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Broadway Live at the Opera House, 2011-12

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"The Midtown Men," featuring members of the original cast of "The Jersey Boys," will close out the 2011-12 Broadway Live season. © Photo provided by the Lexington Opera House.

The Lexington Opera House has announced what is calls a “monster” 2011-12 season that will simultaneously celebrate two anniversaries: the series’ 35th and the theater’s 125th.

The series was started by Richard F. “Dick” Pardy, who ran the Opera House from its reopening in 1976 until his death in 2000. Early editions leaned heavily on big-name celebrities such as Vincent Price and Carol Channing leading productions of Broadway classics such as Hello Dolly!, with Pardy booking shows when he could get them on the way from one tour stop to another.

Cathy Rigby will reprise her performance as Peter Pan to open the season. © Photo by Craig Schwartz.

Cathy Rigby will reprise her performance as Peter Pan to open the season. © Photo by Craig Schwartz.

The 2011-12 season will have a bit of both of those flavors.

In recent years, Opera House program director Luanne Franklin has standardized weekend dates for shows that are often recent Broadway hits.It opens with a production of Peter Pan, Sept. 23 to 25, featuring Cathy Rigby, 58, in her signature role as the boy who doesn’t want to grow up.

The monsters of the season are Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein, Nov. 4 to 6, and Shrek the Musical, Feb. 17 to 19. Those shows bookend 2008 Tony Award winner for best musical, In the Heights, Jan. 20 to 22.

“We always want to get the Tony Award winners and biggest hits as soon as we can after they’ve been on Broadway,” said Franklin.

The season will close with four of the primary cast members of the Tony-winning  show The Jersey Boys in a production called The Midtown Men, April 27 to 29. The show will feature music by Jersey Boys subject Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons as well as the Beatles, Beach Boys and others. Before that will be Come Fly Away (don’t worry if you accidentally call it Come Fly with Me, so have we), March 9 to 11, the show of Frank Sinatra’s music set to choreography by Twyla Tharp.

Come Fly Away pairs the music of Frank Sinatra with the choreography of Twyla Tharp. © Photo by Joan Marcus.

Come Fly Away pairs the music of Frank Sinatra with the choreography of Twyla Tharp. © Photo by Joan Marcus.

The main change from the just-completed 2010-11 season will be that family shows, Peter Pan and Shrek, start at 1 p.m. for matinees and 7 p.m. for evening performances.

Franklin said family shows such as Disney’s Beauty and the Beast have very successful in recent seasons.

“I don’t try to schedule two family shows in a season,” she said. “But I don’t have any problems doing that if we have the opportunity.”

Click here for ticket information.

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