Nathan Lane starred on Broadway in ‘The Nance,’ which will receive its regional premiere from Uptown Players in 2015.
Uptown Players’ upcoming 2015 season will feature two major recent Tony winners, from a new comedy to a rock musical, as well as the return of a TV spoof in the Rose Room at S4 and the annual fundraising performance.
Things were more complicated for Uptown Players this time, scheduling-wise. For several years, they have shared the Kalita Humphreys Theater with the Dallas Theater Center, which moved to its new digs in Downtown’s Wyly Theatre, but which is still the primary leaseholder at the Kalita. DTC mostly performs at the Wyly … mostly — not exclusively. So when DTC announced its 2014-15 schedule this spring, it threw a monkey wrench into the works: Its plays would seesaw between the venues, and the timing was going to interfere with Uptown Players’ calendar.
But they worked it out, in part by starting a month early. The first show of their 2015 season will actually be in December 2014: Christmas Our Way, UP’s holiday-themed Broadway Our Way fundraiser (where men sing women’s songs and vice versa) will be held Dec. 11–14.
The first official show of 2015 will be Gilligan’s Fire Island, another spoof by playwright/actor Jamie Morris, who was last represented onstage at the Rose Room as Julia Sugarbaker in Re-Designing Women. As the title suggests, the castaways have gotten pretty gay.
The mainstage season will arrive at the Kalita in June, starting with the wonderful comedy-drama The Nance, then the regional North Texas-produced premiere of Catch Me If You Can, the rock opera Hedwig and the Angry Inch and the new off-Broadway hit Harbor.
See the complete lineup after the jump. You can also get season tickets here.
• Christmas Our Way. The fundraising show kicks off the season at Christmastime. Kalita, Dec. 11–14.
• Gilligan’s Fire Island. A gay spin on the classic TV series, set on the gay getaway outside New York City. The Rose Room, Feb. 13–March 15.
• The Nance. A three-time Tony winner, this charming 2013 play by Douglas Carter Beane about closeted life of a gay burlesque hall performer (played here by B.J. Cleveland in the role Nathan Lane created) is hilarious, sexy and deeply touching. Kalita, June 19–July 5.
• Catch Me If You Can. The team (personally and professionally) who adapted Hairspray to the stage adapted the Spielberg movie to a musical format. Kalita, July 24–Aug. 9.
• Hedwig and the Angry Inch. Before it was a Broadway smash with Tony Awards — it’s still playing — this was a brave little underground musical about an East German transssexual whose botched bottom surgery gives the show its title. Stephen Trask’s rock score is amazing. Kalita, Aug. 28–Sept. 13.
• Harbor. Set on Sag Harbor, this comedy about family was a hit off-Broadway this season. It will play a longer four-week run at Bryant Hall on the Kalita campus, Oct. 9–Nov. 7.
