AVENUE Q Opens Cain ParkÂ's 2012 Season in the Alma Theater, Now thru 7/1

The City of Cleveland Heights and Cain Park 2012 Theater Artistic Director Russ Borski previously announced that AVENUE Q opens Cain Park's 2012 season in the Alma Theater tonight, June 15 through July 1 (preview June 14). Paul Gurgol and Borski co-direct this Tony Award-winning musical.

AVENUE Q (music and lyrics by Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx, book by Jeff Whitty) is about a motley group of post-college New York residents facing life's challenges together. Authors Lopez, Marx and Whitty describe it as an "autobiographical and biographical coming-of-age parable, addressing and satirizing the issues and anxieties associated with entering adulthood." 

Originally conceived as a television series, AVENUE Q was developed as a stage production at the 2002 National Music Theatre Conference at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center in Connecticut. It opened Off Broadway in March 2003 and transferred to Broadway in July 2003 where it won the 2004 Tony "Triple Crown" (Best Musical, Book and Original Score) in an upset over Wicked, and spawned Las Vegas and West End productions, two national tours, and a variety of international productions. With 2534 performances, AVENUE Q ranks 21st on the list of longest running shows in Broadway history. The show ended its Broadway run on September 13, 2009, and six weeks later reopened Off Broadway in the New World Stages complex where it continues to run to this day.

During his five-year tenure as founder and artistic director of Kalliope Stage in Cleveland Heights, Paul Gurgol presented five regional premieres and the world premiere of a new musical, Coming to America, as well as three full-staged original productions. Locally, he has also directed A Little Night Music (Opera Cleveland), Fiddler on the Roof and My Fair Lady (Beck Center), and Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (Cain Park).

Cain Park, a municipally owned and operated summer arts park and one of the nation's oldest landmark outdoor theatres entering its 74th season, is produced by the City of Cleveland Heights and is located on Superior Road between Lee and South Taylor roads.

http://www.cainpark.com

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