Garde Arts Center Annouces 2009-2010 Broadway Series

May 12, 2009 4:09 PM - GARDE ARTS CENTER ANNOUNCES 2009-2010 BROADWAY SERIES

Series Subscriptions and Special Events Now on Sale

(NEW LONDON, CT) Eastern Connecticut’s premiere showplace for the performing arts, the Garde Arts Center, proudly announces its 2009-10 Broadway Series. The three-show series opens on October 30, 2009 with the 2004 Tony Award winning Avenue Q. This hysterical musical, which originated at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center, revisits Sesame Street with a more adult and risqué sense of humor. The season continues with The Wedding Singer, based on the popular movie starring Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore. It pays loving homage to the pop songs of the 1980s, and will take audiences back to a time when hair was big, collars were up, and a wedding singer just might be the coolest guy in the room. The series concludes with Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical smash Cats, one of the world’s most loved and best known shows.
Series subscribers will also be provided with discounts on this season’s special events. This year’s special events include the wildly popular and hilarious Defending the Caveman, which takes an insightful look into the ways men and women relate. The quirky, off-Broadway sensation Dixie’s Tupperware Party features a fast-talking Alabaman mom who will share outrageous tales, provide audience participation, and have audiences appreciating “alternative uses” for plastic. Rain: A Tribute to the Beatles features live performances of all of audience’s favorite songs from the Fab Four. This multi-dimensional and multi-media musical gala will delight nostalgic and young fans alike.
Subscribers are the first in line for best seats and special discounts. They will save up to 15% off the full single ticket price, receive discounts off single tickets for other Garde events, and have free ticket exchange privileges within the Broadway Series. Subscribers may also exchange their seat for any other Garde-presented event in the 2009-10 season.
2009-10 Broadway Series subscriptions are $141 (Orchestra), $168 (Loge), $114 (Front Balcony), and $105 (Rear Balcony). Subscriptions may be purchased by calling the Garde Box Office at (860) 444-7373 ext 1 or by downloading a Subscription Order Form on the Garde’s website at www.gardearts.org and mailing it to Box Office, Garde Arts Center, 325 State St., New London, CT 06320 or faxing to (860) 701-0189.

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CALENDAR LISTING

Avenue Q
Friday, October 30 | 8 pm ● Saturday, October 31 | 3 & 8 pm
Broadway's smash-hit 2004 Tony Award® winner for BEST MUSICAL, BEST SCORE and BEST BOOK, originated at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, and plays new London for the first time ever. A hilarious show, full of heart and hummable tunes, AVENUE Q is about trying to make it in NYC with big dreams and a tiny bank account. Called "one of the funniest shows you're ever likely to see" by Entertainment Weekly, AVENUE Q features a cast of people and puppets who tell the story in a smart, risqué and downright entertaining way. The New Yorker calls it "subversive and uproarious!". For Mature Audiences.


The Wedding Singer
Sunday, February 28 | 2 and 6 pm
Based on the popular movie of the same name, this musical comedy will take audiences on a fun-filled, nostalgic blast to the past to the days of big hair, leg warmers and Valley Girls. It’s 1985 and wannabe rock star Robbie Hart is New Jersey’s favorite wedding singer and the life of every party until his own fiancée leaves him at the altar. Burned once, can the good guy get the true girl of his dreams? Recommended for ages 13 and up.


Cats
Friday, April 23 | 8 pm ● Saturday, April 24 | 3 & 8 pm
One of the world's best known and most loved musicals, and the biggest box office hit in the Garde’s history, returns to New London in this national tour of the all-singing, all-dancing musical spectacular. Based on the poems from T.S. Eliot’s Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats, CATS has conquered the world with Andrew Lloyd Webber’s award-winning music including the hit song “Memory”.


Plus These Off-Broadway Special Attractions…


Defending the Caveman
Friday, November 20 | 8 pm
The longest running solo play in Broadway history, this wildly popular comedy, written by Rob Becker, is a hilariously insightful play about the ways men and women relate with comic insights on contemporary feminism, masculine sensitivity and the erogenous zone that have both sexes roaring with laughter and recognition. Caveman originally opened in San Francisco in 1991 and moved to Broadway in 1995 where it ran for two and a half years, playing 702 performances at the Helen Hayes Theater., and has become a global peacemaker in the ongoing misunderstandings between men and women.
“Outrageously funny and surprisingly sweet exploration of the gender gap” (Chicago Sun-Times) “”A comic phenomenon.” (New York Times)


Dixie’s Tupperware Party (Oasis Room)
December 1 through 6
Evenings: Tues, Wed, Thurs, Fri, Sat | 7:30 pm ● Matinees: Sat, Sun | 3 pm
Dixie Longate, the fast-talking Tupperware Lady, will pack up her catalogues, leave her children in an Alabama trailer park, and take New London by storm for a weeklong Tupperware Party filled with outrageous tales, free giveaways, audience participation and the most fabulous assortment of Tupperware ever sold on a theater stage. See for yourself how Ms. Longate became the #1 Tupperware seller in the world, learn the many “alternate uses” she has discovered for plastic, buy some Tupperware, and laugh your lid off!


RAIN: A Tribute to the Beatles
Sunday, January 24 | 3 pm
“The next best thing to seeing the Beatles” (Denver Post), this Broadway-style national tour, as featured on PBS, brings to the stage the Fab Four - from Ed Sullivan to Abbey Road - from the earliest beginnings through the psychedelic late 60s and their long-haired hippie, hard-rocking rooftop days – with all the music performed live - no pre-recorded tapes - in a multi-media, multi-dimensional musical gala. The musicians of RAIN recreate with the utmost care and integrity a perfect note for note performance with five different scene and costume changes, three video screens, and live camera projection, combining television commercials and historical video footage from the '60's. Sing along with your family and friends to Beatle classics such as “Let It Be,” “Hey Jude,” “My Guitar Gently Weeps,” “Come Together” and “Can’t Buy Me Love."
“Uncanny! RAIN are a quartet of fine musicians in their own right…as The Beatles, they triumph!” (Boston Herald)



Where: Garde Arts Center, 325 State Street, New London, CT 06320

Subscription Series Prices: Orchestra $141, Loge $168, Front Balcony $114, Rear Balcony $105

Box Office: (860) 444-7373

Online Ticketing: http://www.gardearts.org/

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MEDIA INFO

For photos and interviews, please contact Jeanne Sigel, (860) 444-4430, jsigel@gardearts.org

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Now in its eighty-second season, the Garde Arts Center is southeastern Connecticut’s non-profit center for the performing arts. The Garde owns and operates the historic Garde Theatre where it presents musicals, opera, orchestras, contemporary music, dance, and family events. The Garde produces the annual New London Film Festival, and provides after-school programs and matinee performances to more than 10,000 young people. Under the leadership of Steve Sigel, Executive Director, since 1988, the Garde has become a major catalyst for the cultural and economic revitalization of New London.