Arts and Entertainment

2011: Anchorage's year of the musical

Here's something I've never been able to say before: Two days next weekend, I have back-to-back tickets for locally-produced, mostly locally-cast musicals.

Anchorage audiences are used to seeing fully-staged big-budget musicals a couple of times a year, nearly always national tours brought up by the Anchorage Concert Association. What we're not used to is a broad array of musicals presented by Anchorage companies and featuring local performers. But something is different in 2011.

Maybe there's something in the water, or maybe every director in town was involved in the same cocktail party conversation over the holidays. Ask any of the directors involved in any of the projects and they'll tell you the same thing: They don't know what happened. It just worked out this way.

Whatever the reason, 2011 is shaping up to be the year of musical theater in Anchorage, with a half-dozen local companies (so far) stepping up to stage Broadway musicals you've actually heard of.

From the directors' points of view, it's not really ideal for so many musicals to be going up in such a short period of time. There are challenges to producing musical theater in a town Anchorage's size -- particularly the fact that the talent pool isn't necessarily large enough to sustain multiple musicals at the same time.

"There's a very finite number of actors (in Anchorage) who can be in a musical. There are almost no triple threats," local director Christian Heppinstall said in a January interview. "Triple threat" is the theater term for a performer who can sing, dance and act -- and as you might expect, musicals tend to require them. The glut of performance opportunities has some area actors facing tough choices and is presenting directors with some challenges as they attempt to cast their shows and round up musicians and other skilled creative professionals, some of whom (like choreographer Leslie Kimiko Ward, who moved directly from "Cabaret" into "Tommy") are doing double duty.

While the Broadway bonanza may be making life a little more difficult for directors, it's an exciting time to be a musical theater fan in Alaska's largest city, with plenty of opportunities to see favorite shows staged live by hometown groups. Here's a rundown of the options to date -- what's open, what's about to open, and what we have to look forward to.

ADVERTISEMENT

'Cabaret' (closing April 9)

Alaska Wild Berry Theater and its new resident company (now called Actors Repertory Theatre, or ART, according to Heppinstall) launched into March with a new production of the Kander and Ebb classic, featuring a large, young cast and integration of historic video footage from Nazi Germany. Tickets at CenterTix.net.

'South Pacific' (April 2-10)

Rodgers and Hammerstein at the opera? You betcha. For Anchorage Opera, musical theater is part of a strategy designed to help the company regain its financial footing. Opera general manager and artistic director Torrie Allen told Alaska Dispatch in February that the Opera is on step with a nationwide trend among opera companies: offering up popular Broadway fare to draw in new audiences. "South Pacific" may be just the beginning; operagoers in Anchorage shouldn't be surprised to see additional selections from the American musical theater canon in upcoming seasons. Tickets at CenterTix.net.

The Who's 'Tommy' (April 22-May 14)

Mad Myrna's, Theatre Artists United and Midnight Sunflower Productions present The Who's rock opera about a boy traumatized into a catatonic state -- although, as I'm sure you've heard, that deaf, dumb and blind kid sure plays a mean pinball. A musical even your dad can enjoy (I mean, come on, they played selections from "Tommy" at Woodstock):

Tickets at CenterTix.net.

'Pump Boys and Dinettes' (April 29-May 22)

Alaska Community Theatre gets in on the act with "Pump Boys and Dinettes" (actually, it's the group's second musical this year; the first, "Lend Me a Tenor," closes April 3), a country/rock revue-style show that was a Tony nominee for Best Musical in 1982. Songs include such titles as "The Night Dolly Parton Was Almost Mine." Tickets at ACTAlaska.org.

'Hedwig and the Angry Inch' (July 8-30)

Out North's contribution to musical mania is a show that "tells the story of 'internationally-ignored song stylist' Hedwig Schmidt, a fourth-wall smashing East German rock 'n' roll goddess who also happens to be the victim of a botched sex-change operation, which has left her with just 'an angry inch.'" If you know what they mean. Here's a sneak peek of the trailer from the 2001 film version:

Tickets at CenterTix.net.

'The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee' (July 8-August 28)

A perfect fit for Cyrano's intimate theater, "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee" is a one-act musical with a small cast and an emphasis on audience participation. Teresa Pond directs this musical, the plot of which you can pretty much guess from the title: Yes, it's a show about a middle school spelling bee. Tickets at CenterTix.net.

Rent (weekends in October)

Midway through the run of "Cabaret," Heppinstall announced ART's next project: an October production of Jonathan Larson's rock opera homage to modern bohemians, "Rent," which closed on Broadway in 2008 after a 12-year run. "Rent" is an ambitious project for Anchorage, demanding a large cast with serious music, dancing and acting chops, and the news that it would be produced locally caused lots of young Anchorage performers' heads to explode (show me a female drama student who hasn't dreamed of playing Mimi or Maureen and I'll show you a girl in denial). ART will hold open auditions for "Rent" on Saturday, April 2 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Alaska Wild Berry Theater, 5225 Juneau St.

Contact Maia Nolan at maia(at)alaskadispatch.com.

ADVERTISEMENT