Adventure Theatre-MTC will reach into classic stories to create its five-show 2018-2019 season, the company announced. Included will be two world premiere musicals co-produced with outstanding theater companies outside of the DC area.
The season will kick off with the world premiere of Blueberries for Sal, a musical version of the 1948 Caldecott Award-winning children’s book of the same name. On one side of Blueberry Hill in rural Maine, Sal and her mom pick blueberries to preserve for the winter months. Mom does, anyway; Sal prefers to eat hers on the bush. On the other side of Blueberry Hill, a mother bear and her cub pursue the same objectives. And…well, Sal gets a little mixed up about which mother to follow. This is a co-production with New York City’s Children’s Theatre. William Yanesh has written the book, lyrics and music for this Jess Jung-directed musical, which will run from September 21 to October 21, 2018. Adventure says that this show is appropriate for all ages.
The company’s holiday show, Fancy Nancy’s Splendiferous Christmas, is a musical in which a precocious young girl, obsessed with finding the perfect topper for her Christmas Tree, discovers that there are even more important things than glitter, is the company’s holiday show. Based on the book of the same name by Jane O’Connor and Robin Preiss Glasser, this musical features a score by Randy Klein and a book by Cara Lustik and Matthew Hardy (who also wrote the lyrics). “It is a wonderful show for young children that will keep them engaged and enthralled,” says Monica Atkins of Mommy University. Stevie Zimmerman will direct this all-ages show, which will run from November 16 of this year until January 1 of the next.
Adventure kicks off the new year with a new TYA version of the Broadway hit, Big River. William Yanesh has created new arrangements and orchestrations for the William Hauptman-Roger Miller musical, which Adventure Theatre is co-producing with the Lyric Theatre of Oklahoma, in association with Rodgers and Hammerstein Theatricals and First Stage in Milwaukee. Michael Baron will direct this musical, based on Mark Twain’s classic story of a rebellious young man who shares his raft with a runaway slave in the pre-Civil War South. For all ages; from February 8 to March 3, 2019.
There’s trouble in Ashdown Forest when Winnie the Pooh starts out on his search for the Heffalump. But he’s not the only creature with a mission: Rabbit must rid the forest of Kanga’s bathtub, and Eeyore must find his own tail. Winnie the Pooh, Clanché du Rand’s adaptation of some of A.A. Milne’s classic tropes will be the next Adventure adventure, directed by Shirley Serotsky and suitable for all ages. From March 29 to May 26 of next year. For all ages.
The Adventure season ends with a visit from an old friend. The Cat in the Hat, Katie Mitchell’s adaptation of the Dr. Seuss book. Two young kids, bored on a rainy afternoon, open the door to let in this curiously-attired feline, not knowing that he is the Apostle of Chaos. Theater J Artistic Director Adam Immerwahr directs the ensuing mayhem, which will run from June 21 to August 18, 2019. Adventure Theatre doesn’t identify the age group for this show, but folks over 40 are forewarned.
All shows will be in Adventure’s Glen Echo Park facility. For flexipass tickets (10 tickets for $165), click here.
