Theatre Albany to launch 76th season

• “The Taffetas” is a nostalgic musical set in a fictitious radio show during the 1950s.

Cathy Higgins

ALBANY — Theatre Albany will kick off its 76th season this week with its three-week musical production of Rick Lewis’ “The Taffetas.”

Performances are set for 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, as well as Aug. 8, Aug. 9, Aug. 14, Aug. 15 and Aug. 16.

Matinees start at 2:30 p.m. Sunday and Aug. 10.

Tickets for the season opener, as well as other musicals, are $22 for adults, $17 for ages 62 and over and $12 for students and the active military.

Tickets for this season’s non-musical productions are $17 for adults, $14 for ages 62 and over and $10 for students and the active military.

Season tickets are $82 for adults, $75 for ages 62 and over and $55 for students.

“We’ve gone up (on our prices), but just a little bit,” said Theatre Albany Artistic Director Mark Costello in a recent interview.

“The Taffetas” will usher in Theatre Albany’s new season by escorting audiences back to the New York’s Dumont Theatre during the early 1950s to watch the production of the fictitious television show, “Spotlight on Music,” featuring Taffeta sisters Kay, Peggy, Cheryl and Donna of Muncie, Ind.

“It’s a nostalgic-type show,” Costello said. “The songs were all hits in that era.”

Including tunes like “Sh-Boom” by the Crew Cuts.

Staying true to the era, the quartet will also belt out vintage commercial jingles, such as “See the U.S.A. in Your Chevrolet.”

Directed and choreographed by Dotty Davis, “The Taffetas” stars Jennifer Varnadoe, Suzanne Unger, Amanda Latona and Demi Davis.

With its next production, Theatre Albany takes a suspenseful turn with Stephen Malatratt’s “The Woman in Black.”

“It’s based on Susan Hill’s novel of the same name,” Costello said. “It’s been running in London for 19 years, which should tell you what an amazing play it is.”

“The Woman in Black” tells the story of an attorney who was once sent to handle a woman’s estate.

“It unnerves him so much that he hires an actor to help him tell his tale,” Costello explained.

In the retelling of the experience, the actor plays the attorney and the attorney portrays all the other characters.

“It’s very spooky,” Costello said.

A three-week run of the spine tingler starts Sept. 26.

Shortly after the thriller ends its run, Theatre Albany will host the Georgia Theatre Conference.

“It’s the umbrella group of community theaters across the state,” Costello said. “We’re very excited.”

Starting Oct. 15, Theatre Albany, Westover High School and Darton College will work together to present a variety of workshops geared toward the theater.

“We’ll also have guest artists and a keynote speaker,” Costello said.

He anticipates Theatre Albany, which last hosted the conference in 1996, will draw quite a few visitors to the Good Life City.

“Last year, 1,200 people came when it was held in Vidalia,” Costello said. “We’re a much bigger city than Vidalia. So we should have at least as many as 1,200.”

With its third production of the season, Theatre Albany plans to ring in the holidays with “A Taffeta Christmas.”

In the three-week production, the Dumont Television Network takes the Taffeta sisters back to their hometown of Muncie, Ind., for their own televised holiday special.

“There’s no big story,” Costello said. “They might talk about family and favorite Christmases.”

He likened the musical production, which starts Dec. 5, to the old holiday specials hosted by Perry Como or Bing Crosby.

Theatre Albany’s first production in 2009 spotlights the classic “To Kill a Mockingbird,” which is based on the Pulitzer-prize winning novel by Harper Lee.

Set in a small Southern town, “Mockingbird” tells the story of Scout, a young girl who learns a few life lessons while watching her father take a stand on behalf of a young black man wrongfully accused of a crime.

According to Costello, late January is an ideal time to bring the production to the Albany stage, as the novel is required reading in several Southwest Georgia classrooms.

“It’ll give students who haven’t seen to movie to see it on the stage,” he said.

In March, Theatre Albany will take a comedic turn with its production of “Picasso at the Lapin Agile.”

“This one is by that wild and crazy guy, Steve Martin,” Costello said.

The production places renowned painter Pablo Picasso, best known for cubism, and 20th century genius Albert Einstein together in a bar.

“But before either of them became great,” Costello explained.

Unlike recent Theatre Albany productions, “Picasso” evokes a more cerebral kind of humor.

“It’s fun and got a sly sense of humor,” Costello said.

To close out its 76th season, Theatre Albany will present Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “The Sound of Music.”

“They did it here before I came,” Costello said. “But this will be our first time to present it in a number of years.”

It seems there’s a lot of variety lined up at Theatre Albany this season. And it’s no accident.

“I think we always try to do that,” Costello said. “We want to balance it out with comedies, and we want to do serious stuff, too.”

For more information, call (229) 439-7141 or visit www.theatrealbany.com

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