The 25th Anniversary Season 2005

George M!
June 15 – July 3, Baker Theatre, Trexler Pavilion
Music & Lyrics by George M. Cohan, Book by Michael Stewart with John and Francine Pascal, Lyric and Musical Revisions by Mary Cohan. Director: Charles Richter.

The bronze statue of George Michael Cohan in New York’s Theatre District
is a national tribute to the exuberant talent and patriotic devotion of Broadway’s most famous song and dance man. Cohan, the quintessential show business entrepreneur, started life in his parent’s vaudeville show and became a successful actor, singer, composer, dancer, playwright, director and producer who owned his own publishing house and his own theatre in New York. George M! celebrates the man and the legend with star-spangled songs as popular as “Yankee Doodle Dandy” and as distinguished as “You’re a Grand Old Flag,” which won Cohan the Congressional Medal of Honor.

Candide
July 13 – 31, Empie Theatre, Baker Center for the Arts
Music by Leonard Bernstein, Book by Hugh Wheeler, Lyrics by John Latouche, Richard Wilbur and Stephen Sondheim. Based on the book by Voltaire.

The brilliance of Bernstein’s score first excited sold-out audiences on the Muhlenberg summer stage in the inaugural season of 1981. Enormously funny and wildly irreverent, Candide is Bernstein’s exuberant tribute to the operettas of Gilbert and Sullivan. The show remains as charming as the resilient young hero, Candide, who believes, despite all misadventures, that he lives in the “best of all possible worlds.” Winner of 5 Tony Awards.

My Way:
A Tribute to
the Music of
Frank Sinatra
July 27 – August 14, Baker Theatre, Trexler Pavilion
Conceived by David Grapes and Todd Olson, Book by Todd Olson,
Original Production directed by David Grapes. Director: David Grapes.

This original stage review swings with joy as it brings the Sinatra myth and mystique to life through four voices and a jazz trio. The romantic and energetic show celebrates the phenomenal career of Sinatra the stage and film entertainer and joyfully reproduces some of the best popular music of the last 60 years: I Only Have Eyes for You, Let's Face the Music and Dance, I Get a Kick Out of You, My Kind of Town, and Fly Me to the Moon. This is the Lehigh Valley premiere of a show that has played to raves all over the country.

The Cat in the Castle
June 29– August 6, Studio Theatre, Trexler Pavilion
Written by Bill Solly, Director: Joseph Stefanelli, Musical Director: Justin Brehm

Guaranteed to delight just about everyone. We usually have to be dragged to a children's play, but love, love, loved this one. So will you. -- Backstage

Hugo and Mimi, a couple of New York cats, stow away on an ocean liner, get thrown overboard, and end up in a fascinating but frightening kingdom. Reigning Queen Gloria XIV has a pet pterodactyl who yawns flames, so Hugo is all for catching the next boat home.
Curious Mimi smuggles herself into the castle, and Hugo, the pterodactyl, and the children in the audience must come to her rescue.