Music, dancing, absurdity, drama, epiphanies, and spectacle are all coming your way with the 30th season of the Tred Avon Players. The new 2012 season will open in the newly renovated Oxford Community Center in Oxford, MD with the music of the dynamic writing duo of John Kander and Fred Ebb. “Life is a Cabaret: the songs of Kander & Ebb” opens February 9.
TAP’s 30th season coincides with the 50 anniversary of the collaboration of Kander and Ebb. Director Joe Tyler shares his enthusiasm for the talent and genius of this writing team by presenting a singing and dancing production of their music & lyrics. John Kander and Fred Ebb have written songs for twenty Broadway musicals, fourteen of them Broadway hits, including “Chicago”, “Cabaret”, “Woman of the Year”, “Curtains”, “The Act”, and “Kiss of the Spider Woman”. They also worked together on the films “New York, New York” and “Funny Lady”.
Twenty-eight talented local performers pay tribute to these great composers’ unmatched ability to tell a poignant story or simply entertain! Gail Aveson, Sarah Claggett, Jane Copple, Katie Cox, Nathalie Derakshani, Paulette Florio, Joey Frankos, Marcia Gilliam, Sharon Gilroy, Bill Gross, Dana Haddaway, Debbie Harmon, Rhonda Higginbottom, Portia Hughes, Jenny Madino, Ira Nelson, Bridget Page, Wendy Pagenstecher, Lara Prettyman, Lisa Roth, Zack Schlag, John Swann, Laura Todd, Travis Todd, Joe Tyler, Kim Wilson, & Herb Ziegler. Accompanist is Ellen Barry Grunden, with Shelby Clendaniel on percussion.
Spring flowers in May herald the sophisticated drama of “The Women” by Clare Boothe Luce. Director Tom Quimby reprises the all time SRO hit of 1990. Based on the 1936 play starring Norma Shearer, Rosalind Russell, Marjorie Main, Joan Fontaine, Hedda Hopper, and Joan Crawford, “The Women” follows the lives of a circle of wealthy Manhattan women and their story of marital conflict, friendships, and coping with changing values and lifestyles. It’s a classic portrayal of the fairer sex meeting the challenges of love, rivalry and self fulfillment during the beginning of women’s liberation. “The Women” runs May 3-20.
Opening August 9 is the hilarious comedy of “The Drowsy Chaperone” with book by Bob Martin and Don McKellar, and music and lyrics by Lisa Lambert and Greg Morrison. Director Marcia Gilliam presents the Tony winning Broadway hit that started out as a spoof of old musicals written by friends for the wedding of Bob Martin and his wife Janet. It pays homage to 1920 American musicals. A recluse listening to a recording of a musical comedy is transported into the musical. The consequent plot highlights mistaken identities, dream sequences, an unflappable English butler, an absent minded dowager, gangsters, and millionaires.
Closing TAP’s 30th season in October is the comical spoof of the spy thriller movies of the Cold War era, Michael Hollinger’s “Red Herring”, directed by George Edmonds. “Red Herring” follows the attempts of three couples to overcome the obstacles that stand in the way of love and marriage such as a not-too-bright Russian spy, mistaken identities, counter agents, and farcical plot twists.
TAP’s 30th Season begins at the Oxford Community Center in Oxford, MD with the dazzling “Life is a Cabaret: The Songs of Kander & Ebb”. Fridays and Saturdays, February 10, 11, 17, 18, 24, & 25 at 8pm. Sundays, February 12, 19, & 26 at 2pm. Thrifty Thursday, February 9 at 7pm. Call 410-226-0061 or visit www.tredavonplayers.org for information on these spectacular shows and to order season tickets.
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