2019-20 - Oklahoma City University - Opera & Music Theater Season Brochure

2019–20 | OUR 68th SEASON! Winner of 7 National Opera Awards in the past 6 years!

WORLD’S LONGEST RUNNING COLLEGIATE OPERA & MUSIC THEATER COMPANY

Oklahoma

Opera & Music Theater Company

WA N DA L . B A S S S CH O O L O F MU S IC

2019 2020

WE LCOME T O OU R 2019 - 2020 SEASON Join us as Oklahoma City University’s award-winning Oklahoma Opera & Music Theater Company presents three centuries of stage favorites: three Tony Award-winning Best Musicals; two elegant 19th century operatic classics; and the Oklahoma premiere of a riotous zombies-meet-Gilbert and Sullivan mashup.

Clockwise from top: Side Show, 2018; Side Show, 2018; Little Women, 2007.

OKLAHOMA CI TY UNI VERS I T Y

MAINSTAGE MUSICAL

MAINSTAGE OPERA

THE MUSIC MAN

DIE FLEDERMAUS

SPOTLIGHT OPERA

SPOTLIGHT MUSICAL

THE ZOMBIES OF PENZANCE

A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC

MAINSTAGE OPERA

MAINSTAGE MUSICAL

LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR

SPAMALOT

September 27–29

October 31–November 3

November 15–17

February 21–23

February 28–March 1

April 24–26

Top: Cendrillon, 2019. Bottom: Sister Act, 2017.

WA N DA L . B A S S S CH O O L O F MU S IC

1957

The Music Man SEPT EMBER 2 7– 2 9 MAINSTAGE MUSICAL: KIRKPATRICK AUDITORIUM

OKLAHOMA CI TY UNI VERS I T Y

PERFORMANC E S 8 p.m. Friday, September 27

8 p.m. Saturday, September 28 3 p.m. Sunday, September 29

T ICKETS $14–28 • 405.208.5227 • okcu.edu/tickets

OPENI NG NIGHT DI NNER Tickets: $25 • Bass Music Center Atrium

6:15 p.m. Friday, September 27

PRE- SHOW DIRECTOR’S TALK Free • Petree Recital Hall

7:15 p.m. Friday, September 27

7:15 p.m. Saturday, September 28 2:15 p.m. Sunday, September 29

MUSIC , BOOK & LYRIC S Meredith Willson

INSPIRED BY Creator’s boyhood in Mason City, Iowa

OF NOTE The original Broadway production won five Tony Awards, beating West Side Story for best musical; a Broadway revival starring Hugh Jackman is planned for 2020.

DAVID HERENDEEN Director MATTHEW MAILMAN Music Director

SYNOP SIS A fast-talking huckster descends on River City, Iowa, in the summer of 1912, convincing the townsfolk of their need for a marching band. The slick outsider’s enthusiasm transforms the quarreling school board into a harmonizing barbershop quartet, Marian the Librarian into a woman in love, and her shy brother into a boy with dreams.

WHAT THE CRI T IC S SAY If Mark Twain could have collaborated with Vachel Lindsay, they might have devised a rhythmic lark like The Music Man, which is as American as apple pie and a Fourth of July Oration.

—Brooks Atkinson, The New York Times

WA N DA L . B A S S S CH O O L O F MU S IC

2018

The Zombies

SYNOPSIS A long-lost first draft of Gilbert and Sullivan’s classic The Pirates of Penzance, which debuted in New York in 1879, is discovered and brought to life 140 years later in what may have been its earlier, stranger form: a dark comedy with most of the same characters—including Major-General Stanley, a retired zombie hunter—but a slightly different plot.

OKLAHOMA CI TY UNI VERS I T Y

of Penzance OC TOBER 3 1 – NOVEMBER 3 SPOTLIGHT OPERA: BURG THEATRE

Oklahoma Premiere!

PERFORMANC E S 10 p.m. Thursday, October 31 8 p.m. Friday, November 1

8 p.m. Saturday, November 2 3 p.m. Sunday, November 3

T ICKE TS $15 • 405.208.5227 • okcu.edu/tickets

MUSIC Gilbert Sullivan, John Gerdes

BOOK & LYRIC S Arthur Sullivan, Scott Miller

INSPIRED BY Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance

OF NOTE Premiered by St. Louis’ New Line Theatre in 2018

DAVID HERENDEEN Director CHARLES KOSLOWSKE Music Director

WHAT THE CRI T IC S SAY This show is wholly entertaining, starting with the first overture notes … and continuing until the very last hysterical twist as the lights go dim at the end. This wild, wonderful adaptation closely mimics the original, only this version is darker, edgier, weirder, and paradoxically funnier. Plus, there are dancing zombies! —Tanya Seale, Broadway World

WA N DA L . B A S S S CH O O L O F MU S IC

1835

Lucia di Lam NOVEMBER 1 5 – 1 7 MAINSTAGE OPERA: KIRKPATRICK AUDITORIUM

Performed in Italian, with English supertitles

SYNOP SIS The tragic love story follows Lucia and Edgardo—members of opposing Scottish

clans carrying on a secret affair—and the events that lead to murder and madness.

OKLAHOMA CI TY UNI VERS I T Y

mmermoor PERFORMANC E S 8 p.m. Friday, November 15

8 p.m. Saturday, November 16 3 p.m. Sunday, November 17

T ICKE TS $14-28 • 405.208.5227 • okcu.edu/tickets

OPENI NG NIGHT DI NNER Tickets: $25 • Bass Music Center Atrium

6:15 p.m. Friday, November 15

PRE- SHOW DIRECTOR’S TALK Free • Petree Recital Hall

7:15 p.m. Friday, November 15

7:15 p.m. Saturday, November 16 2:15 p.m. Sunday, November 17

MUSIC Gaetano Donizetti

L I BR E T T O Salvadore Cammarano

INSPIRED BY Sir Walter Scott’s 1819 novel The Bride of Lammermoor

OF NOTE A bel canto take on a wedding night incident in 1668 Scotland KAREN COE MILLER Director JAN MCDANIEL Music Director

WHAT THE CRI T IC S SAY A seductively beautiful, deeply disturbing tale of love unhinged. Used as a political pawn by her family and forced to marry a man she does not love, Lucia is driven to despair and derangement, escalating to one of the most haunting mad scenes in all of opera. —Opera Philadelphia News

WA N DA L . B A S S S CH O O L O F MU S IC

1874

Die Fledermaus FE BRUARY 2 1 – 2 3 MAINSTAGE OPERA: KIRKPATRICK AUDITORIUM

OKLAHOMA CI TY UNI VERS I T Y

PERFORMANC E S 8 p.m. Friday, February 21

8 p.m. Saturday, February 22 3 p.m. Sunday, February 23

T ICKETS $14–28 • 405.208.5227 • okcu.edu/tickets

OPENI NG NIGHT DI NNER Tickets: $25 • Bass Music Center Atrium

6:15 p.m. Friday, February 21

PRE- SHOW DIRECTOR’S TALK Free • Petree Recital Hall

7:15 p.m. Friday, February 21

7:15 p.m. Saturday, February 22 2:15 p.m. Sunday, February 23

MUSIC Johann Strauss II

L I BR ET T O Karl Hafner, Richard Genée

INSPIRED BY German farce Das Gefängnis (The Prison) and Le Reveillon (The Midnight Supper)

OF NOTE Die Fledermaus’ Easter premiere scandalized critics with its frothy plot of mistaken identities and a practical joke spinning out of control, but audiences loved it.

DAVID HERENDEEN Director JAN MCDANIEL Music Director

SYNOP SIS A Viennese operetta spiced with waltzes and comic vengeance and powered by an elaborate practical joke filled with characters pretending to be people they’re not.

WHAT THE CRI T IC S SAY Die Fledermaus (The Bat) has endured as a favorite since 1874 because it took all of the scintillating elements of traditional light opera to another realm of sophistication. Strauss elevated the genre by adding elegance and complexity to the music. —Opera Wire

WA N DA L . B A S S S CH O O L O F MU S IC

1973

A Little Night

SYNOPSIS Set in 1900 Sweden, a tangled web of affairs is centered on the actress Desirée Armfeldt and the two men who love her. Both suitors—and their jealous wives—agree to convene with Desirée and her family for a weekend in the country. With everyone in one place, the possibility of new romances and second chances bring surprise twists.

OKLAHOMA CI TY UNI VERS I T Y

t Music F E BRUARY 2 8 – MARC H 1 SPOTLIGHT MUSICAL: BURG THEATRE

Performed in English

PERFORMANC E S 8 p.m. Friday, February 28

8 p.m. Saturday, February 29 3 p.m. Sunday, March 1

T ICKE TS $15 • 405.208.5227 • okcu.edu/tickets

MUSIC & LYRIC S Stephen Sondheim

BOOK Hugh Wheeler

INSPIRED BY Ingmar Bergman’s 1955 Swedish film, Smiles of a Summer Night

OF NOTE Original Broadway production won four Tony Awards, including Best Musical, Score and Book

JEREMY HAYES Director CHARLES KOSLOWSKE Music Director

WHAT THE CRI T IC S SAY Heady, civilized, sophisticated and enchanting. It is Dom Pérignon. It is supper at Lasserre. It is a mixture of Cole Porter, Gustav Mahler, Antony Tudor and just a little Ingmar Bergman …. The music is a celebration of 3/4 time, an orgy of plaintively memorable waltzes, all talking of past loves and lost worlds. —Clive Barnes, The New York Times

WA N DA L . B A S S S CH O O L O F MU S IC

2004

Spamalot APRIL 24 – 26 MAINSTAGE MUSICAL: KIRKPATRICK AUDITORIUM

SYNOP SIS King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table are searching for the Holy Grail.

They sing and dance their way on their quest through Monty Python classic

comedy with characters including the Lady of the Lake, the Laker Girls, plague victims, casino workers, and French taunters.

OKLAHOMA CI TY UNI VERS I T Y

PERFORMANC E S 8 p.m. Friday, April 24

8 p.m. Saturday, April 25 3 p.m. Sunday, April 26

T ICKETS $14–28 • 405.208.5227 • okcu.edu/tickets

OPENI NG NIGHT DI NNER Tickets: $25 • Bass Music Center Atrium

6:15 p.m. Friday, April 12

PRE- SHOW DIRECTOR’S TALK Free • Petree Recital Hall

7:15 p.m. Friday, April 24

7:15 p.m. Saturday, April 25 2:15 p.m. Sunday, April 26

MUSIC John Du Prez, Eric Idle

BOOK & LYRIC S Eric Idle

INSPIRED BY 1975 movie Monty Python and The Holy Grail

OF NOTE The original Broadway production won three Tony Awards, including Best Musical.

KAREN COE MILLER Director MATTHEW MAILMAN Music Director

WHAT THE CRI T IC S SAY I suppose there are a few people who won’t enjoy Spamalot. The chronically depressed, the criminally insane and the snootier drama critics may find it hard to raise a smile. The loss is all theirs, however, and I suspect everyone else will have an absolute ball. There has never been a sillier musical than this … an exuberantly inventive production in which the jokes, both visual and verbal, just keep on coming, creating a conspiracy of pleasure. —Charles Spencer, The Telegraph

WA N DA L . B A S S S CH O O L O F MU S IC

RECENT REVIEWS Of OCU’s Oklahoma Opera & Music Theater Company By presenting this kind of work in Oklahoma City, OCU proves its commitment to prepare students for work in today’s artistic landscape, ensuring their readiness for the future beyond graduation … exposing its students to cutting-edge artists and composers and not merely focusing on the Puccinis and Wagners of the operatic canon. Composer Nico Muhly was even in attendance as an artist-in-residence for the week, providing students a firsthand opportunity to learn from and work directly with a relevant artist in the industry beyond Oklahoma.

OCU is known for the successes of many of its alumni—Kelli O’Hara, Kristin Chenoweth, Lara Teeter, etc.—and this new crop of upand-coming talent will surely make their mark alongside them.

I applaud the university’s choice of material and look forward to seeing where these students, brimming with potential, will land … surely among the stars.

—Ronn Burton, Broadway World review of the 2017 Oklahoma premiere of Dark Sisters, First Place Winner, National Opera Association Production Competition OKLAHOMA CI TY UNI VERS I T Y

Top 3 Bachelor of Music in Musical Theatre programs for 2018–19.

—OnStage Blog

The vocal blend of the women was out of this world, and honestly, I’m still in awe.

— Jessica Venke, Broadway World review of OCU’s Side Show, October 8, 2018

Dialogues of the Carmelites came to the Kirkpatrick Auditorium stage at Oklahoma City University last weekend as a virtual force of nature. …

Cheers to the Wanda L. Bass School of Music and the Opera and Music Theater Company at OCU for every aspect of this presentation.

—Patrick McGuigan, The City Sentinel

I continue to stand in awe of the pit bands at Oklahoma City University. Yesterday afternoon at the matinee performance of Sister Act was no exception. In fact, I thought the players achieved near perfection. …

I lived in NYC for many years, and I can honestly say I never heard a Broadway musical that sounded better.

—John Williams, Past President, Brightmusic Chamber Society

At left: Crazy for You, 2019. Below: Hairspray, 2016.

WA N DA L . B A S S S CH O O L O F MU S IC

2019 2020

MAINSTAGE PRODUCTIONS Each season, OCU’s award-winning Oklahoma Opera and Music Theater Company

presents two opera and two music theater productions featuring lush orchestrations,

dazzling costumes, and professional lighting and sets. Mainstage performances are in historic Kirkpatrick Auditorium, 2501 N. Blackwelder.

SPOTLIGHT PRODUCTIONS One opera and one musical theater production is presented with piano

accompaniment and intimate staging, in Burg Theater. Our 2019-20 Spotlight Series presents The Zombies of Penzance and A Little Night Music.

PRE-SHOW TALKS Director’s talks are presented in the Petree Recital Hall 45 minutes prior to mainstage productions. Admission is free and open to the public.

OPENING NIGHT GALAS Join us in the Atrium of the Bass Music Center for our 2019–20 opening night dinners: Sept. 27

THE MUSIC MAN

Feb. 21

DIE FLEDERMAUS

Nov. 15

April 24

LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR SPAMALOT

6:15 p.m. Friday dinners ($25) hosted by President Martha Burger, Dean Mark Parker, and Dr. David Herendeen, director of OCU’s Oklahoma Opera and Music Theater

Company. These galas feature a buffet dinner themed to the evening’s production and musical entertainment by Bass School musicians.

Above: Crazy for You, 2019. At right, top to bottom: Susannah, 2018; Cendrillon, 2019; Magic Flute, 2016.

OKLAHOMA CI TY UNI VERS I T Y

T IC K ET S

okcu.edu/tickets

405.208.5227

MAINSTAGE TICKETS: $14-28 | SPOTLIGHT TICKETS: $15 The Oklahoma City University Ticket Office opens Tuesday, September 3.

SEASON TICKETS SERIES A: 4 MAINSTAGE PRODUCTIONS Front orchestra . . . . . $84 Rear orchestra/ Front balcony . . . . . $60 Rear balcony . . . . . . $42 SERIES B: 2 MAINSTAGE MUSICALS Front orchestra . . . . . $46 Rear orchestra/ Front balcony . . . . . $32 Rear balcony . . . . . . $22 SERIES C: 2 MAINSTAGE OPERAS Front orchestra . . . . . $46 Rear orchestra/ Front balcony . . . . . $32 Rear balcony . . . . . . $22 INDIVIDUAL TICKETS Front orchestra . . . . . $28 Rear orchestra/ Front balcony . . . . . $20 Rear balcony . . . . . . $14 SPOTLIGHT PRODUCTIONS Burg Theatre . . . . . . $15 OPENING NIGHT DINNERS Preceding Friday’s mainstage shows . . . . $25

FOR SEAS ON T IC K ET S C AL L 40 5 .2 0 8 .5 2 2 7

WA N DA L . B A S S S CH O O L O F MU S IC

Spotlight Opera

T HE ZOM BIE S OF PENZANCE

OCT. 31–NOV. 3

Mainstage Musical

Mainstage Opera

DIE FLEDERMAUS

FEB. 21–23

Mainstage Opera

LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR

NOV. 15–17

Thoroughly Modern Millie, 2010.

—Ronn Burton, Broadway World

with potential, will land ... surely among the stars.”

“I look forward to seeing where these students, brimming

2501 N. Blackwelder Ave. Oklahoma City, OK 73107

SEPT. 27–29

THE MUSIC MAN

Mainstage Musical

SPAMALOT

APRIL 24–26

Spotlight Musical

A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC

FEB. 28–MARCH 1