ON THE STAGE
OKC Broadway announces its 2020 schedule
Exuding an irresistibly flirtatious charm, Sasha Hutchings belted the familiar Rodgers& Hammerstein classic “I Cain't Say No” Monday night on the Civic Center Music Hall stage.
The Oklahoma City University alumna, who was an under study in the cast of the Tony Award- winning revival of “Oklahoma!” that closed earlier this month on Broadway, grinned as she rounded up raucous applause from the almost 700 people gathered in the Thelma Gaylord Performing Arts Theatre.
OKC Broadway organizers are hoping that Oklahoma City theatergoers find the 2020-21 season coming to the venerable venue equally irresistible.
The local presenter of the nationally touring Broadway s hows, OKC Broadway — a partnership of t he New York Citybased The Nederlander Organization and Oklahoma City's Civic Center Foundation— announced Monday night the shows for its 2020-21 season at a special event for subscribers, supporters and sponsors.
Along with serving as the Sept. 27-Oct. 3 launch for the national tour of the radical reimagining of “Oklahoma !,” OKC Broadway' s up comin gs ea son will include new Broadway hits like “Dear Evan Hansen ,” “Mean Girls” and “Pretty Woman,” as well as an encore presentation of “Wicked.
The previously announced spring run of Disney's smash musical adaptation of “Frozen,” which is still drawing big crowd son Broadway, and t he acclaimed new production of Lerner & Lowe's “My Fair Lady,” which just closed last year at New York's Lincoln Center Theatre, also are on the schedule.
Plus, a new tour of t he beloved “Blue Man Group” will come to the Civic Center in November as an add-on special production to the subscription season.
“We are so thrilled to be back in OKC for now going on our fifth season. This is fantastic,” said Christina Selby, director of touring and theatrical coordination for The Nederlander Organization, who traveled from New York for the season reveal. “We've got a lot of great stuff in store for you this next coming season.”
Eva Price, producer of the acclaimed reinvention of “Oklahoma!,” also made the trip from NYC to OKC for the event — and she brought along the Tony Award she received when the show won for best revival of a musical last year.
“This is gonna sound a little cheesy, but in a lot of ways, `Oklahoma!' chose me. And I sort of need that feeling when I choose to produce projects. There has to be a `if I don't produce it, I will want to kill the person who produces it instead ,' and when I have that feeling, I know it's the show for me. So, when I came across this very small ,199- seat production in 2015 of this show at a summer festival, I fell madly in love with it, and I said, ` I want to be the person that brings “Oklahoma!” to America for the next 75 years — and I think this is the version to do that with,'” Price said.
The event closed with a performance by Charissa Hogeland, a member of the Broadway ensemble of Disney's “Frozen,” who belted the familiar hit “Let It Go.”