XANADU Plays Beck Center for the Arts, Now thru 10/14

Beck Center for the Arts rolls out its 2012/2013 Professional Theater season with the first locally produced premiere of Xanadu, the award-winning Broadway hit musical based on the Universal Pictures' cult classic movie of the same title, which starred Olivia Newton-John and Gene Kelly. Xanadu runs on the Mackey Main Stage tonight, September 14 through October 14, 2012. Show times are 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 3 p.m. Sundays. Tickets are now on sale.

Winner of the 2008 Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding New Musical, Xanadu tells the story of Kira, a beautiful Greek muse, who descends from the heavens of Mt. Olympus to Venice Beach to inspire struggling artist Sonny with his greatest artistic creation of all time – the first ROLLER DISCO. (Hey, it’s 1980!) “One of the glorious things about the Broadway musical is that it can wonderfully adapt the latest hit book or movie into a soaring musical, but it can also transcend material that is, well, not so ‘worthy’" says Director Scott Spence. “Such is the case in Xanadu, where a highly comic evening of theater awaits audiences, despite the source material being from perhaps one of the most awful movies of our time.”

Broadway’s master storyteller, Douglas Carter Beane weaves an electrifying tale for all ages of endless fun that will make you laugh out loud to chart-topping tunes of the early ‘80s. The original hit score composed by pop-rock legends Jeff Lynne and John Farrar includes memorable songs like “Magic,” “All Over The World,” "Evil Woman,” "Have You Never Been Mellow," and, of course the title song, “Xanadu.” “In fact,” continued Spence, “the authors get it so right as they leap on every possibility to have fun with the original debacle. Xanadu is a barrage of roller skate wheels, disco balls and the best of 1980s cheese – music and all.”

With musical direction by Larry Goodpaster and choreography by Martín Céspedes, Xanadu stars Kathleen Rooney as Kira and Sam Wolf as Sonny Malone. Greg Violand portrays the hard-hearted Danny Maguire who sells out Sonny when Kira’s evil sisters tempt him to strike it rich by building condos in place of the roller disco. Rooney and Violand appear courtesy of the Actors’ Equity Association (AEA), the union of actors and stage managers.

Tickets for Xanadu are $28 for adults, $25 for seniors (65 and older), $17 for students (with valid ID), and $10 for children (12 and under). An additional $3 service fee per ticket is applied at the time of purchase. Preview Night on Thursday, September 13, is $10 with general admission seating. Group discounts are available for parties of 13 or more. Purchase tickets online at beckcenter.org or call Customer Services at 216.521.2540, ext. 10. Beck Center is located at 17801 Detroit Avenue in Lakewood, just ten minutes west of downtown Cleveland. Free onsite parking is available.

Beck Center’s production of Xanadu is presented through special arrangement with Music Theatre International (MTI) and is sponsored by the Ohio Arts Council, and Cuyahoga Arts and Culture.

Beck Center for the Arts is a not-for-profit 501(c)3 organization that offers professional Theater Productions, arts education programming in dance, music, theater, visual arts, early childhood, and creative arts therapies for special needs students, and gallery exhibits featuring regional artists.