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Tony Award Winning Best Musical
contact
Kicks Off Dallas Summer Musicals Season
June 4-16, 2002 at the Music Hall at Fair Park
Edited by Madelyn Miller
 The Tony Award
winning Best Musical contact, directed and choreographed by Susan
Stroman and written by John Weidman, is coming to the Music Hall at Fair
Park June 4-16, kicking off Dallas Summer Musicals’ 62nd season.
Texas native and SMU graduate Deborah Yates, who originated the role of The
Girl in The Yellow Dress and became the toast of Broadway, winning Tony and
Drama Desk nominations and an Astaire Award for her performance, will join
the company for its Dallas engagement.
In 2000, contact
took New York by storm, winning every major award including the Tony Award,
Drama Desk Award, Outer Critics Circle Award and Drama League Award for Best
Musical.
Three sensual stories
told entirely through dance about people in the wild pursuit of love,
contact is performed to a wide range of music – from Stephane
Grappelli’s rendition of Rodgers & Hart’s “My Heart Stood Still,” to pieces
by Grieg, Tchaikovsky and Bizet to Robert Palmer, Dean Martin, the Beach
Boys and The Squirrel Nut Zippers by a cast of 24 dancers/actors who
captivate and seduce the audience. A CD containing music from contact
is available from RCA Victor.
When contact
opened at New York’s Lincoln Center Theater it was hailed by Time
Magazine for “kicking the dust off a tired old Broadway.” Syndicated
columnist Liz Smith called contact “one of the rare absolutely
perfect things I have ever seen in the theater,” adding that “not since Bob
Fosse and Michael Bennett has a choreographer-director made such an
intelligent, creative impact on the American musical scene. You’ll be
sitting on the edge of your seat, electrified.” And The New York Times
exclaimed that “contact restores the pleasure principle to the
American musical. It is that rare entertainment that leaves you floating
all the way home.”
The cast of contact
will star Dallas’ own Deborah Yates as “The Girl in the Yellow Dress.”
Contact will also feature Laura Catalano, Adam Dannheisser, Donna
Dunmire, Gary Franco, Amy Hall, Stacey Todd Holt, Meg Howrey, Mike Jackson,
Danielle Jolie, Keith Kuhl, Jason Lacayo, Daniel McDonald, Michele Micholas,
Joseph Mooradian, Lee Mark Nelson, Angela Piccinni, John G. Ross, Marcos
Santana, Julius Sermonia, Rebecca Sherman, Rick Spaans, Dan Sutcliffe,
Susanne Trani, Michelle Weber, and Mindy Franzese Wild.
Director-choreographer
Susan Stroman won her third Tony Award, as well as the Drama Desk, Outer
Critics, Lucille Lortel and Astaire Awards for contact. Ms. Stroman
won her first two Tony Awards for her choreography of the hit Broadway
musical “Crazy For You,” directed by Mike Ockrent, and for director Harold
Prince’s new production of the classic musical “Showboat,” both of
which enjoyed long runs on Broadway and on tour. Ms. Stroman’s other
Broadway credits include the musicals “big” and “Steel Pier” and the annual
Madison Square Garden spectacular “A Christmas Carol.” She won London’s
coveted Olivier Award for her choreography of the acclaimed Royal National
Theatre production of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Oklahoma!” and is also the
director and choreographer of the current hit Broadway revival of Meredith
Willson’s “The Music Man.” She has also created ballets for the New York
City Ballet and Martha Graham Dance Company and choreographed the dances in
the recent feature film “Center Stage.” Ms. Stroman recently collaborated
as director/choreographer with Mel Brooks on the musical version of his
classic film comedy, “The Producers.”
Writer John Weidman
wrote the books for the musicals “Pacific Overtures” (Tony nomination) and
“Assassins,” both with scores by Stephen Sondheim, “big” (Tony nomination)
and co-wrote the book with Timothy Crouse for Lincoln Center Theater’s hit
revival of Cole Porter’s “Anything Goes.” He is currently working on a new
musical with Stephen Sondheim and Harold Prince. Mr. Weidman won nine Emmy
Awards for his writing for the PBS series “Sesame Street.”
The tour of contact,
which is produced by Lincoln Center Theater, Scott Nederlander and the SFX
Theatrical Group, will reunite its acclaimed New York design team: Thomas
Lynch (sets), William Ivey Long (costumes), Peter Kaczorowski (lighting) and
Scott Stauffer (sound).
Tickets to contact,
which range in price from $10 to $56, are on sale now at The Box Office, 542
Preston Royal Shopping Center, or any Ticketmaster outlet including the
Majestic Theatre Box Office. Tickets are available by phone by calling
214-631-ARTS or online at
www.ticketmaster.com.
For groups of 20 or more, please call 214-426-GROUP.
All performances will
be at the Music Hall at Fair Park, with evening performances at 8 p.m. Tues.
June 4 through Sun. June 9, and weekend matinees at 2 p.m. Sat. June 8 and
Sun. June 9 the first week. The second week of the show there will be
performances Tues. June 11 through Sat. June 15 at 8 p.m., with matinees at
2 p.m. Thurs. June 13, Sat. June 15, and Sun. June 16. There is no Sunday
night performance June 16 during the second week of a show.
The season lineup for
Dallas Summer Musicals continues June 18-30 with our own touring
production of THE WIZARD OF OZ, followed July 2-14 by
the winner of the 2001 Tony® Award for Best Special Theatrical Event,
BLAST! July 16-28, Tony Curtis stars as an eccentric millionaire
playboy in SOME LIKE IT HOT, a new musical based on Billy
Wilder’s hilarious award-winning 1959 film starring Marilyn Monroe, Jack
Lemmon, Joe E. Brown and Curtis. July 30-Aug. 4, STOMP, the
British percussion sensation that has taken the theatrical world by storm,
comes to the Music Hall at Fair Park for the first time ever as a one-week
subscriber’s special. Aug. 6-18, Dallas Summer Musicals’ new and
updated production of MY FAIR LADY comes to the Music Hall
with an energetic and talented cast that includes locally cast performers.
Aug. 20-Sept. 1,
42ND STREET, winner of the 2001 Tony® Award for
Best Musical Revival, is next in the lineup. Sept. 13-Oct. 20, Dallas
Summer Musicals’ patrons will then experience the phenomenon of Disney’s
THE LION KING, which will also be the State Fair of Texas 2002
presentation. Single tickets for THE LION KING will go on
sale May 18.
Single tickets for all
shows except THE LION KING are on sale now at The Box Office’s
new location, 542 Preston Royal Shopping Center, or any Ticketmaster outlet
including the Majestic Theatre Box Office, Foley’s, Fiesta, Tower Records
and Wherehouse Music Stores. Single tickets are priced from $10 to $56,
depending upon time and date of performance and seat location. For more
information or to order by phone, call 214-631-ARTS or Metro 972-647-5700,
or purchase tickets online at
www.ticketmaster.com
Group sales tickets (20
or more) for all shows including THE LION KING are available
by calling 214-426-GROUP.
Season sponsors for
Dallas Summer Musicals are The Dallas Morning News, WFAA TV Channel
8, KLUV Radio and American Airlines. For more information about Dallas
Summer Musicals, call 214-421-5678 or visit the Dallas Summer Musicals
website at
www.dallassummermusicals.org.
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