NAPLES, NY (JULY 2009)
Bristol Valley Theater, the central Finger Lakes live professional theater, continues their 18th summer season on Main Street in Naples with Evita, the Broadway musical about the rise and fall of Argentina’s most memorable first lady, Eva Peron, which opens on July 23 at the theatre in Naples.
“It’s a modern classic of the musical theater,” says Bristol Valley Theater Artistic Director, Karin Bowersock, who also directs the play. “It’s a rags to riches story, of course, best known for “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina.”
Evita, a 1979 multiple Tony award winner written by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice, follows Persons’ rise from very humble lower class beginnings to first lady of her nation.
“Eva Peron is a fascinating and controversial figure: a woman adored by many, but violently opposed by her detractors,” says Bowersock, “In that way, Evita also focuses on the fickle nature of celebrity and public adoration, as did the recent deaths of icons like Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett.”
Adam Corcoran will choreograph the production, with musical direction by C. Colby Sachs; the cast includes Lisa Kathryn Hokans (in the title role), Ryan Bates, Brent Burkhardt, Adam Corcoran, Michelle Doucet, Michael Frishman, Tommy Labanaris, Katelyn Machnica, David Shane, Jake Warnecke, and Sarah Wood. The production is sponsored by Canandaigua National Bank and Bill Wheeler, Mitchell Pierson Realtors.
Performances run from July 23 – August 2 at the theater at 151 S. Main Street in Naples. Performances are Thursday – Saturday at 8 p.m., Sunday at 2 p.m., with additional Wednesday and Thursday matinees at 2:00 p.m. for the second performance week only. For reservations and further information, call the box office at 585 374-6318 or visit http://www.bvtnaples.org
The Bristol Valley Theater summer season concludes in August with Noel Coward’s Private Lives. The season is sponsored by Constellation Brands with additional support from The New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency.
