Beck Center for the Arts - Lakewood, Ohio

PREVIEW: 2008-09 SEASON

"Next season is set at Lakewood's Beck Center for the Arts, the biggest theater operation in the western 'burbs - and, as usual, it's a doozy." Tony Brown, Plain Dealer Theater Critic

Mackey Main Stage______________

Urinetown, The Musical.
September 12 – October 12, 2008
Musical by Mark Hollman and Greg Kotis
Directed by Scott Spence
2002 Tony Award winner for Best Original Score and Best Book of a Musical.
Consider it a privilege…If you lived in Urinetown you’d have to pay to pee!
A wild and happy mix of biting satire and loving parody, Urinetown The Musical transports audiences to a Gotham-like city where ecological disaster has made the simplest human necessity, water, more precious than gold. Attempting to regulate its consumption, the government has imposed a bizarre law—the use of private restrooms is banned and an omnipotent corporation, the Urine Good Company, is charging citizens money to use the toilet! Beck's original cast reunites!
Peter Pan.
December 5, 2008 – January 4, 2009
Based on J.M. Barrie's tale
Music by Mark Charlap and Jule Styne
Lyrics by Carolyn Leigh, Betty Comden and Adolph Green
Directed by Fred Sternfeld
This high flying musical story of Peter Pan, Wendy, John, and Michael and their adventures in Neverland is brought to life on Beck Center’s Main Stage for the holidays. Audiences of all ages will love this timeless story filled with pirates, fairies, death-defying feats of flying, and the dastardly Captain Hook. An exhilarating journey through Neverland for the whole family!
Ma Rainey's Black Bottom.
January 30 – February 22, 2009
By Pulitzer prize-winning American playwright, August Wilson
Directed by Sarah May
Gertrude Malissa Nix Pridgett Rainey, better known as Chicago blues legend Ma Rainey sets out to record her latest album in the only one of Wilson's 10 plays set outside Pittsburgh. The play is set in Chicago in the 1920s and deals with issues of race, art, religion, and the historic exploitation of black recording artists by white producers. Generational and racial tensions escalate among Ma Rainey’s band and producers, as the studio explodes in violence and tragedy. Beck honors this year's passing of August Wilson and the 25th anniversary of the Broadway production!
The Farnsworth Invention.
March 13 – April 12, 2009
A new play by Aaron Sorkin
Directed by Scott Spence
The turning point of the 20th Century wasn't ON television, it WAS television!
Separated by two thousand miles, two ambitious visionaries race against each other to invent and promote a device that would one day be called the "television." Each knowing that if he stops working the other will gain the edge. Who will unlock the key to the greatest invention of the 20th century: the ruthless media mogul or the self-taught Idaho farm boy? The answer comes to compelling life in this new play from Aaron Sorkin, creator of The West Wing.
Little Shop of Horrors.
June 26 – August 2, 2009
Written by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman
Directed by William Roudebush
It’s everyone's favorite boy-meets-girl, plant-eats-world phenomenon. From the producers of Hairspray and The Producers, and the songwriters of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, comes the biggest MONSTER hit! This musical comedy masterpiece is about a ‘nobody’ kinda guy, the girl he loves, and the man-eating plant that changes their lives forever. Look out! Here Comes Audrey Two!!!

Studio Theater_________________

Talking Heads 2
November 7 – December 7, 2008
Written by Alan Bennett
Directed by Reuben Silver and Tracee Patterson, Featuring Dorothy Silver
From the author of The History Boys comes a second round of monologues created for BBC television. Bennett's magnificent style conveys British life like no other, providing actors with mini tour-de-forces. The first couple of Cleveland theater, again team up to present new pieces in this compelling night of intimate theater.
Grey Gardens
February 27 – March 29, 2009
Book by Doug Wright
Music by Scott Frankel
Lyrics by Michael Korie
Directed by Victoria Bussert
2007 three-time Tony Award winner.
Scandalously entertaining, Grey Gardens brings to life the alternately hilarious and heartbreaking story of two indomitable women, Edith Bouvier Beale and her adult daughter 'Little' Edie – the delightfully eccentric aunt and cousin of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, in Broadway's acclaimed musical smash hit with music composed by Cleveland native, Scott Frankel. Once among the brightest names in the pre-Camelot social register, these two women became East Hampton’s most notorious recluses and Jackie O’s most scandalous relatives.
Evil Dead: The Musical
May 8 – June 14, 2009
Based on Sam Raimi’s 1980s cult classic films
Book and Lyrics by George Reinblatt
Music by Frank Cipolla, Christopher Bond, Melissa Morris, and George Reinblatt
Directed by Scott Spence
What can go wrong when five college students break into an abandoned cabin in the woods? Apparently a whole heck of a lot! They unleash evil spirits, turn into demons… and sing show tunes! Sam Raimi's cult classic 1980s films are brought to life in this hilarious, campy show that will make you crave ‘live theater’ again. With songs such as "All the Men in my Life keep getting Killed by Candarian Demons" and "Do The Necromonicon" - Evil Dead is bursting with more farce than a Monty Python skit!

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Programming at the Beck Center is made possible through the generous support of The Cleveland Foundation, The George Gund Foundation, The John P. Murphy Foundation, The Kulas Foundation, The Eva L. & Joseph M. Bruening Foundation, The Abington Foundation, and the Thomas H. White Foundation. Beck Center gratefully acknowledges the citizens of Cuyahoga County for their support through Cuyahoga Arts and Culture.

Presented by Lakewood Public Library