A musical review by John Kander and Fred Ebb, ‘The World Goes ‘Round,’ will open the West Virginia University Theatre and Dance 2009-10 season.

The play opens Friday, Sept. 25, at 7:30 p.m. in the Creative Arts Center’s Gladys G. Davis Theatre. There will be performances Sept. 26, 29-30 and Oct. 2-3 at 7:30 p.m., as well as matinees on Sept. 27 and Oct. 4 at 2 p.m.

According to Lee Blair, a theater professor at WVU and director of the show, the review consists of an eclectic collection of love songs, torch songs and acerbically witty comic numbers from Kander and Ebb’s 40-year collaboration.

There will be selections from Broadway hits such as “Chicago,” “Cabaret,” and “Kiss of the Spider Woman,” as well as unfamiliar songs from the team’s lesser-known musicals “The Happy Time,” “The Rink,” “The Act,” and “Flora and the Red Menace.”

Songs featured in the musical are from the films “Cabaret,” “Funny Lady” and “New York, New York,” as well as songs that Kander and Ebb wrote specifically for their muses and frequent collaborators, Liza Minnelli and Chita Rivera.

“I’m a huge fan of Kander and Ebb’s work,” Blair said. “Their shows and songs are sexy and sophisticated and clever, but so accessible and full of emotion and energy and life. The review takes songs from all their different musicals, films and other sources and creates new moments, new ideas, and essentially, new worlds to explore.

“Kander and Ebb will go down in history as one of the greatest creative teams on Broadway, like Rodgers and Hammerstein and Lerner and Loewe. They are legends in the realm of the American Musical Theatre.”

Blair said that even with Ebb’s death in 2004, Kander and Ebb’s work continues as the revival of “Chicago” continues on Broadway in its twelfth year. Recent Broadway productions of “Cabaret” and “Curtains” also prove that their work is still relevant and exciting.

“The World Goes ‘Round” was put together by director Scott Ellis, choreographer Susan Stroman, and librettist David Thompson, who collaborated on such Kander and Ebb shows as “Steel Pier” and the 1996 revival of “Chicago.”

The review opened March 18, 1991 at Manhattan’s off-Broadway Westside Theatre, and closed on March 8, 1992, after 408 performances.

It won the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Musical and a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Musical Revue.

The WVU cast of “The World Goes ‘Round” encompasses a good cross-section of the talented students within the College of Creative Arts: Greg Holt and Todd Berkich are new graduate students in performance and Taylor Ferrera and Katarina Whitmarsh are both in the Bachelor of Fine Arts Studio in the Division of Theatre and Dance. John Perry is a BFA major with a minor in dance, while Jeanne Nestor is a voice major in the WVU Division of Music.

The orchestra for “The World Goes ‘Round” will be comprised of music majors from the Division of Music and will be conducted by music professor Robert Thieme.

This is the second musical collaboration for WVU professors Lee Blair and Robert Thieme, as director and musical director respectively. Their first work together was last season’s “Urinetown: The Musical” and their collaboration will continue later this year with the opera “Summer and Smoke,” in early February 2010.

For tickets or more information, call the Mountainlair or CAC Box Offices at (304) 293-SHOW. Special ticket prices are available for groups of ten or more.

-WVU-

9/14/09

CONTACT: Charlene Lattea, College of Creative Arts
304-293-4841 ext. 3108, Charlene.Lattea@mail.wvu.edu