FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Press Director Charlie Siedenburg, 551-655-0968
charlie_siedenburg@yahoo.com
ANNOUNCES FIRST THREE PRODUCTIONS
FOR 2020 SEASON
ON THE BOYD-QUINSON MAINSTAGE:
A MUSICAL MASTERPIECE
SOUTH PACIFIC
MUSIC BY RICHARD RODGERS
LYRICS BY OSCAR HAMMERSTEIN II
BOOK BY OSCAR HAMMERSTEIN II and JOSHUA LOGAN
ADAPTED FROM THE PULITZER PRIZE-WINNING NOVEL TALES OF THE SOUTH PACIFIC BY JAMES A. MICHENER
DIRECTED BY JULIANNE BOYD
THE ASSEMBLED PARTIES
BY RICHARD GREENBERG
ON THE ST. GERMAIN STAGE:
PULITZER PRIZE WINNER
ANNA IN THE TROPICS
BY NILO CRUZ
(Pittsfield, MA – October 2019) Barrington Stage Company (BSC), the award-winning theatre in the Berkshires under the leadership of Artistic Director Julianne Boyd, has announced three productions for its upcoming 2020 season – the musical masterpiece South Pacific by Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein II and Joshua Logan and The Assembled Parties by Richard Greenberg on the Boyd-Quinson Mainstage, and Anna in the Tropics, the Pulitzer Prize-winning play by Nilo Cruz, on the St. Germain Stage.
Julianne Boyd said, “South Pacific takes us back to a more innocent time when everyone in this country was joined together against a common foe. I think in the coming year, which may be more divisive than ever before, South Pacific is the perfect antidote for these troubling times. The Assembled Parties and Anna and the Tropics are both superb plays, lyrical and passionate, works I think our audiences will love.”
Winner of 10 Tony Awards including Best Musical, South Pacific is set on an idyllic South Pacific island during WWII. Rodgers and Hammerstein intertwine the themes of romance, duty and prejudice to create a story that is at once hilarious, heartbreaking and thought-provoking. Featuring an extraordinary score — including “Some Enchanted Evening”, “I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair”, “Bali Ha’i”, “There Is Nothin’ Like a Dame” and “You’ve Got to Be Carefully Taught” — South Pacific is an unparalleled and timely classic.
Richard Greenberg’s The Assembled Parties introduces us to the Bascovs, an Upper West Side Jewish family in 1980. Former movie star Julie Bascov and her sister-in-law Faye bring their families together for their traditional holiday dinner. Twenty years later, the Bascovs’ seemingly picture-perfect life may be about to crumble. A stunning play infused with humor, The Assembled Parties is an incisive portrait of a family grasping for stability at the dawn of a new millennium – “an often hilarious, bittersweet” play, says Theatermania.
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize in Drama, Anna in the Tropics is set in Ybor City (Tampa) in 1929 in a Cuban-American cigar factory where cigars are still rolled by hand. The factory owner’s family awaits the arrival of a new “lector,” who is hired to read to the workers for their education and entertainment. His arrival is cause for celebration, but when the lector begins reading Anna Karenina, the passionate, frustrated lives of the characters in the book begin to parallel those of the listeners, leading to jealousy, betrayal and sexual awakening. “…enticing and exotic…entrancingly lovely…” says Variety and Theatermania raves it’s “shimmeringly beautiful.”
New in 2020: The Ultimate Flexible Subscription – Mix and Match Passes. BSC is offering ticket buyers the flexibility that they’ve been asking for. Pick any show, any theatre, any time, matinee or evening. Plans change, no problem, free exchanges. 2020 Season Passes are now on sale and available at www.barringtonstageco.org or by calling 413-236-8888 or visiting the Mainstage box office (30 Union Street, Pittsfield, MA 01201). Single tickets for South Pacific, The Assembled Parties and Anna in the Tropics will be available in March 2020.
ABOUT BARRINGTON STAGE COMPANY
Barrington Stage Company (BSC) is an award-winning regional theatre located in Pittsfield, MA, in the heart of the Berkshires. Co-founded in 1995 by Artistic Director Julianne Boyd, BSC has a three-fold mission: to present top-notch, compelling work; to develop new plays and musicals; and to find fresh, bold ways of bringing new audiences into the theatre—especially young people. Barrington Stage commissioned and produced the world premiere of Christopher Demos-Brown’s American Son, which also won the Laurents/Hatcher Award for Best New Play by an Emerging Playwright in 2016. The play, starring Kerry Washington, moved to Broadway last fall and was later made into a Netflix film. Barrington Stage first garnered national attention in 2004 when it premiered William Finn and Rachel Sheinkin’s musical hit The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, which later transferred to Broadway where it won two Tony Awards. In 2009, BSC premiered Mark St. Germain’s Freud’s Last Session, which later moved Off Broadway and played for two years. St. Germain’s Becoming Dr. Ruth (which premiered at BSC as Dr. Ruth, All the Way) played Off Broadway at the Westside Theatre. BSC’s all-time record-breaking musical On the Town was originally produced at BSC in 2013 before transferring to Broadway, where it was nominated for four Tony Awards including Best Musical Revival. In 2016, Barrington Stage swept the first annual Berkshire Theatre Awards by winning 20 out of the 25 awards. In 2017, BSC produced the much-lauded revival of Stephen Sondheim and George Furth’s Company, starring Aaron Tveit. In 2018, BSC produced the critically-acclaimed production of West Side Story in honor of Leonard Bernstein and Jerome Robbins’ 100th birthdays. BSC has won the Best of the Berkshires Readers’ Choice for Best Live Theatre for the past three years. 2019 marks BSC’s 25th Season Anniversary.
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