The Overture Center announced their
performance lineup for the coming year at a meeting Monday, which includes Broadway favorites “Chicago” and “Sister Act.”
“We hope that you can be inspired by what we’re about to show you this evening as we prepare to finish the
Overture’s eighth most successful year yet,” Overture Center CEO Ted DeDee said to the audience.
Tim Sauers, the Overture Center’s new Vice President of Programming and Community Engagement, was in charge of organizing this lineup and announced the groups to be
performing in the coming 2013-14 season.
The upcoming season marks the first booked under Sauers’ direction and the ninth season since the hall’s opening.
“The overall season has much newness about it,” Sauers said. “We’re delighted to be
working once again with our national partner, Broadway Across America.”
The upcoming performances total 42, though Sauers said he will be adding on
productions and booking more shows throughout the year as more artists become
available.
The Overture Center brings in a diverse array of performances, from their “Beyond
Broadway,” “Simply Spectacular” and “Dance” series to their “National Geographic
Live,” “Provideo Comedy,” “Tribute,” “Music of the World,” “Family” and “Harmonies”
series.
The most anticipated performances were the “Broadway at Overture” series, five to be
playing in the Overture Center this 2013-14 season and four of those making their
Madison debuts.
To introduce the upcoming Broadway performances, the Overture Center brought in
talented young artists from local high schools, each performing a featured song from the
musicals.
Broadway’s well-known “Chicago” was met with emphatic applause. Sauers said he
was pleased to be able to book this show for the year, as theater-goers have shown
great interest in it.
Other musicals included “Flashdance: The Musical,” which Sauers raised for its
choreography, “Sister Act,” which Sauers praised for its original soundtrack and
“Million Dollar Quartet,” which Sauers praised for its popularity among fans.
The featured Broadway performance was “War Horse,” a British production depicting
World War I through the eyes of a cavalry horse.
The show’s production representative Scott Tucker described to the audience the
director’s struggle to bring this epic scale of World War I to the stage and the difficulty of
displaying a show where the central character is a puppet.
He brought the life-sized horse puppet to the stage, demonstrating how it is operated by
three separate men working separate parts of the body and how these three men work
together to bring the puppet to life.
According to a statement from the Overture Center, in the “Beyond Broadway” series, the highlight will be a feature called, “Potted Potter,” which is a “wild” 70-minute broomstick ride that covers all seven of the iconic Harry Potter books.
Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4, said he is looking forward to the upcoming season, but said it will be difficult to top the previous two seasons, which were especially strong.
“I was impressed with the crowd tonight,” he said. “I was impressed with the number of community members who were excited to hear the lineup. It was fun to sit in the audience and see the level of excitement and anticipation of people sitting in the hall.”
