Founding director is leaving Reprise!

Marcia Seligson, the founding producing artistic director of Reprise!, is leaving the organization that has produced vintage musicals, mostly at UCLA’s Freud Playhouse, since 1997.

Seligson said her departure is “very friendly and amicable” and that she is working on “a big new project” in theater, but she declined to reveal more information.

Board President Robert Wunsch would not comment on what he called a “separation.”

Reprise! managing director Jim Gardia will take over Seligson’s duties for the rest of the season. He said the organization’s finances are sound and that the recent production of “On the Town” was “a huge hit,” but he too refused to discuss details of Seligson’s exit.

Wunsch said the board had not decided whether to search for a new permanent producing artistic director.

-- Don Shirley