‘Matilda’ and more heading to Moonlight in just-announced 2019 summer season
A family-minded musical with a twist of mordant British wit will headline Moonlight Stage Productions’ just-announced 2019 season of summer musicals.
The Vista company is set to stage the San Diego regional premiere of “Matilda the Musical,” the Broadway favorite that scooped up five Tony Awards in 2013.
The 2019 slate in the outdoor Moonlight Amphitheatre also will take in the company’s first production of the movie-based musical hit “The Producers,” as well as the San Diego regional premiere of the musical comedy “Victor/Victoria.”
And Moonlight will stage its first revival of the classic musical “West Side Story” in more than a decade.
Steven Glaudini, the company’s producing artistic director, is officially announcing the 2019 season tonight from the stage in Brengle Terrace Park, as Moonlight opens its current season with “Mamma Mia!”
Here are dates and details on the full 2019 lineup:
“The Producers,” June 12-29, 2019: The bonkers 2001 musical was adapted by Mel Brooks and Thomas Meehan from Brooks’ own 1967 movie about a pair of comically unscrupulous show-biz grifters. It won 12 Tony Awards (including best musical), still a record. Moonlight favorite Larry Raben, who played the role of Leo Bloom both on Broadway and in Las Vegas, not only reprises that performance but is directing the Moonlight staging, which will feature the Broadway sets and costumes.
“Matilda the Musical,” July 17 to Aug. 3, 2019: The British-born musical about a defiant, heroically book-loving schoolgirl is based on the children’s book by Roald Dahl. The show, with a memorably quirky score by Tim Minchin, has been through San Diego on tour, but this will be its first local staging. Moonlight regular Randall Hickman takes on the role of Miss Trunchbull, the show’s tyrannical headmistress, in this charmingly off-the-wall ode to girl power.
“West Side Story,” Aug. 13-31, 2019: Moonlight last staged the enduring 1957 musical, with its matchless score by Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim, in 2007. That production’s key creative trio — director Glaudini, choreographer Carlos Mendoza and musical director and conductor Elan McMahan — reunite for this revival. Moonlight says the team will incorporate projections and other modern touches in this story of warring New York gangs, inspired by Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet.”
“Victor/Victoria,” Sept. 11-28, 2019: The summer’s final show is the long-time-in-coming local premiere of the 1995 musical based on the 1982 Blake Edwards movie, which starred Julie Andrews and Robert Preston. The piece centers on an unusual Paris entertainer: a woman posing as a man impersonating a woman. Glaudini has had his eye on the Henry Mancini-scored show for a long time, and jumped at the chance to produce it when the Broadway sets and costumes recently became available.
Subscriptions for the 2019 season go on sale in January, followed by single ticket sales in March. For more details, call (760) 724-2110 or visit moonlightstage.com.
After “Mamma Mia!,” Moonlight’s current season continues with Disney’s “Newsies” (July 18 to Aug. 4), “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” (Aug. 15 to Sept. 1) and “Chicago” (Sept. 12-29).
Twitter: @jimhebert
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