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The Ordway’s 2016-2017 Season

by Basil Considine -

Oyate Okodakiciyapi. Photo by pauloTphotography.

The Ordway Center for the Performing Arts announced its 2016-2017 seasons this evening with its annual festive celebration. The upcoming season includes a diverse mix of self-produced musicals, touring Broadway shows, world music concerts, dance performances, the Ordway’s own Broadway Songbook concerts, and a variety of special performances.

Visitors were treated to live piano music during the preannouncement reception, then ushered into the Concert Hall for a series of live and video previews, concluding with a live musical performance by the Steeles singing “Of Thee I Sing” from the musical of the same name.

Paint Your WagonThe 2016-2017 Musical Theater Series features five mainstage works and two new Broadway Songbook concerts:

  • August 9-21, 2016
    Lerner & Loewe’s Paint Your Wagon (jointly produced with Seattle’s 5th Avenue Theatre)
  • September 23-25, 2016
    Broadway Songbook: Rebels on Broadway
  • December 8-31, 2016
    Irving Berlin’s White Christmas (self-produced)
  • February 14-19, 2017
    Hedwig and the Angry Inch (national tour)
  • April 4-16, 2017
    West Side Story (self-produced)
  • May 14-21, 2017
    Broadway Songbook: Hollywood and Broadway 
  • June 13-18, 2017
    An American in Paris (national tour)

Paint Your Wagon features a new book by Jon Marans, a Pulitzer Prize nominee and Guggenheim Fellow. It will also star Robert Cuccioli, whose portrayal of the titular duo in the original Broadway cast of Jekyll and Hyde was nominated for a Tony Award. White Christmas will be directed and choreographed by the Ordway’s James A. Rocco, and West Side Story will feature an artistic collaboration with Alberto Justiniano, the Artistic Director of Teatro del Pueblo.

Somi (Gylnis Carpenter) will perform music inspired by an artistic rejuvenation in Lagos, Nigeria.
Somi (Gylnis Carpenter) will perform music inspired by an artistic rejuvenation in Lagos, Nigeria.

The 2016-2017 World Music & Dance Series features six special engagements that follow a critically praised 2015-2016 series:

  • October 8, 2016
    Martha Redbone – Bone Hill: The Concert
  • October 29, 2016
    Step Afrika! – a new untitled piece co-commissioned by the Ordway.
  • January 28, 2017
    The Lagos Music Salon by Somi
  • March 4, 2017
    Oyate Okodakiciyapi: An Evening of Native Contemporary Dance
  • March 23, 2017
    Las Cafeteras in concert – features a dance floor and the opening band Alma Andina
  • April 27, 2017
    Indigenous – blues-rock
  • April 29, 2017
    TU Dance
Read Basil Considine’s interview with dancer/choreographer Gioconda Barbuto on working with TU Dance.
Hip Hop Nutcracker, one of the returning acts next season.
Hip Hop Nutcracker, one of the returning acts next season.

In addition, six special performances will be offered that fall outside of the main series:

  • October 18-23, 2016
    Stomp – a percussion and dance/movement show
  • October 30, 2016
    Sphinx Virtuosi with Catalyst Quartet – a co-presented event with the Schubert Club and Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra
  • November 13, 2016
    From the Top – the well-known NPR show about classical music prodigies, hosted by Christopher O’Riley; a co-presented event with the Schubert Club
  • November 22-23, 2016
    The Hip Hop Nutcracker – MC’d by Kurtis Blow
  • April 21, 2017
    The Steeles – The Colors of Gershwin
  • June 27-July 2, 2017
    Circus 1903 – The Golden Age of Circus

Bremer Bank is the season sponsor for the musical theater series; Travelers Insurance joins as a special sponsor for Paint Your Wagon. Target is the season sponsor for the world music and dance series. The 16th annual Flint Hills International Children’s Festival is sponsored by Flint Hills Resources.

Basil Considine
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