The Barn Players 2011 Season

Our 56th consecutive season, on the Margaret Godfrey Stage in Mission, KS

INTO THE WOODS

A Barn Junior Production
January 14 - 23
Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, Book by James Lapine

An ambivalent Cinderella? A blood-thirsty Little Red Ridinghood? A Prince Charming with a roving eye? A Witch...who raps? They're all among the cockeyed characters in James Lapine and Stephen Sondheim's fractured fairy tale. When a Baker and his Wife learn they've been cursed with childlessness by the Witch next door, they embark on a quest for the special objects required to break the spell, swindling, lying to and stealing from Cinderella, Little Red, Rapunzel and Jack (the one who climbed the beanstalk). Everyone's wish is granted at the end of Act One, but the consequences of their actions return to haunt them later, with disastrous results. What begins as a lively irreverent fantasy in the style of "The Princess Bride" becomes a moving lesson about community responsibility and the stories we tell our children.

EVITA

March 4 - 20
Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, Lyrics and Book by Tim Rice

Argentina's controversial First Lady is the subject of this dynamic musical masterpiece. As an illegitimate fifteen year old, Eva escaped her dirt-poor existence for the bright lights of Buenos Aires. Driven by ambition and blessed with charisma, she was a starlet at twenty-two, the president's mistress at twenty-four, First Lady at twenty-seven, and dead at thirty-three. Eva Peron "saint to the working-class, reviled by the aristocracy and mistrusted by the military" was destined to leave a fascinating political legacy unique in the 20th century. Told through a compelling score that fuses haunting chorales with exuberant Latin, pop and jazz influences, EVITA creates an arresting theatrical portrait as complex as the woman herself.

SHOUT: THE MOD MUSICAL

April 29 - May 15
Created by Phillip George, David Lowenstein & Peter Charles Morris

SHOUT! flips through the years like a musical magazine and takes you back to the music, the fashion and the freedom of the 60's! This smashing revue tracks five groovy gals as they come of age during those liberating days that made England swing! Join this non-stop journey through the infectious and soulful pop anthems and ballads that made household names of stars like Petula Clark, Dusty Springfield and Lulu. SHOUT! uses letters to an advice columnist, true confessions, quizzes and advertisements as a frame for terrific new arrangements of such chart-topping hits as "To Sir With Love," "Downtown," "You Don't Have to Say You Love Me," "Son of A Preacher Man," and "Goldfinger." With its irresistible blend of hip-swiveling hits, eye-popping fashions and psychedelic dances from the 60's, this fun-filled musical will make you want to throw your head back and SHOUT!

FROST / NIXON

June 10 - 26
By Peter Morgan
(For Mature Audiences)

British talk-show host David Frost has become a lowbrow laughing-stock. Richard M. Nixon has just resigned the United States presidency in total disgrace over Vietnam and the Watergate scandal. Determined to resurrect his career, Frost risks everything on a series of in-depth interviews in order to extract an apology from Nixon. The cagey Nixon, however, is equally bent on redeeming himself in his nation's eyes. In the television age, image is king, and both men are desperate to outtalk and upstage each other as the cameras roll. The result is the interview that sealed a president's legacy.

MARVIN'S ROOM

July 22 - August 7
By Scott McPherson

Bessie lives in Florida where she cares for her aunt and ailing father, Marvin. Bessie learns amidst all this that she has leukemia and that her only hope is to contact her long-estranged sister Lee to see if her bone marrow is compatible for a transplant. Lee reluctantly makes the trip to Florida from Ohio, bringing along her two sons, one of whom has just been released from an institution after a wave of arson. The reunion of the sisters is uneasy at best, with long buried recriminations coming to the surface even as love slowly overwhelms Lee's veneer of selfishness and glib denial.

DISNEY'S ARISTOCATS, KIDS

A Barn Junior Production
July 26 - 28
Based on the 1970 Disney Film THE ARISTOCATS
Music and Lyrics by Richard M. Sherman, Robert B. Sherman, Al Rinker, Floyd Huddleston
Music Adapted, Arranged and Additional Music by Bryan Louiselle
Book Adapted and Additional Lyrics by Michael Bernard

Madame's jealous butler Edgar cat-naps Duchess and her Aristokittens and abandons them in the Parisian countryside. What's a cat to do? Luckily, Thomas O'Malley and his rag-tag bunch of Alley Cats come to their rescue! This feline adventure is sure to get you tapping your feet to its hep, jazzy beat, which includes the Disney favorites "The Aristocats," "Scales and Arpeggios" and "Ev'rybody Wants to Be a Cat."

THE LAST FIVE YEARS

A Benefit Concert for The Barn Players
August 12 - 14
Music, Lyrics and Book by Jason Robert Brown

A contemporary song-cycle musical that ingeniously chronicles the five year life of a marriage, from meeting to break-up... or from break-up to meeting, depending on how you look at it. Written by Jason Robert Brown (Parade, Songs For A New World), The Last Five Years is an intensely personal look at the relationship between a writer and an actress told from both points of view.

THE DROWSY CHAPERONE

Sept. 16 - Oct. 2
Music and Lyrics by Lisa Lambert & Greg Morrison
Book by Bob Martin & Don McKellar

A rare combination of unprecedented originality and blinding talent, THE DROWSY CHAPERONE begins when a die-hard musical-theater fan plays his favorite cast album on his turntable, and the musical literally bursts to life in his living room, telling the rambunctious tale of a brazen Broadway starlet trying to find, and keep, her true love.

SWEET CHARITY

November 4 - 20
Music by Cy Coleman
Lyrics by Dorothy Fields
Book by Neil Simon

Charity Valentine is the eternal optimist. While working at the seedy Fan-Dango ballroom, she is often taken advantage of and continually experiences bad relationships. Finally, she seems to have met a decent fellow in Oscar. Trying to hide her true profession, she lies to him and tells her that she works in a bank. Soon, Oscar asks Charity to marry him. Unfortunately, Oscar discovers Charity's real profession and backs out of the marriage. Nevertheless, Charity continues to remain hopeful that good things will happen in her life.

THE 4TH ANNUAL 6 X 10: Original Ten-Minute Play Festival

The fourth exciting installment of our showcase of original works
December 9 - 11