Garland Civic Theatre announces 2008-2009 season

by Shawn Parikh

Garland Civic Theatre has recently revealed the lineup for their next year which has something for everybody. Season tickets are available for $60-110 and you can download a season brochure to get more info on these packages. Here are the six shows to be presented:

• Murder on the Nile from August 21 - September 13, 2008. By Agatha Christie. Simon Moslyn has recently married Kay Ridgeway, a rich woman, having thrown over his former lover, Jacqueline. The couple is on their honeymoon and is at present on a paddle steamer on the Nile. With them are Canon Pennefather, Kay’s guardian, and Jacqueline, who has been dogging their footsteps all through the honeymoon. During the voyage, Jacqueline works herself into a state of hysteria and shoots at Simon, wounding him in the knee. A few moments later, Kay is found shot in her bunk.
• Heaven Can Wait from October 2 - 25, 2008. By Harry Segall. Mr. Jordan is checking passengers who are to depart on an airplane to the Hereafter. The routine is interrupted by the arrival of Joe Pendleton, an attractive prizefighter who refuses to admit he is dead. Joe is not scheduled to arrive for another sixty years! But as Joe starts to return to Earth to continue his fighting, word reached Heaven that Max Levene, Joe’s manager, thinking he had been killed, had Joe’s body cremated, and Joe has no body to return to. Jordan promises to find Joe another body and is informed that the wealthy Jonathan Farnsworth is about to be murdered by his wife. So Joe suddenly finds himself in the home of the financier, visible as Joe to the audience but apparently as Farnsworth to Mrs. Farnsworth and the public.
• Footloose from November 13 - December 6, 2008. Music by Tom Snow, Lyrics by Dean Pitchford, Additional Music by Eric Carmen, Sammy Hagar, Kenny Loggins, and Jim Steinman. Teenager Ren and his Mom relocate from Chicago to a small, rural town where years ago, following a night of partying at a dance, a car accident claimed the lives of four local teen, including the son of the local minister. In a misguided attempt to honor the victims, the Reverend pushed through a town ordinance banning dancing. At the emotional heart of Footloose is a boy longing tor the father who walked out on him and a man aching for the son he lost. Footloose is propelled by the rockin’ rhythm of its Oscar nominated Top 40 score, the soundtrack album having hit number one on the Billboard Charts!
• Mary Stuart from January 22 - February 14, 2009. By Friedrich von Schiller. A conflict raged for twenty years between Elizabeth of England and Mary Stuart during which the destiny of England as an independent and free people trembled in the balance. Elizabeth struggles over whether to keep her dousing Mary alive or to execute her. Each course seems to be of equal peril. The play is by turns a testament to human bravery and personal dignity, a conflict between personal and political responsibility, and a struggle between womanhood and statesmanship where Mary triumphs at one and Elizabeth the other.
• The Beverly Hillbillies from March 5-28, 2009. By David Rogers. Starting in the Clampett’s mountain cabin, the play follows them through the discovery of oil, their improbable invasion of hi-falutin’ Beverly Hills society and the absurd adventures and ridiculous romances they encounter there. An outrageously funny evening for the entire family
• Sweeney Todd from April 16 - May 9, 2009. Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, Book by Hugh Wheeler, Based on a Version of Sweeney Todd by Christopher Band. Chilling, suspenseful, heart-pounding masterpiece tells the infamous tale of the unjustly exiled barber who returns to 19th century London seeking revenge against the lecherous judge who framed him and ravaged his young wife. His thirst for blood soon expands to include his unfortunate customers, and the resourceful proprietress of the pie shop downstairs soon has the people of London lining up in droves for her mysterious new meat pie recipe!