Stage Door News
Stage Door News
Toronto, Ontario, March 11, 2013...Acting Up Stage Company has brought together the Dora Award winning team behind Caroline, or Change for its upcoming production of the groundbreaking musical Falsettos produced in association with Harold Green Jewish Theatre. Falsettos opens April 25 through to May 12 at the Daniels Spectrum in Toronto.
Acting Up Stage Company’s second show of the 2012-2013 season is a new production of the Tony and Drama Desk award-winning musical, Falsettos, with book by James Lapine and William Finn and music and lyrics by William Finn. The musical is directed by Robert McQueen with music direction by Reza Jacobs and choreography by Tim French. Falsettos is set against the backdrop of the sexual-revolution and the emergence of AIDS and tells the story of Marvin, a married father who—in 1979—leaves his wife and son for another man. Falsettos breathtakingly depicts the birth of a non-traditional family amidst a time of astonishing change.
Falsettos features an all-star cast in a revival of the most seminal musical to directly addresses the AIDS epidemic. For the first time ever, special permission has been granted by composer and lyricist, William Finn, to Acting Up Stage Company to use the text and score of the original one-acts which comprise Falsettos (March of the Falsettos and Falsettoland). Mining the significant social changes – particularly in the gay community - between the composition of Act I in 1981 and Act 2 in 1990, the creative team behind Falsettos will recreate what it was like for original audiences to revisit the characters after this decade of great upheaval. Using two very different aesthetics to capture the individual spirits of each of the one-acts, Acting Up Stage Company’s Falsettos will take the audience on an emotional journey through 1980’s New York City.
“We are delighted to have built such a strong relationship with William Finn over the last nine seasons and thrilled that he has endorsed our re-examination of the piece,” says Artistic Producer Mitchell Marcus. “Falsettos has always been one of my favourite shows and I think that re-examining it 30 years after the beginning of the AIDS epidemic brings a fascinating new focus and perspective. I am also over-the-moon to be reuniting with so many of the collaborators from last year's hit Caroline, or Change and I look forward to seeing them put their stamp on another ground-breaking contemporary musical. What a delight as well to get to be a part of the first season at the Daniels' Spectrum and to present Falsettos in Toronto's newest, interdisciplinary performance space.”
Falsettos is directed by Robert McQueen (Dora Nominee for Acting Up Stage’s Caroline, or Change and The Light in the Piazza; Pacific Opera Victoria’s Capriccio), music directed by Reza Jacobs (Dora Award winner for Acting Up Stage’s Caroline, or Change, Tapestries and The Long and Winding Road; Birdland and Talk is Free Theatre’s Assassins) and choreographed by Tim French (Dora Nominee for Acting Up Stage’s Caroline, or Change; Soulpepper’s The Fantasticks; Shaw Festival’s The Mystery of Edwin Drood). The creative team is rounded out by lighting designer Kimberly Purtell (Acting Up Stage’s Caroline, or Change and Parade), set designer Patrick du Wors (Globe Theatre’s Metamorphoses; The Grand Theatre’s The Last Five Years), costume designer Alex Amini (Acting Up Stage’s Caroline, or Change and The Light in the Piazza) and sound designer Adam Harendorf (Soulpepper’s The Cherry Orchard; Harold Green Jewish Theatre’s Lost in Yonkers).
Falsettos stars Darrin Baker (Broadway’s Tarzan; Mirvish’s Ghost Stories), Sara-Jeanne Hosie (Arts Club Theatre’s White Christmas and Cabaret), Sarah Gibbons (Edinburgh Fringe’s Sunday in the Park with George), Michael Levinson (Dora nominee for Acting Up Stage’s Caroline, or Change; Theatre Aquarius’ The Full Monty), Eric Morin (Canadian Stage’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream; Ross Petty’s The Wizard of Oz), Stephen Patterson (Stratford’s Wanderlust and You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown; Broadway’s Les Miserables), and Glynis Ranney (Dora winner, Shaw Festival’s Mack & Mable, The Grand Theatre’s Side by Side by Sondheim).
Falsettos opens on April 25, 2013 and runs through May 12 at the Daniels Spectrum (formerly Regent Park Arts & Cultural Centre). Previews are on April 23 at 7 p.m. and April 24 at 8 p.m. Opening is on April 25 at 8 p.m. Performances run Tuesday and Sunday evenings at 7 p.m., Wednesday through Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday matinees at 2 p.m.
About the Company
Since 2004, Acting Up Stage Company (Mitchell Marcus, Artistic Producer) has brought stellar Canadian casts to productions of contemporary and provocative musicals. The company has been heralded with rave reviews, sold-out performances and 26 Dora Award nominations for its productions, including the multiple Dora and Toronto Theatre Critics’ Award winning Caroline, or Change, as well as Dora nominated hits, Parade, The Light In The Piazza, Elegies: A Song Cycle, and A New Brain.
FALSETTOS
April 25 – May 12, 2013 (Previews April 23 and 24)
Daniels Spectrum (formerly Regent Park Arts & Cultural Centre) 585 Dundas St East
Tickets: $39 - $55, students and arts workers receive 20% off. Previews are $35
On Sale Now by Phone at 1-800-838-3006 And Online at www.actingupstage.com
2013-03-12
Toronto: Acting Up Stage Company reunites Dora Award-winning team for “Falsettos”