They had Les Mis. You knew it. I knew it. Crickets in Bangladesh knew it. Everybody knew it. Somehow every one knew that the Skylight would be doing Les Miserables for its 2013-2014 season. (And only a few months after Greendale Community Theatre will be staging it. Hmm….) The rest had bee something of a mystery until only last night. And after last night, here's what else we know about Skylight Music Theatre's coming season.
As if to play-up the fact that they're producing Les Mis, the Skylight's theme for 2013-2014 is Revolution.
The season opener is Fidelio--a romantic early 19th century opera by Ludwig van. And they're doing it Bollywood style. So here's the story: there's this woman who decides to save her husband from certain death in prison by disguising herself as a man named . . . Fidelio. Cute, right? And they'll be doing it Bollywood style . . . that's September 20th through October 6th.
Les Miserables continues the season. It will be directed by Molly Rhode, which I think is really cool. The show runs November 22nd through December 29th. So we're looking at a Les Mis Christmas at the Broadway Theatre Center.
In The Heights had been through town in a touring production not too long go. Now the show makes it to the stage in a more intimate production as an ensemble of characters from contemporary Washington Heights New York take up residence on the stage of the Broadway Theatre Center January 31st - February 23rd.
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Yes, Philip Glass has been known to buy a loaf of bread on occasion, but he's also composed some really compelling music and helped propel orchestral music in a really interesting direction over the course of his lifetime. This coming season, the Skylight Music Theatre stages Hydrogen Jukebox--a a chamber opera he wrote back in 1990 that featured the work of Allen Ginsberg. In 1988 Philip Glass runs into Allen Ginsberg. The two of them decide to perform together. And out of that meeting came HJ . . . which will be performed March 14th through the 30th of 2014.
The season closes with a production of Hair as directed by Ray Jivoff. Hard to believe it's already been a couple of years since Jivoff directed a production of the musical for the Sunset Playhouse . . . but a quick check of the past shows that, yes, he'd directed that for the Playhouse back in the summer of 2010 . . . the summer of love . . . (okay, maybe not) . . . but Jivoff brings a really specific kind of experience to staging this show for the Skylight in that he's done it before . . . and relatively recently elsewhere. This production runs May 16th through June 8th.
The studio shows include El Cimarro--a collaboration with the Center for Contemporary Opera January 3rd through 12th.
Also included in studio--I Hear America Sing--a piece by Milwaukee native Daron Hagen. May 9th - 25th. Hagen taught himself to read music at the age of 11. He had a piece premiere at the New York Phil when he was 19. Since then he's gathered up all the accolades one might expect from a critically successful contemporary composer. He's got a really nice presence on the web. Here's his blog.
