Theatre Memphis Presents LIBERACE!, THE PRODUCERS, WAIT UNTIL DARK, and More for 2015-2016

Theatre Memphis has made its play selections for the 2015-16 season and they include a variety of entertainment that touches many bases. Featuring musicals, comedy, drama, classics and new work, the season offers options to Memphis patrons.

The 411 seat Lohrey Stage will begin the season with The Producers, a zany musical by Mel Brooks based on his film of the same name. Get rich quick producers promote a sure fire Broadway flop only to see it succeed. Wait Until Dark, will follow in the season line up as a suspenseful thriller that shows a blind woman using all her wits to survive a brutal set of con men out to retrieve what they believe to be their contraband. The Lion in Winter will next bring on a historically-based fictional story of Queen Eleanor of Aquataine and her attempt to discredit her husband King Henry II who has imprisoned her for a decade. The fray engulfs their three sons and French royalty who all lay claim to rule. In March of 2016, Into the Woods by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine, a musical based on a storybook fantasy, brings together the likes of Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, Jack and his beanstalk and more from the Brothers Grimm fairy tales. This delightful romp, with a dose of reality thrown in the mix, questions "happily ever after." A farcical comedy of manners by Noel Coward is presented next as Hay Fever infects hilarity on the stage with the Bliss family. Each member of the family invites a guest to the country house and the confusion and melodrama take over. Reality slips into fiction leading to the visitors plotting their escape from the mayhem. Closing the Lohrey Stage season will be Oliver! which has never been performed on a Theatre Memphis stage. A wildly popular musical, the Charles Dickens characters come to life as an orphan and his associates scramble to survive and to find joy in their journey. And of course, the family favorite, A Christmas Carol, will be performed as a special holiday offering in December for the 38th consecutive year at Theatre Memphis. Liberace! Will be a Summer Showcase Special show in July of 2015 featuring Gary Beard in a one man presentation of the performer famous for his charm, glitz and glamour.

The black box Next Stage season leads off with The Gin Game, a Tony Award winner for Best Play. A lonely woman in her twilight years has entered a home for the aged and then is befriended by a male fellow resident. As they seemingly become close over the shuffle of cards as he teaches her to play Gin Rummy, much is revealed of their regret-filled lives and their interaction soon leads to an unsettling confrontation. Doubt comes up next presenting a rigidly conservative nun who is the Principal of a Catholic school in 1964. She suspects sexual misconduct between a priest and a student and even confrontation to the priest and the child's mother only brings more mistrust and suspicion to the sister's beliefs. Following in the Next Stage will be an Edward Albee work, All Over. The family of a public figure holds a deathbed vigil as they confess their past injustices and their intertwined lives flash in front of them as they confront petty power struggles and explore the ties that bind. Scheduled next to follow in the black box theatre is comical parody The Compleat Wrks of Wllm Shkspr (Abridged). Three actors take on William Shakespeare in all of his glory breaking the fourth wall with animated and shortened interpretations improvised and infused with pop culture.

Visit www.theatrememphis.org for a complete listing of the 2015-16 season.

Season memberships are available by calling 901.682.8323 and are $135 which includes six tickets. All tickets are good to use on any performance and can be used in any combination on any show, excluding A Christmas Carol, TM/PM cabarets and summer showcases which are not part of the membership package. Season members do, however, receive discounts on tickets to holiday offerings and special events. Memberships secured prior to April 15, 2014 will receive a $10 discount off the regular membership price. All shows are at 7:30pm Thursdays, 8pm on Fridays and Saturdays with matinees on Sunday at 2pm, unless otherwise designated. Single ticket prices for adults are $30 for musicals and $25 for dramas/comedies, $15 for children 11 and under and students with a valid ID.

Dates for all productions are listed below:

Summer Musical Showcase

Liberace!

By Brent Hazelton

Performed by Gary Beard

July 10 - 26, 2015

Lohrey Stage

The Producers

Music and Lyrics by Mel Brooks, Book by Mel Brooks and Thomas Meehan

August 21 - September 13, 2015

Wait Until Dark

by Frederick Knott

October 16 - November 1, 2015

A Christmas Carol

by Charles Dickens

December 4 - 23, 2015

Theatre Memphis' 38th Annual Production

The Lion in Winter

by James Goldman

January 22 - February 7, 2016

Into the Woods

Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, Book by James Lapine

March 11 - April 3, 2016

Hay Fever

by Noel Coward

April 29 - May 15, 2016

Oliver!

Book, Music and Lyrics by Lionel Bart

June 5 - 28, 2016

Next Stage

The Gin Game

by Donald L. Colburn

September 18 - October 4, 2015

Doubt

by John Patrick Shanley

November 6 - 21, 2015

All Over

by Edward Albee

February 12 - 28, 2016

The Compleat Wrks of Wllm Shkspr (Abridged)

by Adam Long, Daniel Singer and Jess Winfield

April 8 - 24, 2016

Theatre Memphis is a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization located at 630 Perkins Extended (corner of Perkins and Southern) and is a community theatre whose mission is to provide outstanding theatrical experiences to enrich the lives of our audiences and participants.

Visit our website at www.theatrememphis.org.

Theatre Memphis receives funding from ArtsMemphis and the Tennessee Arts Commission.