Forget Your Cares-Music and Laughs Highlight Arts Center 2011/2012 Season

Broadway classics, modern musicals, big laughs and plenty of dance headline the Arts Center 2011/2012 new season. The People's Choice lineup is a mix of recent Broadway gems and modern comedy classics, including Dreamgirls, followed by The Drowsy Chaperone, Lend Me a Tenor and How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. The sounds of British pop get the spotlight next summer, with Shout! The Mod Musical.

"This season is going to be really special," said Kathleen Bateson, president and CEO of the Arts Center. "We're excited, because all of these shows are brand new to the Arts Center. They've never been produced here, and it's a great opportunity to create something fresh and exciting."

Also new this year will be a special two-week run of Driving Miss Daisy, March 17-April 1, 2012. The run is shorter than most Arts Center productions, because it's not part of the regular five-show theater season. But Bateson said she could not pass up mounting the Pulitzer-winning play.

The theater season kicks off with the Arts Center premiere of the Broadway smash Dreamgirls (Sept. 28-Oct. 23), a look at the backstage lives of the popular Dreams-the hottest girl group in the 1960s and '70s. The show will be directed by Arts Center favorite, Casey Colgan (Les Miserables, My Fair Lady). Winner of six Tonys and two Grammys, Dreamgirls, featuring the hits "One Night Only," "I Am Changing" and the classic "And I am Telling You ...," is a worldwide phenomenon that the Los Angeles Times called "groundbreaking."

For the holidays, the Arts Center presents The Drowsy Chaperone (Dec. 7-31). Inventive, fast-paced and delirious, Chaperone is an homage to the zany musicals of the 1920s. The hilarious show-within-a-show goes inside the head of a Broadway fanatic as he plays his favorite cast album, a 1928 smash hit called The Drowsy Chaperone, and the show magically bursts to life. Audiences are instantly immersed in the glamorous, hilarious tale of a celebrity bride and her uproarious wedding day, featuring dames, thugs, mix-ups, mayhem and madcap fun.

Winter will heat up with humor, as Lend Me a Tenor brings its unique blend of fast-paced laughs Feb. 7-26, 2012. Winner of two Tony Awards, Time Out New York called it "the most howlingly funny laugh machine to hit Broadway in years!" It's 1934, and Cleveland's premiere opera producer is on the verge of a nervous breakdown. The tickets are sold and the stage is set, but it's about to become un disastro gigantesco, because the leading man-the greatest tenor in the world-has gone missing in this hijinks-fueled farce that will have audiences laughing in the aisles.

Fresh off a smash-hit, Tony-nominated Broadway revival, How to Succeed... arrives at the Arts Center April 25-May 27, 2012. The comedy classic, recently named to Entertainment Weekly's "Top 13 Funniest Broadway Musicals" (along with Drowsy Chaperone)-follows wily window washer J. Pierrepont Finch and his riotous rise up the corporate ladder. Can he get the promotion, the corner office and the girl?

"The show is fresh and exciting and a perfect fit for today. But most of all, it's hilarious. People are going to have a blast," Bateson said.

The season ends with a jukebox flashback: Shout! The Mod Musical, June 19-July 29, 2012. The rockin', rollickin' show looks back at the music of the British wave of the 1960s. With a score full of hits-"To Sir With Love," "Downtown," "Say You Love Me," "Son of a Preacher Man" and more-you won't want to miss this winking nod to the era of miniskirts and go-go boots.

Subscribe today and save on all five shows with a Full-Season Plan or the $25-off Full-Season Preview Plan, which features one ticket to each of the preview performances of the five shows. Or, if you prefer, purchase the Flex Plan, which includes five tickets that can be redeemed in any fashion-one per the five shows or in any other combination you choose.

Subscribers also get a bonus $5 off a ticket to Driving Miss Daisy. Along with advanced seat selection, you'll also receive other discounted ticket prices, coupons and free ticket exchange. Call (843) 842-ARTS or visit artshhi.com for details.

by: Tim Hager