Theater League Announces New Season
Broadway Musicals Come to the Granada
If you have the opportunity to travel to New York City to take in a Broadway musical, good on you. If not, no worries, as the Theater League brings a handful of them to Santa Barbara every year. Although its 2016-17 season doesn’t wrap until the fall with Dirty Dancing (Oct. 9-10), Theater League has already announced its 2017-18 lineup, which includes Tony Award winners Jersey Boys, Kinky Boots, and A Chorus Line. “We use surveys and the best shows available on national tour to pick a season,” said Reida York, Theater League’s director of advertising and PR, regarding how the lineup is selected.
Kicking off the new season is Jersey Boys (Nov. 27-28), which follows the career of the Four Seasons — focusing particularly on frontman Frankie Valli — and includes the group’s hits such as “Sherry” and “Big Girls Don’t Cry.” Another hit maker is the subject of Motown: The Musical (Jan. 9-10, 2018), which tracks record company founder Berry Gordy’s rise to music mogul and features songs by the acts he made famous including Diana Ross, Smokey Robinson, and Michael Jackson.
Cyndi Lauper penned the tunes for Theater League’s third offering, the six-time Tony Award–winning musical Kinky Boots (Feb. 20-21), which is based on a true story of a young man who inherits his father’s failing shoe factory, turning the business around by creating ladies footwear for drag queens. Next up is the “singular sensation” A Chorus Line (Mar. 20-21), which exposes and explores the lives of Broadway hopefuls trying to make a living on the stage. Lastly, Let It Be offers up a reimaging of the Beatles’ history, in which John Lennon wasn’t murdered on October 8, 1980, and the legendary band performs together on October 9, 1980.
“I have seen all of these shows, and they have amazing production value, compelling stories, and incredible talent,” said York. Season tickets are available at 899-2222 and theaterleague.com/santabarbara.
