Shows coming to Dayton
Victoria Theatre Association announces its 2017-18 season.
Minutes after the folks at the Victoria Theatre Association had announced their 2017-2018 offerings, Jean and Jim Allen of Fairborn were in line waiting to buy season tickets to the Broadway series.
“I think it’s the best they’ve had so far!” said Jean, who has been attending all the touring Broadway productions for the past eight years with her husband and said she’d also organized groups to come as well. “I’m intrigued by the show about Carole King, and I’ve seen ‘Phantom’ a number of times but I’ll come back in a heartbeat.”
Hundreds of theater enthusiasts — season ticket holders, sponsors and VTA friends — gathered at the Benjamin & Marian Schuster Performing Arts Center on Feb. 27 in anticipation of the announcement made by VTA staff and three talented Wright State University students — Eli Davis, Lauren Everett and Alejandria Solis. There were surprise appearances as well: Sarah Bockel, understudy for the Carole King role in “Beautiful” on Broadway and Nick Rashad Burroughs, currently touring with “Something Rotten!”
Some of Broadway’s hottest musicals will be coming to town. In addition to “Beautiful: The Carole King Musical,” “Something Rotten!” and a new production of ” Phantom of the Opera,” the line-up includes the dance sensation “An American in Paris,” a new revival of “The Sound of Music,” and “In the Heights,” the musical that earned “Hamilton’s” Lin-Manuel Miranda his first Tony award. A clip from the show — featuring Miranda — was screened.
“I haven’t seen ‘Hamilton’ but I know the music and this sounded very similar,” said Kathy Lindahl of Kettering. “The new season looks like a good combination of old and new.”
In addition to the Premier Health Broadway Series, other VTA attractions were also announced including the Projects Unlimited Star Attractions, Morris Furniture Company Family Series, the Discovery Series and National Geographic Live Series. Martha Shaker, chair of the VTA Board of Trustees, took the stage with her daughter, Sophia, to share news that “Disney’s The Little Mermaid” will be a Star Attraction in August, 2017.
Making the announcements
Ken Neufeld, CEO and president of the VTA, got an immediate laugh when he called for the first video to kick off the proceedings and it took a moment to start. “We put this program together today but after the Academy Awards last night the bar is incredibly low,” he quipped, referring to the Oscar faux pas when Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway mistak-