THE COLONY THEATRE COMPANY PRESENTS
THE FIFTH AND FINAL PRODUCTION
OF ITS 36th SENSATIONAL SEASON OF SHOWS!
THE ALL NIGHT STRUT!
Conceived by Fran Charnas
Directed & Choreographed by Murphy Cross & Paul Kreppel
Musical Direction by Dean Mora
Limited Engagement opens Saturday, April 2 at The Colony Theatre in
Burbank!
"Red hot and cracking, stimulating and irresistible!" - Detroit Free Press
February 27, 2011 ... Burbank ... The Colony Theatre Company is excited
to
present the fifth and final production of its 36th season,
the classy, sassy musical, THE ALL
NIGHT STRUT!, conceived by Fran
Charnas, directed & choreographed by Murphy Cross and Paul Kreppel (Jay
Johnson: The Two and Only!) with musical direction by Dean Mora.
THE ALL NIGHT STRUT! will
preview on Wednesday, March 30; Thursday, March 31; and Friday, April 1
at 8:00pm and will open on Saturday, April 2 at 8:00pm and continue
through Sunday, May 1 at The Colony Theatre, 555 North Third Street (at
Cypress) adjacent to the Burbank Town Center.
THE ALL NIGHT STRUT!
is a musical celebration that carries us through the Depression, World
War II, and the postwar boom. From the funky jive of Harlem to the
sophisticated elegance of El Morocco and the romance of the Stage Door
Canteen, this international hit sings, soars, and struts with its
sublime, timeless music and sheer energy with songs that tug the heart,
tickle the funny bone, and raise the rafters. Songs include In The
Mood, As Time Goes By, Chattanooga Choo Choo, Ain't Misbehavin',
and more, by such legendary composers as Hoagy Carmichael, Frank
Loesser, Duke Ellington, Johnny Mercer, Jerome Kern, and Cab Calloway.
The
award-winning Colony Theatre Company was founded in 1975 as a 99-seat
Equity-waiver theatre in Silver Lake. Over the years the company was so
successful artistically, and built such a large subscriber base, that
in 2000 it was able to move into a 270-seat theatre created for it by
the City of Burbank, becoming one of only 5 mid-size professional
theatres in the LA area that produce a year-round season of plays and
musicals, and that employ actors under contract with Actors' Equity
Association. Since the move to Burbank, The Colony was named one of "25
Notable U.S. Theatre Companies" by the Encyclopedia Britannica Almanac
for 8 years in a row and voted "Best Live Theatre in LA" in The Daily
News 2006 Readers' Choice poll. The company's audience is so loyal that
in an era when subscription is declining dramatically, and when the
industry-wide "gold standard" renewal rate of 80% is considered
unattainable, for the past two seasons The Colony has achieved a
subscription renewal rate over 90%.
ABOUT THE CREATIVE TEAM
FRAN CHARNAS
(Conception / Original Director and Choreographer) has directed theatre
at various commercial, regional, and college theaters across the
country. The All Night Strut! has toured the United States,
Canada, and Europe, and was nationally broadcast on PBS. She also
conceived and directed Too Marvelous for Words: The Magic of Johnny
Mercer and co-authored and directed a new 60's musical, Sheboppin',
which premiered at the Wilbur Theater in Boston. She is currently
preparing a musical based on the life of Ethel Waters. Fran is the
former Administrative Director of The Boston Conservatory Summer
Institute in Musical Theater, and she is a graduate of Ohio University
and Emerson College.
MURPHY CROSS
(Director/Choreographer) won the Tony Award and Ovation
Award for co-creating, directing, and producing Broadway's Jay
Johnson: The Two and Only! She is a Broadway acting / singing /
dancing alumna of A Chorus Line, Pal Joey, Bubbling
Brown Sugar, and Division Street. She has directed Sunday's
Children All Fall Down, Blinders, The Magic Feather,
Lysistrata, Spirit Awakening, Rosie The Riveter,
Hollywood Canteen Christmas Spectacular (Best Director nominee,
VTL), Sacrifice, Big Tush, Little Tush, Pinocchio,
Now And Then, Is This America, Or What?! Choreography
credits include Annie Get Your Gun (with Donna McKechnie), The
Cradle Will Rock, A Good Swift Kick!, Both Barrels, Don't
Hug Me, Little Shop Of Horrors, Oh, Coward!, Noel
& Gertie, Forum, and Anything Goes.
TV choreography includes HBO's "Deadwood," "Carnivale," "Yes, Dear,"
"Roseanne," "CBS Summer Specials," "Sabrina the Teenage Witch,"
"Coach," and "It's Garry Shandling's Show," and she has choreographed
for such stars as John Travolta, Debbie Reynolds, Rip Taylor, Dick Van
Dyke, and Mary Tyler Moore. Murphy has extensive television acting
credits including "Numb3rs," "Cheers," "Night Court," "Family Law," and
the classic "Taxi" episodes where she played Louie's blind blind-date –
and behind the camera, her short film "Blinders" garnered several
festival awards. She is a partner in WetRock Entertainment, Inc., whose
newest show is the musical First Kids, which is coming soon.
PAUL KREPPEL
(Director/Choreographer) won the Tony Award for
co-creating, directing, and producing Jay Johnson: The Two and
Only!
He also won the Ovation Award and an L.A. Drama Critics Circle
nomination for the show's run at The Colony Theatre, in addition to the
IRNE Award at Boston's A.R.T., and a Lucille Lortel nomination for the
Off-Broadway run at the Atlantic Theater Company. As a partner in
WetRock Entertainment (with Murphy Cross), he produced the Ovation
Award-winning The Big Voice: God or Merman?, and he is
currently developing the musical First Kids by Abraham
Tetenbaum and Norman L. Berman. Theatre directing credits include the
Godspell national tour, Both Barrels, Hello Muddah,
Hello Fadduh!, God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater, and world
premieres of Zero Hour and Don't Hug Me. On and
Off-Broadway acting credits include Godspell, Joseph and the
Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh!, The
Proposition, and Joseph Papp's productions of The Comedy of
Errors, Agamemnon, and Alice in Concert, in addition
to starring in the national tour of Jerome Robbins' Broadway.
Los Angeles appearances include Reprise's Promises, Promises
and The Taper's Cabaret Verboten. Among his hundreds of
television appearances, he is best remembered as Sonny Mann on the 80's
comedy It's A Living. Others include ER and as
Jackie's Dad on That 70's Show. TV directing credits
include Dave's World, Brotherly Love, and It's A
Living.
DEAN MORA (Musical Director)
is the recipient of the Ovation Award for
musical directing Lady MacBeth Sings The Blues at the Rubicon
Theatre, and he returns to The Colony Theatre, having previously worked
on No Way To Treat A Lady and The Immigrant. Other
musical direction credits include One Touch of Venus, Fade Out Fade
In, Good Woman of Setzuan, Seesaw, The Dead, The
Threepenny Opera, Do Re Mi, Side By Side By Sondheim, Jacques
Brel Is Alive and Well ..., The World Goes Round, A
Little Night Music, Pump Boys and Dinettes, City of
Angels, Two By Two, Baby, Man of La Mancha,
Ain't Misbehavin', Forever Plaid, The Sound of Music,
Weird Romance, Quilters, The Boyfriend, A
Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum, The Fantasticks, and
Godspell. Outside of the theatre world, Dean leads his own big
band.
ABOUT THE CAST
AND DESIGN TEAM
MICHAEL DOTSON returns to The Colony Theatre following his
performance
in The Grand Tour, starring Jason Graae. He recently finished a
run of SUDS at the Cosmopolitan Cabaret, and his favorite roles
include Bob Crachit in A Christmas Carol and George in I
Love A Piano at the Lawrence Welk Resort Theatre, Gay Divorce
for 42nd St Moon in San Francisco, and Forever Plaid
at the Las Vegas Flamingo and Actors Theatre of Indiana (where he will
perform in The Andrews Brothers
later this year). Michael has been a perennial favorite at Sacramento's
Music Circus having been seen in over 30 productions over 11 years,
including Spamalot, The Music Man, Crazy for You,
The Scarlet Pimpernel, Ragtime, and Annie.
JAYME LAKE most recently
starred as the clueless Lexie in the long
running hit musical, It's the Housewives!
in which she made the Back Stage Garland's Critics List 2009 for Best
Performance in a Musical. Prior to that Jayme stared as Chelsea in the
Off-Broadway production of Hillary Agonistes and she also
created the role of Candy in the world premiere musical, YEEHAD! at
the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland. A 2003 graduate of the
Pacific Conservatory of the Performing Arts (PCPA), Actor Training
Program, Jayme's many stage credits include Ariel in Footloose,
Songs for a New World, Tick, Tick, BOOM!!, and Defying
Gravity at Rubicon Theatre Company, Veronica in the world
premiere of The Wildest!!! at PCPA, Sandy in Grease,
Penny in HONK!, Polly in Crazy For You, Wonderful Town,
Little Women, and many more.
SCOTCH ELLIS LORING has
performed to great acclaim all over the
country. He appeared as Frederick Douglas in the First National Tour of
Civil War, and other theatre credits include South Pacific
and House of Flowers at the Denver Center Theatre, 80 Days
at the La Jolla Playhouse, and the original company of Jelly's Last
Jam and Hope of the Heart, both at the Mark Taper Forum. In
2009, he released his first album, Standard Scotch, and has
just completed the follow up, Original Scotch; both are
available on iTunes and Amazon. His television career began with The
Facts of Life and now includes Lie to Me, Sons of Tucson,
Desperate Housewives, Miss Guided, Wonderfalls, Frasier,
24, Alias, and Malcolm in the Middle. Film work
includes Finding Mr. Wright, Hard Pill, Fight Club,
K-911, and Firehouse Dog – where in addition to
starring, Scotch wrote and performed the closing theme song Lost
Till I Found You. As a writer, Scotch's first produced screenplay,
WIG, has been featured in festivals across North America
and is currently making the rounds internationally.
JENNIFER SHELTON toured the
country with the First National Company of Ragtime
(Livent Inc.) and has performed all over California with such companies
as The Hollywood Bowl Orchestra/LA Philharmonic, CLO of South Bay
Cities, Laguna Playhouse, McCoy Rigby, and Sacramento's Music Circus.
She's also a frequent headliner of The Carpenter Center, Long Beach
Symphony Orchestra, and Pacific Southwest Symphony. Favorite credits
include Jaques Brel is Alive and Well ... for The Colony
Theatre; Songs for a New World, Five Course Love, The
Story, Honk!, and Swinging on a Star for
International City Theatre; One Touch of Venus, the Spider
Woman in Kiss of the Spider Woman, Lois Lane in It's a Bird
… Superman!, As Thousands Cheer, and Do Re Mi for
Musical Theatre Guild; And Miss Reardon Drinks a Little and A
Raisin in the Sun for CCAP; Aldonza in Man of La Mancha for
the Rubicon; Cinderella in Into the Woods for Lamb's Players;
Belle in Disney's Beauty and the Beast, Sarah in Ragtime,
and Hello, Dolly! for Moonlight Amphitheatre; Hot Mikado
and World Goes ‘Round for Musical Theatre West; and Rosemary
in How to Succeed… for Starlight. Jennifer is a proud member of
Musical Theatre Guild.
THE ALL NIGHT STRUT! has assembled an award-winning design team. The
Scenic Design is by Stephen Gifford (LA Weekly Award - Lady).
The Lighting Design is by Luke Moyer (Ovation Award – Dracula).
The Costume Design is by Sharon McGunigle (Ovation Award – Alice in
One-Hit Wonderland). The Sound Design is by Rebecca Kessin (Merrily
We Roll Along).
ABOUT THE SCHEDULE AND PRICING
THE ALL NIGHT STRUT! will open
on Saturday, April 2 at 8:00pm and
continue through Sunday,
May 1. Performances for THE ALL NIGHT STRUT! are Thursdays & Fridays at 8:00pm; Saturdays at 3:00pm & 8:00pm; and Sundays at 2:00pm. Ticket prices range from $20.00 - $42.00 (student, senior and group discounts are available). THE ALL NIGHT STRUT! will preview on Wednesday, March 30; Thursday, March 31; and Friday, April 1 at 8:00pm. Opening night performance with reception - all tickets $50.00. There are question-and-answer talkbacks after the performances on Friday, April 8, and Thursday, April 21. For tickets, call the Colony Theatre Box Office at 818/558-7000 ext. 15 or online at www.colonytheatre.org.
For more information, press interviews, photos or for press comps, please contact David Elzer/DEMAND PR at 818/508-1754 or at ELZERD@aol.com or visit www.demandpr.com.
The Colony Theatre Company is a 36-year old organization dedicated to bringing the finest-quality theatrical productions to Los Angeles. The theatre is located at 555 North Third Street, at the corner of Cypress, in the heart of Downtown Burbank. For further information, call (818) 558-7000. Fax: (818) 558-7110. E-mail: colonytheatre@colonytheatre.org. Or visit our website at www.colonytheatre.org