Broadway, regional premieres, world premieres, old favorites — Uptown Players has it all for the 2019-20 season. There are several big "gets" in the lineup, among them the recent Broadway cult favorite Head Over Heels (which features the music of The Go-Go's) and the landmark musical Fun Home, a coming-of-age memoir about lesbian graphic novelist Alison Bechdel.
But first it's time for Nuncrackers A-men!, Dan Goggins' Christmas musical that's guaranteed to make your yuletide gay. It stars the nuns you love from Nunsense, this time played by men, plus Father Virgil and four of Mount Saint Helen's most talented students. Featuring all new songs, including "Twelve Days Prior to Christmas," "Santa Ain't Comin' to Our House," "We Three Kings of Orient Are Us," and "It's Better to Give Than to Receive," this show follows the sisters as they tape their first TV special in the cable access studio built by Reverend Mother in the convent basement. It runs December 6-15, 2019.
The Uptown Players divas return for another entertaining weekend of Broadway music with plenty of twists, laughs, and surprises at Broadway Our Way. The evening features many of your favorite actors from past Uptown Players seasons performing selections from Broadway shows, both past and present, all done with an Uptown Players twist. The annual fundraiser moves back to the Kalita Humphreys Theater this year, and for the ninth straight year will be written and directed by B. J. Cleveland. It runs January 16-19, 2020.
Fun Home is the winner of five Tony Awards (including Best Musical), and was adapted by Lisa Kron and Jeanine Tesori from Alison Bechdel's 2006 graphic memoir. When her father dies unexpectedly, graphic novelist Alison dives deep into her past to tell the story of the volatile, brilliant, one-of-a-kind man whose temperament and secrets defined her family and her life. Moving between past and present, Alison relives her unique childhood playing at the family's Bechdel Funeral Home, her growing understanding of her own sexuality, and the looming, unanswerable questions about her father's hidden desires. It runs April 10-26, 2020.
John Guare's Six Degrees of Separation was a 2017 Tony nominee for Best Revival of a Play, having originally premiered in 1990. Inspired by a true story, the play follows the trail of a young black con man who insinuates himself into the lives of a wealthy New York couple, claiming he knows their son at college. Paul tells them he is the son of actor Sidney Poitier, and that he has just been mugged and all his money is gone. After they discover him in bed with a young male hustler from the streets, the picture begins to change. One of the greatest American plays of our time, Guare's script examines the threads of chance that link one person to another. It runs May 29-June 7, 2020.
For the final mainstage production of its 2019-2020 season, Uptown Players presents the regional premiere of the recent Broadway musical Head Over Heels. Coming from the visionaries that rocked Broadway with Hedwig and the Angry Inch and Avenue Q, this laugh-out-loud love story is set to the music of the iconic 1980s all-female rock band The Go-Go's. It includes the hit songs "We Got the Beat," "Our Lips Are Sealed," "Vacation," Belinda Carlisle's "Heaven is a Place on Earth," and "Mad About You." A hilarious, exuberant celebration of love, Head Over Heels follows the escapades of a royal family on an outrageous journey to save their beloved kingdom from extinction. It runs July 10-26, 2020.
The group's 19th season closes with a limited-run presentation of the world premiere of Del Shores' new play A Very Sordid Wedding. It's 2015, 17 years after Peggy tripped over G.W.'s wooden legs and died in Sordid Lives, and life has moved into the present for the residents of Winters, Texas. Based on the 2017 hit film of the same name, A Very Sordid Wedding explores the questions, bigotry, and fallout of what happens when gay marriage comes to communities and families that are not quite ready to accept it. It runs August 21-30, 2020.
Individual ticket prices for all shows range from $25-$60. All performances will take place at the Kalita Humphreys Theater. Four-, five-, or six-show season ticket flex packages are available and include great discounts on both premium and regular seating. Season tickets can be purchased online or by phone at 214-219-2718.
Broadway Our Way is Uptown Players' annual revue.
