Kean Stage Opening Night to feature Tony Award winner Patti LuPone September 17
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: August 22, 2016
Kean Stage Launches 2016-2017 season
with two-time Tony Award winner
Patti LuPone on September 17
“Don’t Monkey with Broadway” is a musical exploration of LuPone’s love affair with the Great White Way
UNION, N.J. – Kean Stage launches its 2016-2017 season on September 17 at Enlow Recital Hall with a spectacular Opening Night performance by two-time Tony Award winner Patti LuPone in Don’t Monkey with Broadway.
“Patti LuPone has brought her fierce talent and passion to Broadway, film, television, music and written works, but she is best known as a musical-theatre megastar," said Steve Cochran, manager of Kean Stage. “Opening up Kean Stage’s season with Don’t Monkey with Broadway is a fitting start to the incredible lineup of concerts, plays, family events, dance performances, films and shows coming in 2016-2017.”
In her two-act, two-hour show conceived and directed by Scott Wittman with musical direction by Joseph Thalken, LuPone explores, through indelible interpretations of classic Broadway show tunes by Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart, Jule Styne, Stephen Schwartz, Charles Strouse, Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim, Cole Porter and Irving Berlin, how her lifelong love affair with Broadway began and her growing concern for the future of the Great White Way.
“Some of the greatest joys of this concert (are) the personal stories of her early involvement and introduction to musicals, whether in her bedroom, community theater or before making her Broadway debut, and hearing the songs she chose to illustrate these memories…,” said Brian Scott Lipton of Theater Pizzazz of LuPone’s Don’t Monkey debut in New York’s Symphony Space in spring of 2016.
Author of The New York Times bestseller, Patti LuPone: A Memoir, LuPone was recently seen as Dr. Seward on the Showtime series Penny Dreadful, and played cosmetics pioneer Helena Rubinstein in the world premiere of War Paint at Chicago’s Goodman Theatre. She co-starred with two-time Tony Award winner Christine Ebersole, as Elizabeth Arden, who will perform an evening of Broadway classics and standards from the Great American Songbook at Enlow Recital Hall on November 12.
Opening night tickets are $65-$80. LuPone’s Don’t Monkey with Broadway inaugurates Kean Stage’s Broadway Concert Series, which also includes Adam Pascal and Anthony Rapp (October 15), Jarrod Spector and Kelli Barrett (February 11) and Billy Porter (April 22). To purchase tickets, visit the Kean Stage Box Office, located in Wilkins Theatre, 1000 Morris Avenue, call 908-737-SHOW (7469) or go online to www.keanstage.com.
PHOTO/CAPTION:
Kean Stage (www.keanstage.com) will present two-time Tony Award winner Patti LuPone exploring her lifelong love affair with the Great White Way in Don’t Monkey with Broadway on Saturday, September 17, at Kean University’s Enlow Recital Hall as a part of its 2016-2017 season.
ABOUT KEAN STAGE
Kean Stage educates, entertains and challenges audiences by presenting high-quality programs that reflect the diversity of the region and of the arts. These cultural offerings complement the intellectual life of the classroom for our students, increase opportunities for community engagement, and provide affordable access to the arts for New Jersey residents. Audiences of all ages are invited to enjoy a wide range of professional theatre, Broadway tours, dance performances, concerts, international films and family-friendly shows. In addition, Kean Stage encourages University students to events, and provides several options to explore the performing arts through employment opportunities as ushers, backstage technicians and box office staff. Visit www.keanstage.com.
ABOUT KEAN UNIVERSITY
Founded in 1855, Kean University has become one of the largest metropolitan institutions of higher education in the region, with a richly diverse student, faculty and staff population. Kean continues to play a key role in the training of teachers and is a hub of educational, technological and cultural enrichment serving nearly 15,000 students. The University's six undergraduate colleges offer 50 undergraduate degrees over a full range of academic subjects. The Nathan Weiss Graduate College offers four doctorate degree programs and more than 60 options for graduate study leading to master's degrees, professional diplomas or certifications. With campuses in Union and Toms River, New Jersey, and Wenzhou, China, Kean University furthers its mission by providing an affordable, accessible and world-class education. Visit www.kean.edu.
###
MEDIA CONTACT:
Steve Cochran
Manager of Kean Stage
Phone: (908) 737-4081
Fax: (908) 737-4636
Email: scochran@kean.edu
Website: www.keanstage.com