The Chattanooga Theatre Centre will open and close its 2017-18 season with two of Broadway's most beloved musicals.
Todd Olson, the CTC's new executive director, announced the upcoming seven productions, which collectively fit the season's theme "Right Where You Belong."
"Our stories this year are about friends and special guests, finding love and going home again," says Olson. "Our next season features comic genius, musical classics and unforgettable tales, as well as writers as diverse as Tennessee Williams, Agatha Christie and E.M. Forster."
- Sept. 15-Oct. 1: "The Wiz." This dazzling multicultural journey is a familiar story about Dorothy and her journey on a yellow brick road that's filled with rock, gospel and soul music.
- Dec. 8-20: Disney's "Beauty and the Beast." Based on the Academy Award-winning animated feature, this "tale as old as time" is filled with spectacular costumes and sets.
- Jan. 26-Feb. 11: "Mysterious Affair at Styles." Set in 1917, the story is based on Agatha Christie's novel that introduced Detective Hercule Poirot. Capt. Arthur Hastings is back from the war and convalescing at Styles Court. But when the lady of the house suspiciously dies, the killer could be anyone.
- March 9-25: "The Glass Menagerie." Tennessee Williams' stunning memory play, his most personal work for the stage, involves a lost writer, his mother and painfully shy sister, and the effect of a visit from a "gentleman caller."
- April 27-May 13: "A Room With a View." E.M. Forster's classic involves Lucy Honeychurch, who is on her first trip to Italy with her cousin, Charlotte, when love strikes. Engaged to another, will Lucy have the strength to choose courage, truth and love over convention?
- June 8-24: "Boeing-Boeing." The 1960s French farce features self-styled Parisian lover Bernard, who has Italian, German and American fiancées, each a beautiful airline hostess with frequent layovers. He keeps "one up, one down and one pending" until unexpected schedule changes bring all three to Paris, and Bernard's apartment, at the same time.
- July 13-29: "Hello, Dolly!" The blockbuster Broadway hit bursts with humor, romance, high-energy dancing and some of the greatest songs in musical theater history as it relates the romantic and comic exploits of Dolly Gallagher-Levi, turn-of-the-century matchmaker and "woman who arranges things."
CTC Theatre for Youth 2017-2018 Schedule
- Oct. 20-29: "Charlotte's Web." E.B. White's classic involves Wilbur, a humble pig who captures the heart of all who know him, and Charlotte, the ordinary spider with extraordinary ideas. This beautiful play delves into the true meaning of friendship and the importance of life's everyday miracles.
- Feb. 16-25: "The House at Pooh Corner." Christopher Robin has decided to run away with friends Pooh, Piglet, Eeyore, Tigger and the rest. Probably they'll go to the North Pole or to the South Pole. For there is a dark, mysterious threat that Christopher Robin is to be sent away to boarding school. But as the situation becomes clearer, he isn't quite as sure that running away is the answer.
- March 23-31: "A Year With Frog and Toad." The perky Frog and the worrywart Toad plant gardens, swim, rake leaves, go sledding and learn life lessons through four, fun-filled seasons in this soaring musical about an amphibian odd couple. The exuberant story is based on the books by Arnold Lobel.
For tickets and subscription information, call the CTC box office at 423-267-8534 or go online at www.TheatreCentre.com.