Chattanooga Theatre Centre announces 2020-21 season

Contributed Image from Chattanooga Theatre Centre / A montage of promotional posters for the Chattanooga Theatre Centre's upcoming 2020-21 season.
Contributed Image from Chattanooga Theatre Centre / A montage of promotional posters for the Chattanooga Theatre Centre's upcoming 2020-21 season.

A Tony Award-winning musical about a high-spirited governess from an Austrian convent and a farcical mash-up of 16th-century Shakespeare and 21st-century Broadway will bookend the Chattanooga Theatre Centre's 2020-21 season.

From Jane Austen to August Wilson, from Disney to Rodgers & Hammerstein, musical crowd-pleasers will be complemented by happy comedies, stirring dramas and charming youth productions as the community theater, founded in 1923, enters its 97th season.

The lineup will be offered to season subscribers as a Theatre Connoisseur package to attend all shows, a Classic Series appropriate for all audiences, a Stage Door Series appropriate for mature audiences, a Theatrix offering to patrons age 30 and younger, and Anytime Subscriptions that offer flex options. To subscribe, visit TheatreCentre.com.

Here's a look at the season.

* "The Sound of Music" (Sept. 24-Oct. 11): The final collaboration between Rodgers & Hammerstein follows an ebullient postulate who serves as governess to the seven children of the imperious Capt. Von Trapp as the forces of Nazism take hold of Austria. (Appropriate for all ages)

* "The Witches" (Oct. 27-Nov. 8): Roald Dahl's classic story finds the Grand High Witch planning to get rid of every child in England. Can anybody stop them? A boy and his grandmother aim to. (Appropriate for all ages)

* "The Santaland Diaries/Season's Greetings" (Nov. 27-Dec. 19): The former is humorist David Sedaris' irreverent monologue of a would-be actor slaving as an elf in Macy's department store. The latter, another monologue, is a funny, touching - and twisted - take on the season. (Appropriate for mature audiences)

* "Little Women: The Musical" (Dec. 11-Jan. 3): Based on Louisa May Alcott's beloved book, an autobiographical nod to her own life, this stage adaptation follows the adventures of sisters Jo, Meg, Beth and Amy March growing up in Civil War America. (Appropriate for all ages)

* "Pride & Prejudice" (Jan. 29-Feb. 14): Bold, surprising, boisterous and timely, this stage adaptation for a new era explores the absurdities and thrills of finding your perfect - or imperfect - match in life. Jane Austen's novel gets a deliciously antic sensibility concerning Lizzy Bennet and Mr. Darcy. (Appropriate for all ages)

* "The Color Purple: The Musical" (Feb. 19-March 7): This musical adaptation of Alice Walker's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel and the 1985 Steven Spielberg film follows the journey of Celie, a downtrodden young African-American woman whose personal awakening over the course of 40 years forms the arc of this epic story. (Appropriate for mature audiences)

* "Aladdin Jr." (March 19-28): Discover "A Whole New World" with this magically updated musical adaptation of the Academy Award-winning Disney classic and 2014 hit Broadway show in which Aladdin discovers a magic lamp containing a Genie who has the power to grant three wishes. (Appropriate for all ages)

* "August: Osage County" (April 16-May 2): A vanished father. A pill-popping mother. Three sisters harboring shady secrets. When the dysfunctional Weston family unexpectedly reunites after Dad disappears, their Oklahoma family homestead explodes in a maelstrom of repressed truths and unsettling secrets. (Appropriate for mature audiences)

* "The Velveteen Rabbit" (May 14-23): In the world of toys, life begins when humans leave the room. When one group of toys discovers a velveteen rabbit, they learn what it means to be truly loved in this original adaptation of Margery Williams' timeless tale by CTC Youth Theatre director Scott Dunlap. (Appropriate for all ages)

* "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom" (June 11-27): In 1927 in a rundown Chicago studio, Ma Rainey, the legendary blues singer, is due to arrive with her entourage to cut new sides of old favorites. What's produced is not only music but a look at rage and racism. This is the next installment in the CTC's decade-long commitment to produce all 10 plays in August Wilson's cycle. (Appropriate for mature audiences)

* "Something Rotten" (July 20-Aug. 15): Two brothers set out to write the world's first musical in this hilarious mash-up of 16th-century Shakespeare and 21st-century Broadway. The musical farce follows Nick and Nigel Bottom, who are stuck in the shadow of that Renaissance rock star known as "The Bard," until a soothsayer foretells the future of theater. (Rated PG-13)

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