2017 - 2018 SEASON

"Spring Awakening"​

September 15 - 17, 2017

Music by Duncan Sheik
Book & Lyrics by Stephen Sater
Based on the play by
Frank Wedekind
Spring Awakening is a rock musical set in late-19th-century Germany and tells the story of teenagers discovering the inner and outer tumult of teenage sexuality. In the musical, alternative rock is employed as part of the folk-infused rock score.

Following its conception in the late 1990s and various workshops, concerts, rewrites and its Off-Broadway debut, the original Broadway production of Spring Awakening opened at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre on December 10, 2006. Its cast included Jonathan Groff, Lea Michele, Skylar Astin, and John Gallagher Jr. while its creative team comprised director Michael Mayer and choreographer Bill T. Jones. The original Broadway production won eight Tony Awards, including Tonys for Best Musical, Direction, Book, Score and Featured Actor. The production also garnered four Drama Desk Awards, while its original cast album received a Grammy Award.

"Annie"

DECEMBER 15 - 17, 2017

Music by Charles Strousse
Lyrics by Martin Charmin
Book by Thomas Meehan
Based on the comic strip by
Harold Gray
Annie's original Broadway production opened in 1977 and ran for nearly six years, setting a record for the Alvin Theatre (now the Neil Simon Theatre). It spawned numerous productions in many countries, as well as national tours, and won the Tony Award for Best Musical. The musical's songs "Tomorrow," "Maybe," "Easy Street," "Little Girls," and "It's the Hard Knock Life" are among its most popular musical numbers.

​"August:
Osage County"

March 9 - 11, 2018
by Tracy Letts
August: Osage County is a black comedy set in an unusually hot August in a rural Oklahoma. Beverly Weston, an alcoholic and once-noted poet, hires a young woman as a live-in cook and caregiver for his strong-willed and contentious wife Violet, who is suffering from oral cancer and addiction to narcotics. Shortly after this, he disappears from the house, and Violet calls her sister and daughters for support.

It was the recipient of the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The play premiered at the Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago on June 28, 2007, and closed on August 26, 2007. It had its Broadway debut at the Imperial Theater on December 4, 2007, and the production transferred to the Music Box Theatre on April 29, 2008. The Broadway show closed on June 28, 2009, after 648 performances and 18 previews.

"American Idiot"

May 4 - 6, 2018
Music by Green Day
​Lyrics by Billie Joe Armstrong
Book by Billie Joe Armstrong
& Michael Mayer
American Idiot is a sung-through stage adaptation of punk rock band Green Day's rock opera American Idiot.

The story centers on three disaffected young men: Johnny, Will and Tunny. Johnny and Tunny flee a stifling suburban lifestyle and parental restrictions, while Will stays home to work out his relationship with his pregnant girlfriend, Heather. The former pair look for meaning in life and try out the freedom and excitement of the city. Tunny quickly gives up on life in the city, joins the military and is shipped off to war. Johnny turns to drugs and finds a part of himself that he grows to dislike, has a relationship and experiences lost love.

The score included all the songs from the original American Idiot album, as well as additional Green Day songs from the album 21st Century Breakdown and "When It's Time", a song originally recorded for the musical.

The musical won two Tony Awards: Best Scenic Design of a Musical for Christine Jones and Best Lighting Design of a Musical for Kevin Adams. It also received a nomination for Best Musical. In 2011, its Broadway cast recording won a Grammy Award for Best Musical Show Album.

*programming subject to change, without notice

ORPHEUS THEATRE
P.O. BOX 1014  ONEONTA, NY 13820
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E-MAIL: orpheus@orpheustheatre.org