TBPAC announces complete Broadway schedule

TAMPA -- Next season's Broadway lineup at Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center has been filled out with Lord of the Dance, The Full Monty, Seussical and 42nd Street.

The Lion King and Aida, the season's main attractions, were previously announced. The two Disney musicals have runs of six weeks-plus and two weeks, respectively, in Morsani Hall. Both remain on Broadway, where The Lion King continues to play to full houses more than four years after opening.

A subscription also includes a cabaret show by Claude McNeal, Satchmo: The Life and Times of Louis Armstrong, in the Jaeb Theater.

Cathy Rigby, the former Olympic gymnast who has starred in Peter Pan and Annie Get Your Gun, plays the Cat in the Hat in Seussical. The Stephen Flaherty-Lynn Ahrens musical was a flop on Broadway, but is seen as a viable road property because of its family appeal.

The Full Monty was scaled back from a tour canceled last fall because of high production costs and overly ambitious multiweek bookings. Based on the popular movie, it transplants six unemployed factory workers turned strippers from Sheffield, England, to Buffalo. Despite being shut out of Tony Awards by The Producers and 42nd Street, Monty continues in New York and opens in London in March.

42nd Street won the 2001 Tony for best revival of a musical. Lord of the Dance is an Irish step-dancing spectacle, in the same vein as Riverdance.

The performing arts center co-presents the Broadway season with Clear Channel Communications. Subscriptions range from $143.40 to $426.50. For information, call (813) 229-7827 or 1-800-955-1045. Here's the 2002-03 schedule:

Oct. 29-Nov. 3, Lord of the Dance; Dec. 13-Jan. 26, The Lion King; Jan. 18-March 9, Satchmo: The Life and Times of Louis Armstrong; Feb. 18-23, The Full Monty; March 4-15, Aida; March 25-30, Seussical; April 29-May 4, 42nd Street.

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