Uptown Players, a professional theatre group located in the Uptown/Oak Lawn area of Dallas, has announced its 2010 season, which will feature the United States premiere of Closer to Heaven, regional premieres of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and Regrets Only, as well as the recent Broadway hit Equus and the hysterical musical revue Forbidden Broadway's Greatest Hits. Uptown Players will also present its annual fundraising performance - Broadway Our Way in January. In addition, Uptown Players is pleased to announce the next phase of its Dream Theatre Capital Campaign.
Uptown Players' fundraiser, this year entitled Broadway Our Way: Legally Divas, light-heartedly pits the men against the women to determine who the true Divas of the Dallas stage really are. The evening features selections from your favorite Broadway shows both past and present, done with an Uptown Players twist! For the past seven years, this show has been a complete sell-out and is sure to be a hot ticket for January 2010. The show's dates are January 15-24, 2010.
Uptown Players kicks off its ninth season with Equus by the Academy Award-winning author Peter Shaffer, running February 26 - March 21, 2010 at the Kalita Humphreys Theater, former home of Dallas Theater Center. Equus chronicles the disturbing journey of a young man who seems to be a normal teenager with a passion for horses, but is harbouring darker desires. A provocative story exploring difficult issues, Equus opened at London's National Theatre in 1973 and became a worldwide sensation. The subsequent Broadway production enjoyed a record-breaking run and won the 1975 Tony Award for Best Play. The 2007 London revival was one of the biggest hits ever seen in the West End. The show transferred to New York where it became one of the most successful dramas of the 2008-2009 Broadway season.
Running April 23 - May 16, 2010 at the Kalita Humphreys Theater, Uptown Players continues its season with the hit musical comedy that was nominated for eleven 2005 Tony Awards, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. Based on the popular 1988 MGM film, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels centers on two con men living on the French Riviera - the suave and sophisticated Lawrence Jameson, who makes his lavish living by talking rich ladies out of their money; and a small-time crook named Freddy Benson, who, more humbly, swindles women by waking their compassion with fabricated stories about his grandmother's failing health. After meeting on a train, they unsuccessfully attempt to work together only to find that this small French town isn't big enough for the two of them. A hilarious battle of cons ensues, that will keep audiences laughing, humming and guessing to the end.
From June 11 - June 27, 2010 Uptown Players will present the regional premiere of Regrets Only by Paul Rudnick at the KD Studio Theatre. Debuting in 2006 at Manhattan Theatre Club, Regrets Only is set in the glittery realm of Manhattan society where Rudnick creates a delicious recipe for hilarity. He takes one high-powered Manhattan attorney and his fashionista wife and blends them with their closest friend, a world famous gay designer. He adds a "bridezilla" daughter whose wedding plans are tanking and mixes that with a wacky maid, a cocktail-fueled mother and the President of the United States. Now shake vigorously with laughter. The New York Sun called Regrets Only a saucy, sharp-tongued comedy of uncivil disobedience.
Playing August 6 - August 29, Uptown Players will present the long-running Off-Broadway hit musical revue, Forbidden Broadway's Greatest Hits. Broadway's greatest musical legends meet Broadway's greatest satirist in this hilarious, loving and endlessly entertaining tribute to some of the theatre's greatest stars and songwriters. Created and written by Gerard Alessandrini, the production offers amazingly funny takes on some of your favorite shows. Annie, West Side Story, Les Misérables, Rent, Fiddler on the Roof and Mamma Mia! are just a few of the shows hilariously skewered in this tongue-in-cheek tribute to some of the biggest shows to ever grace the "Great White Way". No show is safe, and there's nothing standard about this Broadway revue! Since its first performance in 1982, Forbidden Broadway has played thousands of shows and has become nothing short of an Off-Broadway institution. Even if you've never been within 1000 miles of Broadway you'll still love Forbidden Broadway's Greatest Hits!
