The Thomaston Opera House is pleased to announce its 2008 Theatrical Season. With several family-friendly offerings, a tribute to the music of Thomas "Fats" Waller, several TOH premieres and a Disney extravaganza, next season has something for everyone to enjoy. The 2008 season at Thomaston Opera House is as follows:

ON THE MAIN STAGE



AIN’T MISBEHAVIN’
January 26, February 1, 2, 8 & 9, 2008 at 8:00pm
January 27, February 3 & 10, 2008 at 2:00pm

The outrageously prodigious comic and musical soul of 1930s Harlem lives on in this rollicking, swinging, finger-snapping revue that is still considered one of Broadway’s best.

The inimitable Thomas “Fats” Waller rose to international fame during the Golden Age of the Cotton Club, honky tonk dives along Lenox Avenue, rent parties, stride piano players and that jumpin’ new beat, Swing. Although not quite a biography, AIN’T MISBEHAVIN’ evokes the delightful humor and infectious energy of this American original as a versatile cast struts, strums and sings the songs he made famous in a career that ranged from uptown clubs to downtown Tin Pan Alley to Hollywood and concert stages in the U.S., Canada and Europe.

Assembled under the expert eye of director/lyricist Richard Maltby, Jr., AIN’T MISBEHAVIN’ is one of the most popular, well-crafted revues of all time – sometimes sassy, sometimes sultry, with moments of devastating beauty. AIN’T MISBEHAVIN’ is simply unforgettable.


Irving Berlin’s ANNIE GET YOUR GUN (1999 Revival Version)
April 12, 18, 19, 25 & 26, 2008 at 8:00pm
April 13, 20 & 27, 2008 at 2:00pm

ANNIE GET YOUR GUN scored a bulls eye when it returned to Broadway in 1999, starring Bernadette Peters and sporting a revised libretto by Tony, Oscar and Emmy winner Peter Stone. As Newsday reported, Stone's revisions "are sweetly ingenious, and the show is a dream." Stone reshaped the 1946 book to create a Wild West show-within-a-show that frames the ageless "Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better" love story of sharpshooters Annie Oakley and Frank Butler. Stone has added a secondary romance between the younger sister of Frank's bothersome assistant Dolly, and a boy who is (to Dolly's horror) part Native American. "The book has been updated in ways that pass p.c. muster," reported Time Magazine, "without losing all the fun." Joined to the new book, of course, is that amazing Irving Berlin score, featuring hit after hit after hit. "Irving Berlin's greatest achievement in the theater," wrote the New York Post, ANNIE GET YOUR GUN "will always be a musical for the ages, one of the Broadway theater's enduring triumphs."



Disney’s BEAUTY AND THE BEAST
July 19, 25, 26, August 1, 2 & 8, 2008 at 8:00pm
July 20, 27, August 3, 9* & 10 at 2:00pm (*Special Saturday Matinee Performance)
FOUR WEEK ENGAGEMENT!!!

Step into the enchanted world of Broadway’s modern classic, Disney’s BEAUTY AND THE BEAST. Based on the Academy Award winning animated feature, the stage version of Disney’s BEAUTY AND THE BEAST includes all of the wonderful songs from the film, written by Alan Menken and the late Howard Ashman, (the team responsible for LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS), plus new songs written especially for the Broadway version by Mr. Menken and Tim Rice (ALADDIN, AIDA).

Audiences will be transported to a lovely French provincial town where the beautiful Belle lives with her father – a dotty inventor. When her father doesn’t return from a trip to the local fair, Belle rushes off to find him. To her dismay, she discovers he is being held captive in an old castle by a horrible beast. She trades her freedom for his and the “tale as old as time” begins.

How Belle tames the unfortunate Beast and his ultimate transformation into a handsome prince continues to enthrall audiences on Broadway nightly. In an unprecedented move, Disney has allowed MTI to license stage performances of the show to its customers while the show continues to play in New York. Filled with spectacular costume and set opportunities, or even more simply staged, Disney’s BEAUTY AND THE BEAST offers a great opportunity to bring the entire community together for family theatre at its best.


URINETOWN
September 13, 19, 20, 26 & 27, 2008 at 8:00pm
September 14, 21 & 28, 2008 at 2:00pm

One of the most uproariously funny musicals in recent years, URINETOWN is a hilarious tale of greed, corruption, love, and revolution in a time when water is worth its weight in gold. In a Gotham-like city, a terrible water shortage, caused by a 20-year drought, has led to a government-enforced ban on private toilets. The citizens must use public amenities, regulated by a single malevolent company that profits by charging admission for one of humanity's most basic needs. Amid the people, a hero decides he's had enough, and plans a revolution to lead them all to freedom! Inspired by the works of Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill, URINETOWN is an irreverently humorous satire in which no one is safe from scrutiny. Praised for reinvigorating the very notion of what a musical could be, URINETOWN catapults the “comedic romp” into the new millennium with its outrageous perspective, wickedly modern wit, and sustained ability to produce gales of unbridled laughter.




IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE
November 23, 24, 30, December 1, 7 & 8, 2008 at 8:00pm
November 25, December 2 & 9, 2008 at 2:00pm

In our American culture IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE has become almost as familiar as Dickens' A Christmas Carol. The story is a natural for a stage adaptation: the saga of George Bailey, the Everyman from the small town of Bedford Falls, whose dreams of escape and adventure have been quashed by family obligation and civic duty, whose guardian angel has to descent on Christmas Eve to save him from despair and to remind him—by showing him what the world would have been like had he never been born—that his has been, after all, a wonderful life. This faithful adaptation has all your favorite characters: George and Mary Hatch, Clarence, Uncle Billy, Violet, and, of course, the Scrooge-like villain, Mr. Potter. This fine dramatization not only celebrates the faith of the season, it also celebrates the American philosophy of life: hard work, fair play and the love and support of one's family and community will be rewarded.



IN THE ARTS CENTER




THE FOURSOME by Norm Foster
June 5, 6, 12, 13 & 14, 2008 at 8:00pm
June 7 & 15, 2008 at 2:00pm

Four college chums, home for a 15th class reunion, get together for a round of golf. The play, set on the 18 tees of a golf course, follows the four as they relive old times, and catch up on their problems, successes, and failures.










THE UNDERPANTS by Steve Martin
Adapted from a Comedy by Carl Sternheim
June 20, 21, 26, 27 & 28, 2008 at 8:00pm
June 22 & 29, 2008 at 2:00pm

Theobald Maske has an unusual problem: his wife's underpants won't stay on. One Sunday morning they fall to her ankles right in the middle of town - a public scandal! Mortified, Theo swears to keep her at home until she can find some less unruly undies. Amid this chaos he's trying to rent a room in their flat. The prospective lodgers have some underlying surprises of their own. In THE UNDERPANTS, Steve Martin brings his comic genius and sophisticated literary style to Carl Sternheim's classic 1910 farce.







THE CEMETERY CLUB by Ivan Menchell
July 4, 5, 10, 11 & 12, 2008 at 8:00pm
July 6 & 13, 2008 at 2:00pm

Three Jewish widows meet once a month for tea before going to visit their husband's graves. Ida is sweet tempered and ready to begin a new life, Lucille is a feisty embodiment of the girl who just wants to have fun, and Doris is priggish and judgmental, particularly when Sam the butcher enters the scene. He meets the widows while visiting his wife's grave. Doris and Lucille squash the budding romance between Sam and Ida. They are guilt stricken when this nearly breaks Ida's heart.







PLAYWRIGHT PROJECT 2 at Thomaston Opera House
October 3, 4, 9, 10 & 11, 2008 at 8:00pm
October 5 & 12, 2008 at 2:00pm

The final production in the Arts Center Series will be selected from a group of new works by unpublished CT playwrights presented as “staged readings” in early 2008. Audience members for these “staged readings” will become part of the selection committee to determine which submission will be produced as a full-length production in October 2008. The Thomaston Opera House will begin taking submissions for the Playwright Project in early September 2007.






CHILDREN’S SERIES (also part of the Educational Series for School Performances)


JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH
Sign Stage On Tour (Deaf Theatre Adaptation by William Morgan based on the book by Roald Dahl)
March 8, 2008 at 1:00pm & 4:00pm
Daytime performances for schools on March 7, 2008 at 9:45am & 12:45pm

James Trotter's life was great until a rhinoceros came and changed everything! Suddenly he was an orphan sent to live with his mean Aunt Spiker and cruel Aunt Sponge. One day while working in the garden, a mysterious man gives James a gift that changes his life again and it involves a magical peach. Join James on his exciting adventure inside the biggest peach the world has ever seen! As he leaves behind the sadness of his life with his vicious Aunts, James sets forth on a journey with larger than life-sized insects. With the wise old green Grasshopper and the eternally pessimistic Earth-worm, among others, James sees oceans and cloud makers; is towed through the sky by seagulls; and creates a stir in the "Big Apple" when the gigantic peach lands on the Empire State Building. JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH is a tale of friendship, love, sadness
and triumph.

Sign Stage on Tour is a specialist in Sign Language Theatre where deaf and hearing actors perform together on stage. Whenever a character speaks, the character speaking uses Sign Language but you’ll always hear the voice too. The voice comes from a different actor speaking through a microphone, sometimes on-stage and sometimes off-stage. Visually, the stage is filled with the movement of hands and bodies yet every word is spoken to make sure all audience members, both deaf and hearing, don’t miss a thing. It’s a magical blend of language created when performing a play simultaneously in spoken English and in the spatial beauty of American Sign Language.



THE STINKY CHEESE MAN AND OTHER FAIRLY STUPID TALES
Adapted from the book by John Scieszka and Lane Smith
October 18, 19, 25 & 26, 2008 at 1:00pm & 4:00pm
Daytime performances for schools on October 17, 2008 at 9:45am & 12:45pm

If you love the wacky humor of the Caledecott-winning book by Jon Scieska and Lane Smith, then you won't want to miss this production of THE STINKY CHEESE MAN AND OTHER FAIRLY STUPID TALES. The 60-minute stage version is a rambunctious musical boasting hilarious songs and a wisecracking cast. An array of the usual fairy tale suspects – Cinderella, Rumplestiltskin, the Little Red Hen, Foxy Loxy, the Ugly Stepmother and Stepsister – pal up to produce preposterous vignettes like “Cinderumplestiltskin or the Girl Who Really Blew It,” “The Other Frog Prince,” “The REALLY Ugly Duckling,” and the malodorous “Stinky Cheese Man.”




Season subscriptions and individual tickets for the 2008 Thomaston Opera House Season will be available on November 15, 2007. For additional information on the current 2007 Season as well as next year’s productions, please call the Box Office at (860) 283-6250. The Thomaston Opera House…BIG THEATRE in a small town!