Broadway favorites are heading for Lexington stage: What’s coming, how to get tickets

After three seasons impacted one way or another by the COVID pandemic, the Lexington Opera House management feels like it can finally announce a Broadway Live season out from under the disease’s shadow.

“We just completed a season,” Opera House general manager Luanne Franklin says. “It was more tentative a year ago than it is now. We know that there are still chances of those variants popping up and making things difficult again, but I think for the most part, the public is ready to return. That’s been proven time and again.”

Opera House marketing director Sheila Kenny notes that despite pandemic clouds hanging over a significant portion of the 2021-22 season, it set a record for season subscribers. Hoping to top that, the Opera House is presenting a recent hit, three proven crowd pleasers, and a well-timed jukebox musical for the upcoming season.

Broadway Live schedule at the Opera House

▪ “Tootsie” Oct. 21-23: The musical version of the hit 1982 Dustin Hoffman movie won several Tony Awards, including best book of a musical, in 2019.

▪ “Annie” Nov. 3-6: It has been six years since “Annie” has been in the Broadway Live season. This will be the Broadway Buddies show that gives area school students a chance to go behind the scenes with a show on the series.

▪ “On Your Feet!” Jan. 20-22: Just as the Bluegrass is in the depths of winter, the Opera House will fill with the sounds of Gloria and Emilio Estefan and the Miami Sound Machine. A little “Conga” will warm you up.

▪ “My Fair Lady” March 17-19: It will have been 21 years since Broadway Live presented this classic. This is Bartlett Sher’s Lincoln Center production which shifts the focus from romantic comedy to the social critique in George Bernard Shaw’s “Pygmalion,” which was the musical’s source material.

▪ “Jesus Christ Superstar” March 30-April 2: The weekend before Easter the Opera House brings Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s iconic musical to Lexington.

Two shows, “Annie” and “Superstar” will have six performances, including 7:30 Thursday night shows. Those and all other shows will have performances at 7:30 p.m. Friday, 1 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, and 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sunday. Franklin says the two shows with added performances will be a bit of a test to see if it is time for the series to go up to six shows for all productions.

“We’ve grown from three to four to five, and it could be time to move to six performances for Broadway Live,” says Franklin, who became the Opera House’s director in 2000. Increasing the number of shows could open the Opera House up to a new variety of productions for the series, including more recent titles that are generally looking to book longer runs.

Current season subscribers can renew now. New season subscriptions, ranging from $215-$385, will be available beginning June 30. Single tickets will go on sale Sept. 8. Visit lexingtonoperahouse.com or call 859-233-3535 for more information and to subscribe.

In addition to the Broadway Live series, the Opera House announced several Variety Live shows, including “Winnie the Pooh: The New Musical Stage Adaptation” featuring life-size puppetry to tell the story. Broadway Live subscribers will have the first crack at tickets for this show, with singles going on sale Sept. 8. The rest of the Variety Live offerings are from the Lexington Theatre Company, which has some announcements of its own.

Broadway stars coming this summer

The national and local performers lined up for the Lexington Theatre Company’s summer productions of “Disney’s The Little Mermaid,” July 14 to 17, and “Chicago,” Aug. 4 to 7, have been announced.

▪ “Little Mermaid” will be led by recent college graduates Teah M. Renzi of Western Connecticut State University and Gonzalo Aburto de la Fuente of the University of Oklahoma as Ariel and Prince Eric. Broadway and national tour veterans in the cast will include Edward Watts, who was in the company’s production of “The Music Man,” as King Triton, Emily Cramer as Ursula, Ryan Gregory Thurman as Sebastian, and Lexington native Brance Cornelius as Scuttle. Local pros in the show are Gregory Hancock as Grimsby, Cavan Kyle Hendron as Chef Louis, Tammie J. Harris as Carlotta, and Benjamin Preacely as Flounder. Lexington Theatre Company artistic director Lyndy Franklin Smith, who was in the Broadway company of “Little Mermaid,” will direct with choreography by Mara Newbery Greer.

▪ “Chicago” will be led by Broadway and national tour veterans J. Daughtry as Billy Flynn, Kristin Yancy as Roxie, and Lexington native Haley Fish, whose Broadway credits include “Kiss Me Kate,” “Hello Dolly,” and “Cats,” as Velma. Altamiece Carolyn Cooper will play Mama Morton, a role she has played around the country, Cornelius returning as Amos, and Kentucky-based drag star Gilda Wabbit as Mary Sunshine. Patrick O’Neill, who directed a national tour of “Chicago,” will direct and choreograph this production.

Tickets for both shows are on sale now at lexingtontheatrecompany.org or by calling 859-233-3535. The Broadway Live/Variety Live announcement from the Opera House also included word that the Theatre Company’s annual Concert with the Stars will be Jan. 7.

Lexington actors doing national work

In case you missed it, Lexington’s own Grace Victoria Cox played one of the patients in this season’s penultimate episode of “Chicago Med,” which aired May 18. Actually, most of us missed it because the majority of the episode was pre-empted on WLEX-TV as severe weather was in the area. But if you want to catch Cox, playing a pregnant woman with a life-threatening ailment, it is available for streaming On Demand and on Peacock.

Lexington writer Pulitzer finalist

Lexington-based author Gayl Jones was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction for “Palmares,” her first novel in 20 years. Published last fall, it is the story of Almeyda, a Black slave girl on a Portuguese plantation who escapes to a fugitive slave settlement called Palmares. It is the first of five new works from Jones slated for publication in the next two years, which is awesome news for Jones’ fans.