Anderson’s final season at CATCO full of premieres
CATCO will present several area premieres and offBroadway shows during its upcoming 34th season — the last under longtime Producing Director Steven C. Anderson.
“I tried to create a new season with shows that other theaters might not do ... fresh and clever comedies, dramas and musicals that theatergoers haven’t seen before,” Anderson said.
Anderson, who previously announced that he will retire from CATCO in June 2020 after a decade at the helm of the professional theater company, will direct all but one of the productions of his final season.
“What I’m always looking for is a play that tells a story that helps us understand life. Each of these shows does that by examining what makes us human, what makes us laugh and what makes us cry,” he said.
All 2019-2020 performances will take place in the Riffe Center’s Studio theatres, 77 S. High
St. They are:
• “My Way” (Aug. 8 to Sept. 1, Studio Three): The central Ohio premiere of the musical tribute to Frank Sinatra, conceived by David Grapes and CATCO’S Producing Director Steven C. Anderson
author Todd Olson, highlights his most beloved songs, including “Strangers in the Night,” “Come Fly With Me” and “New York, New York.”
• “Home” (Nov. 6-24, Studio Two): Samm-art Williams’ 1979 Broadway drama offers a poignant story of an AfricanAmerican’s search to find a real home.
• “Application Pending” (Jan. 23 to Feb. 16, Studio Three): The off-broadway solo comedy by Greg Edwards and Andy Sandberg, receiving its central Ohio premiere, focuses on the female admissions head of an elite Manhattan private school as parents push to secure kindergarten spots for their kids before a deadline.
• “Moonlight and Magnolias” (March 11-29, 2020, Studio Two): Ron Hutchinson’s 2004 offBroadway play centers on legendary producer David O. Selznick as he shuts down production of “Gone With the Wind” in 1939 to pressure director Victor Fleming and screenwriter Ben Hecht to rewrite the script in his office over five days.
• “Nureyev’s Eyes” (April 15 to May 3, 2020, Studio Two): Based on a true story, David Rush’s play about art and ambition chronicles the friendship between two aspiring artists, the Russian defector and ballet dancer Rudolph Nureyev and painter Jamie Wyeth. The central Ohio premiere will be part of a collaboration between CATCO and the Columbus Museum of Art, which is planning a related spring art exhibition of works by Jamie Wyeth.
• “Desperate Measures” (June 3-21, 2020, Studio Two): Winner of the 2018 Outer Critics Circle Award for best new off-broadway musical, this musical is about a cowboy sentenced to hang after a saloon fight goes awry. An Ohio premiere, it is loosely adapted by composer David Friedman and authorlyricist Peter Kellogg from Shakespeare’s play “Measure for Measure.”
CATCO subscriptions, on sale in April for new patrons, cost $128 to $168. For more information, call 614-4690939 or visit www. catcoistheatre.org.