Center Rep Kicks Off Ambitious New Season

The vampires are coming to Walnut Creek! So are actresses in 1960s Coffee-Tea-or-Me stewardess uniforms.

Of course, there is more than gothic blood lust and a Mad Men-era retro sex farce making up the lineup for Center Repertory Company's 2010-11 season, which gets underway next week with the opening of the romantic musical She Loves Me.

In the accompanying video, Center Rep Artistic Director Michael Butler gives you some inside scoop into She Loves Me, a lovely show with its timeless tale of love, and into the rest of an exciting season.

The in-house theatre company for the Lesher Center also presents a great American classic about race prejudice, a timeless musical romance, and a tribute to the geniuses of 20th century blues, jazz, and swing. You can also look forward to Center REP's annual holiday adaptation of A Christmas Carol.  

Finally, Center REP will bring audiences another season of its hipper Off-Center productions. These more intimate shows will make you feel like you've walked into a storefront theater in Berkeley, San Francisco, Chicago or off-Broadway. Center Rep presents two Off-Center plays this season about women who, in their very special ways, have dominated the American cultural landscape: Ann Landers and Britney Spears.

Here's the lineup for 2010-11: 

She Loves Me (September 3-October 10): If you saw the 1998 Tom Hanks-Meg Ryan romantic comedy You've Got Mail, you should be acquainted with the story of two professional colleagues who initially clash in person before discovering that they are soul mates through an anonymous pen pal relationship. She Loves Me is a musical from the same team that created Fiddler on the Roof, and it began as a 1930s play, Parfumerie, set in Budapest by Hungarian playwright Miklos Laszlo.

Dracula (October 22-November 20): Just as in the Twilight book and film series, Center Rep will attempt to dramatize what makes vampire sagas so scary, sexy and alluring. This play goes back to a key source: Bram Stoker's classic novel about the mysterious and enigmatic Count Dracula. 

Becoming Britney (October 28-November 14) This show asks a very important question: How does a pop sensation wind up bald and trapped in her own musical? Becoming Britney was a hit at the New York Fringe Festival and chronicles the rise, dip and salvation of a celebrity phenomenon.

A Christmas Carol (December 9-19): This production of Charles Dickens' classic, in its 12th year, has become a holiday tradition for families all over the East Bay.

Boeing-Boeing (January 27-February 26, 2011): There once was a time when you'd get dressed up to fly on a plane because air travel was so glamorous--with stewardesses who all looked like they could co-star in a Doris Day-Rock Hudson comedy. In the Tony Award-winning Boeing-Boeing, a playboy with a Paris bachelor pad tries to juggle three women at once. 

To Kill a Mockingbird (March 31-April 30): Center Rep will present a stage version of Harper Lee's poignant 1960 coming-of-age story, set in the racially segregated Deep South of the 1930s. The book, the 1962 film adaptation, and this play show how Atticus' daughter, Scout, learns valuable lessons about life while watching her small-town lawyer father do the right thing and stand up to his community's racism when he defends a black man accused of raping a white woman. 

The Lady With All the Answers (April 28 - May 15, 2011): In this one-woman show, playwright David Rambo--and star and Center Rep regular Kerri Shawn-- give audiences a chance to get up close and personal with Ann Landers, the legendary columnist who spent years dispensing advice to lovelorn teenagers, confused couples, and people arguing about the proper way to hang toilet paper. 

Blues in the Night (May 19-June 25) is the title of this musical revue that closes the season. The show features 26 hot, torchy songs from the 1920s and 1930s, composed or originally performed by Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington, Bessie Smith, and others. 

For tickets and information, call (925) 943-SHOW (7469) or visit centerrep.org.