Broadway Comes to New Orleans

The long tradition of live theatrical performances in New Orleans, dating back to the 18th century, continues in the coming weeks and over the course of the 2009-2010 Season with a wide variety of musical productions, all of which have Broadway connections. All but one of the eight shows listed below have been performed on Broadway and that is due to change this fall: the eighth of these productions is set to debut on the Great White Way in October.

Tickets are on sale for all of these shows and information on how to order is listed below. New Orleans is happening right now, with great live stage extravaganzas. Take your pick and order your tickets now.

White Noise to Debut
at Le Petit Theatre
July 9 - 26

White Noise, a new musical bound for Broadway in October of this year, will make its national debut in New Orleans at Le Petit Theatre du Vieux Carré, opening on July 9.

This new “cautionary musical” follows a pair of sisters who lead a pop band that mixes irresistible harmonies with coded rhetoric promoting messages of white power to produce chart-blazing hits. The musical portrays the inadvertent dangers of extremism and its mainstream penetration into our youthful society, as it takes on the issues of freedom of speech, tolerance, race, hate, and commercial propaganda.

Inspired by a true story, the show features a New York cast of veteran Broadway, off-Broadway and television professionals. MacKenzie Mauzy and Patti Murin play sisters Eva and Kady Siller who convey the potential deceptions that can be perpetrated by effective packaging. Talk-back sessions are planned following some of the performances to encourage audience discussion.

The theater is located at the corner of St. Peter and Chartres streets in the French Quarter, opposite the Cabildo and Jackson Square.

White Noise will perform eight shows each week through July 26. Tickets are available through www.WhiteNoiseBroadway.com, www.lepetittheatre.com, or by phone at 504-522-2081. Patrons are advised that the production contains explicit language and hate speech that may not be suitable for children younger than high school age.

Cats Photo by G Creative

The Color Purple Photo by Paul Kolnik

Wicked Photo by Joan Marcus

Avenue Q

“Broadway Across America” Staging Five Top-rated Shows

Starting this fall, “Broadway Across America” will be staging the following shows in New Orleans with all-Broadway casts on the following dates:

• Cats
  October 27-November 1
• The Color Purple
  December 1-6
• Mamma Mia
  February 2-7
• Wicked
  March 24-April 11
• Avenue Q
  June 8-13

All shows will be at the Mahalia Jackson Theater of the Performing Arts in Louis Armstrong Park. Performances will be held in the evening from Tuesday through Saturday with matinees on Saturday and Sunday. Tickets are already on sale at various levels and prices.

Patrons who subscribed to the Saenger Theatre’s cancelled 2005-06 season will be offered seating priority for the Broadway Across America series.

More information on the individual performances will be posted as their dates get closer. For details on the Broadway Across America-New Orleans series and for ticket and season subscription information, call 1-800-218-SHOW (7469) Monday through Friday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Central Time. Or you can log on to www.BroadwayAcrossAmerica.com.

Company and South Pacific at Tulane Summer Lyric Theatre

Tulane Summer Lyric Theatre, now in its 42nd Season, is offering two more productions this summer. Stephen Sondheim’s Company will be performed from July 9-12 and Rogers and Hammerstein’s South Pacific will run from July 30 through August 2.

All performances are held in Dixon Hall on the campus of Tulane University.

Company, the Tony Award-winning musical featuring music and lyrics by Sondheim, is a humorous, lighthearted and sophisticated exploration of love and commitment as seen through the eyes of a charming perpetual bachelor. The score includes such well-known show tunes as “Another Hundred People,” “Side by Side by Side,” “Getting Married Today,” “The Ladies Who Lunch” and “Being Alive.”

South Pacific is one of the all-time musical classics, with such songs as “Some Enchanted Evening,” “Younger than Springtime,” “Bali Ha'i,” “There Is Nothin' Like A Dame” and “A Wonderful Guy.” Based on the novel Tales of the South Pacific by James Michener, South Pacific portrays Americans stationed in an alien culture in wartime. It premiered in 1949 and became both a Pulitzer Prize and multi-Tony Award winner.

For more information and tickets call (504) 865-5269, fax (504) 865-5270 or email lyric@tulane.edu.