Play-By-Play, PTC's new play reading series, Azenberg said, "Offering our audiences a chance to see new work in a developmental stage was one of my artistic priorities when I came here three years ago," said Azenberg, "and I'm delighted at the way audiences have responded. Attendance increased by over 25% from the first year to the second, to almost 90% of capacity; and, of course, we discovered Alabama Story in the program's first year, and that play went on to be one of the most popular new plays we've ever produced. My dream is to have waiting lists of people hoping to get a ticket to Play-By-Play readings, and to continue to find wonderful new plays that we may be able to produce on our mainstage in a subsequent season."

Season ticket packages, including full Seven Play, Pick- 5, Rush and Flex Passes, are on sale now. Season ticket prices range from $98 to $323. Notes PTC Managing Director Chris Lino, "For the price of one or two tickets to a Broadway or touring show, theatregoers can have a full season of entertainment at PTC, experience a wonderfully diverse range of shows, and be assured of the best seats and the convenience of exchanging their tickets if they can't make their regular performance. And, as our long-time patrons know, you'll be seeing the same actors who appear on Broadway stages, hearing live professional orchestras in our pit, and looking at the same spectacular sets and costumes, built by PTC's resident staff right here in Utah, that are every bit as lavish and wonderful as the ones you would see on Broadway."

For season tickets contact Pioneer Theatre Company's Box Office at 801-581-6961 or visit online at www.pioneertheatre.org.

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