The creators of The Will Rogers Follies are Broadway royalty. Cy Coleman wrote the music, Betty Comden and Adolph Green wrote the lyrics, and Peter Stone wrote the book for this six-time Tony Award winner. Audiences will be able to experience this Broadway theatrical spectacle when the life story of Americasfavorite soncomes to the WVU Creative Arts Center stage Monday, March 20.

The critics call Cy Colemana permanent jewel in Broadways musical crown.He is renowned as one of todays most versatile and influential music creators. His winning streak as a Broadway composer began with Wildcat in 1960, which includedHey Look Me Over.Colemans collaboration with lyricist Dorothy Fields resulted in Sweet Charity, which introducedBig SpenderandIf My Friends Could See Me Now.In 1980, he served as producer and composer for the circus musical Barnum. The 1990s brought more of Colemans musicals to Broadway including City of Angels, The Will Rogers Follies, The Life, Exactly Like You and a new production of Little Me.

Betty Comden and Adolph Green, who comprise the longest-running creative partnership in theatre history, began writing and performing their own satirical comedy material in a group called The Revuers, which included the late Judy Holliday. They went on to collaborate with Leonard Bernstein and Jerome Robbins on their first show, On the Town. With Jule Styne they crafted the book and lyrics for Bells Are Ringing, Do Re Mi, Subways Are Sleeping, Peter Pan and Hallelujah, Baby. The Comden/Green film musicals include Singinin the Rain, The Band Wagon, On the Town, and The Barkleys of Broadway. Together they have won five Tony Awards and a Screen Writers Award, and received two Academy Award nominations.

Author Peter Stones most recent Broadway production was Titanic. His musicals 1776 and The Will Rogers Follies both won Tony Awards and New York Drama Critics Circle Awards. He won another Tony for his musical Woman of the Year. His other Broadway credits include the musicals My One and Only, Sugar, Two by Two and a collaboration with Erich Maria Remarque on the play Full Circle. The author of more than two dozen feature films, Stone won an Academy Award for his screenplay Father Goose. Among his other films are The Taking of Pelham 1-2-3, Mirage, Arabesque, Sweet Charity, Skin Game and most recently, Just Cause.

Tickets for The Will Rogers Follies are $35 and may be purchased at the Mountainlair and Creative Arts Center box offices, online at ticketmaster.com or at any Ticketmaster outlet (including Giant Eagle in the Mountaineer Mall) or by phone at 293-SHOW (7469) or 292-0220.

The University Art Series is produced by WVU Arts&Entertainment. For more event information, call 304-293-SHOW, or visit us online atevents.wvu.edu.