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THE MARVELOUS WONDERETTES, TRUE STORY OF THE 3 LITTLE PIGS! AND

SAME TIME, NEXT YEAR PART OF SUMMER REPERTORY

Aspen, Colorado (March 14, 2010) – Award-winning Theatre Aspen, Aspen's only professional theatre and school, has announced that its summer repertory season will feature the brand-new Off-Broadway hit The Marvelous Wonderettes, the comedy Same Time, Next Year, to be directed by Jay Sandrich, and The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs!

Theatre Aspen was awarded the “Outstanding Regional Theatre” Henry Award in Denver in 2009 and Alison Luff won a Best Supporting Actress Denver Post Ovation Award for her work as Olive in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. 

Opening the 2010 season on June 17th is defying gravity:  Theatre Aspen Takes On the Biggest Broadway Hits!, a musical concert, featuring songs from megahits like Wicked, Les Miserables, Phantom of the Opera and glorious musicals from the past like Showboat and 42^nd Street.  The concert will feature local stars Nikki Boxer (The Music Man), Jon Boxer, Nina Gabianelli, Peggy Mundinger, Jeannie Walla, Mike Monroney and more.  The show is directed by Artistic Director Paige Price, with Bob Finnie handling musical direction, and runs through June 26^th.  Sarah Schultz is Stage Manager.

The Marvelous Wonderettes, conceived and written by Roger Bean, will star Colorado native and Broadway veteran Beth Malone, returning for her second season at Theatre Aspen. Filled with iconic 50s and 60s pop music, this charming, fast-paced musical will delight all ages – featuring favorite songs like Heatwave, R-e-s-p-e-c-t, Mr. Sandman, It's My Party and Leader of the Pack!  The cast includes Tricia Tanguy (The Marvelous Wonderettes, The Producers), Christy Faber (Les Miserables, I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change) and Natalie Wachen (Dreamgirls, Baby, It's You! and TV's "90210").   Janet Miller will reprise her original choreography and director is Cate Caplin who has directed and choreographed over 100 productions in the U.S. and internationally.  Aspen’s Bob Finnie is musical director.  The musical runs July 1 – August 21^st.

Same Time, Next Year, a comedy by Bernard Slade, will be directed by Emmy Award-winning Jay Sandrich (Mary Tyler Moore Show, Cosby Show, Soap), who returns to Theatre Aspen for his third season.  One of the most popular comedies ever, this Tony Award-winning show follows a love affair between two people who rendezvous once a year, on the anniversary of their first tryst.  Twenty-five years of manners, morals and attitudes are hilariously enacted by the lovers who are married to other people. The show runs July 16 – August 20.  Casting is underway.

This season’s family production is The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs!, based on the popular children’s book by Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith. The Big Bad Wolf has his day in court in this thrilling courtroom dram-edy with music; the audience decides if he's guilty or innocent. Featured songs include “Piggsylvanian National Anthem” and “Cheeseburgers Ain’t Cute.”  Book and lyrics are by Robert Kauzlaric and the music is by Paul Gilvary and William Rush. Opening July 8^th, the show runs Fridays and Saturdays at 10 a.m., with a special evening performance July 24^th at 6:30.  Casting begins April 10^th in Aspen.

Tom Ward will design sets and Jeremy Pivnick will take on lighting design for The Marvelous Wonderettes and Same Time, Next Year, Reuben Lucas does sets and Kyle Gavell designs the lighting for The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs!, the season's sound design is by David Thomas.  Costume design is by Marie Davis-Green and Production Stage Manager is Vernon Willet.

Productions take place in the Alex Kaufman Theatre in Rio Grande Park and will be underwritten by season sponsor American National Bank, with Hays Private Client,  Three Forks Ranch and Resort, Brenda and Jim Grusecki, The City of Aspen, Maureen and Dan Holman, Les Dames d'Aspen, Soledad and Bob Hurst, Morris&Fyrwald/Sotheby’s, The Aspen Club and Spa, The Thrift Shop, Mandy Gray and Randy Work, and Melinda Goldrich providing additional underwriting support.

For further information contact Theatre Aspen at 970-925-9313 x2. www.theatreaspen.org

Media sponsors will include The Aspen Times, Aspen Daily News, Aspen Sojourner, Aspen Public Radio, eMoo.com/Aspen Shines, KUUR/TV Aspen/KSNO and KSPN/KNFO.

Supporting actress, musical role: Alison Luff

Role: Olive, Theatre Aspen's "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee"

Representative quote: Moore: "In this astute and wickedly funny musical, adult actors comically play children who have been damaged by adults. The saddest being Olive Ostrovsky, an insecure latchkey kid whose whose mom is off living in an ashram in India and her dad's ... well, busy. When you see Olive played by an adult, you often never see the lost soul of a child on stage; rather just a seriously funked-out adult actor. And it almost never works. Theatre Aspen's Alison Luff allowed us to see, just once in a while, that slight smile, an eye twinkle to remind us that Olive is still a kid, one with a glimmer of childlike wonder remaining. It's the difference between seeing a wonderful, hopeful performance and one that is incongruously dour for this musical. Luff got it right."

Auditions will be held January 16 and 17 from 11 am - 2 pm at the Red Brick Center for the Arts. 

All artists are welcome to audition for a special concert of songs from large musicals which couldn't possibly be produced in the TA tent (ie "Defying Gravity," from Wicked)  Tentative title is SongShow.

Aspen calls local actors home

THEATRE ASPEN'S 2009 cast will include two Broadway stars who cut their teeth at the Country Dinner Playhouse. Joan Hess, known at CDP as Joan Leslie Simms, and Beth Malone are among the ensemble that will perform The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee and Chapter Two. Hess is the wife of CDP alum David Hess, who starred in last year's national touring production of "Sweeney Todd" at the Buell Theatre. She last appeared on Broadway in "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels" (with yet another CDP alum, Rachel deBenedet).
Hess plays Rona, and Malone, who was in the 2006 Broadway "Ring of Fire" cast, plays Schwarzy in Spelling Bee. Hess also will appear in Chapter Two, and Malone will perform a solo Sunday night cabaret.
The Aspen ensemble also includes Jamison Stern, the televangelist in the Arvada Center's "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas," and other Broadway vets such as Sally Mae Dunn.

INTRODUCING THE CAST OF THEATRE ASPEN'S 2009 SUMMER SEASON!

TA will once again offer music, comedy, readings and unique one-night-only events with its "Sunday Series," beginning July 5th.  

Specially priced tickets make the Sunday Series accessible and affordable and gives Aspen's local artists a welcoming place to perform new, old or developing material.

Today's Denver Post article shouts out to Theatre Aspen for our season opening production of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, calling it a "scheduling coup...the first homegrown Colorado staging of [the play]."