PERFORMANCE RIVERSIDE 2010-2011 BROADWAY SERIES SEASON TICKETS NOW ON SALE!

Performance Riverside has announced its 2010-11 Broadway Series.  The premiere of Curtains in Inland Southern California highlights this year’s season. Curtains ran for more than a year on Broadway in 2007-08 after being launched in Los Angeles. It won a best-actor Tony award for David Hyde Pierce as a police detective trying to solve a series of backstage murders in a Boston theater. It was the last musical by legendary Broadway songsters John Kander and Fred Ebb (Cabaret and Chicago) and playwright Peter Stone ("1776"). Rupert Holmes finished the show after the deaths of Ebb and Stone.

Performance Riverside’s Producing Artistic Director, Rey O’Day says, “We are so fortunate to pull from the rich talent pool in Southern California. We are equally fortunate to have joyful patrons with insight, loyalty and passion.  For me, producing shows for Performance Riverside is like choosing gifts for friends!”

Performance Riverside’s 2010-2011 Broadway Series is:

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, lyrics by Tim Rice
September 17, 18, 19, 24, 25 and 26, 2010

Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s enduringly popular family favorite, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, opens Performance Riverside’s 2010-2011 Season! This lively interpretation of the biblical story of Joseph of Canaan has gone on to charm audiences around the world with its exuberant, energetic dance numbers, and excitingly eclectic musical variety. Suitable for all ages, Joseph is a real family show. The original 70's rock opera Joseph has been given a 21st century makeover….watch out for woolly sheep, singing camels, Frenchmen in berets and a fantastic Elvis impersonator.  Join the millions who have delighted and find out that it’s true that “Any Dream Will Do!”

Little Shop of Horrors
Music by Alan Menken, lyrics and book by Howard Ashman
Based on the Roger Corman film The Little Shop of Horrors
November 12, 13, 14, 19, 20 and 21, 2010

Seymour Krelborn is a nerdy orphan working at Mushnik's, a flower shop in urban Skid Row. He harbors a crush on fellow co-worker Audrey, and is berated by Mr. Mushnik daily. One day Seymour finds a very mysterious unidentified plant which he calls Audrey II. The plant seems to have a sinister craving and soon begins to sing for its supper! To what extremes will Seymour go to feed his strange visitor from another planet? Will Audrey II take over the world or will Seymour and Audrey defeat it? Welcome to the darkly campy world of Little Shop of Horrors you’ll laugh, cry, and jump out of your seat from the creepy chills and comic spills before Audrey II is finished with YOU!

The Sound of Music
Music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse
Based on the memoir of Maria von Trapp, The Story of the Trapp Family Singers.
January 28, 29, and 30, February 4, 5 and 6, 2011 

The Sound of Music, the final collaboration between Rodgers & Hammerstein, was destined to become the world's most beloved musical. Here at Performance Riverside, we are delighted to present our patron’s number one requested show! When Maria proves too high-spirited for the religious life of a postulate, she is dispatched to serve as governess for the seven children of a widowed naval Captain. Her love for the children and generosity of spirit capture the heart of the stern Captain, and they marry. Upon returning from their honeymoon, Austria has been invaded by the Nazis, who demand the Captain's service in their navy. The family's escape over the mountains to Switzerland on the eve of World War II provides one of the most thrilling and inspirational finales ever presented in the theatre.

Curtains
Book by Rupert T. Holmes, music by John Kander, and lyrics by Fred Ebb
Original Book and Concept by Peter Stone. Additional lyrics by John Kander and Rupert T. Holmes
April 1, 2, 3, 8, 9 and 10, 2011

When a Broadway musical is in its out-of-town tryout… well, sometimes it's murder! Never fear! Boston's finest detective, and a diehard musical theatre fan himself, is on the case, and between the show stoppers (by John Kander and Fred Ebb) and the heart stoppers (provided by Rupert Holmes and Peter Stone), all will be hilariously revealed! Packed with glorious tunes from the legendary team of Kander and Ebb, and a witty, charming script filled with delightful characters, CURTAINS is a hilarious musical comedy whodunit.  CURTAINS takes us backstage at Boston's Colonial Theatre in 1959, where a new musical might become a Broadway smash, were it not for the presence of its talent-free leading lady. When the hapless star dies on opening night during her curtain call, Lieutenant Frank Cioffi arrives on the scene to conduct an investigation. But the lure of the theatre proves irresistible, and after an unexpected romance blooms for the stage-struck detective, he finds himself just as drawn toward making the show a hit, as he is in solving the murder.

Nunsense
Music, Lyrics, and Book by Dan Goggin
June 3, 4, 5, 10, 11, and 12, 2011

Nunsense is a madcap revue that satirizes convent life with a hysterical anything-goes sense of fun. The show's very premise is outrageous. It is supposedly a benefit revue put on by the Little Sisters of Hoboken to raise money to bury the last 4 of 52 nuns who died from botulism. The setting is a shabby high school gym where a production of "Grease" has been mounted. Among the five nuns who do song-and-dance routines, conduct an audience quiz and indulge in other shenanigans, the most endearing is Sister Mary Amnesia a would-be country singer whose irresistibly goofy grin is as wide as her memory is short. Presiding over the show, Sister Mary Cardelia, the Mother Superior, tries in vain to maintain order, but she is repeatedly undone by her own irrepressible mischievousness.

Performance Riverside is the professional theatrical production company affiliated with Riverside Community College District. Based at the Landis Performing Arts Center at Riverside City College, it provides top-quality performing arts for the people of Riverside, California, and its environs. Performance Riverside seeks to engage, inspire, educate, entertain, bring together, and enlighten this diverse community with the magic of live performance.

Season tickets are now on sale.  The Landis Performing Arts Center Box Office is at (951) 222-8100, or for more information, come and explore www.PerformanceRiverside.org .