Rep season to include Mamma Mia! musical
Comedy, heavy drama also in lineup
The Arkansas Repertory Theatre’s 2017- 18 season, its 42nd and the first one put together by new Producing Artistic Director John MillerStephany, will feature two musicals, a classic comedy and a heavy drama.
The theater, at 601 Main St. in Little Rock, announced the schedule Thursday night at a reception for patrons.
Miller- Stephany, artistic administrator and associate artistic director of the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis from 1996 to 2015, took over in mid- October as the third artistic director in the Rep’s 40- year history, succeeding Bob Hupp and Rep founder Cliff Fannin Baker.
He’ll be directing three of the season’s six mainstage productions, including the season opener, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Rebecca Gilman, based on the Carson McCullers novel, Aug. 25- Sept. 10. The drama focuses on a handful of misfits in a 1930s Georgia mill town.
He’ll also direct both musicals, one big and one small. The big musical, onstage March 16- April 8, 2018, will be Mamma Mia!, with a young bride- to- be trying to figure out which of three men is actually her father, set to songs by Swedish supergroup ABBA.
The show has been touring for years, but “the rights just became available to resident theaters, and I wanted to snatch it up before
any other theater in town snatched it up,” Miller- Stephany explained. “It’s really silly, but so much fun. And I thought it would be nice to do something ‘ cotton candy,’ considering some of the other stuff that we’re doing.”
The small musical, Dec. 1- 24, will be the world premiere of The Gift of the Magi ( music by Andrew Cooke, lyrics by Maggie- Kate Coleman, book by Jeffrey Hatcher, based upon O. Henry’s story of a young, impoverished couple, each of whom sacrifices something they prize to be able to give the other a Christmas gift.
Miller- Stephany described it as a chamber musical, with a cast of four — “Jim and Della, the young couple from O. Henry’s story, and an older couple that will play a variety of roles.” The Rep will hold a reading in May and a workshop in July. The rest of the lineup: Oct. 13- 29: The School for Lies by David Ives, adapted from Moliere’s comedy The Misanthrope. A French expatriate returning home after years in England who, while spurning popular conventions and retreating from “proper” social circles, is smitten with an upwardly mobile and trend- seeking young widow.
Jan. 24- Feb. 11, 2018: The Call by Tanya Barfield. A childless couple in their late 30s planning to adopt a baby from Africa get some news about the child that threatens to tear their world apart.
June 8- 24: God of Carnage by Yasmina Reza, translated by Christopher Hampton. A simple playground scuffle between two boys escalates into a maelstrom of epic proportions between the two sets of affluent parents. Baker will direct.
Directors for The Call and The School for Lies are yet to be named.
The Rep will also stage one “black- box” production this season, at its Annex, 518 Main St.: Santaland Diaries by David Sedaris, Dec. 8- 24. It’ll run concurrently with The Gift of the Magi, and the Rep will stagger curtain times so patrons can see both productions back- to- back.