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Arts

Girls rule new season at TBPAC

By JOHN FLEMING
Published March 20, 2005

You could say that girl power is the theme of the 2005-06 Broadway season at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, whose schedule is released today. Topping the lineup is Wicked, the new musical by Stephen Schwartz (music and lyrics) and Winnie Holzman (book) that deconstructs The Wizard of Oz by telling the story of what happened in Emerald City, Munchkinland and the rest of Oz before Dorothy blew in from Kansas.

Wicked, adapted from a novel by Gregory Maguire, has been popular with young girls because of its story about two witches of Oz: Elphaba, the green-skinned, sympathetic Wicked Witch of the West; and Glinda the Good, a bratty blond. The pair meet at sorcery school, where they loathe each other at first but come to an uneasy detente, and the musical follows their changing relationship through the years.

The newest show on the schedule is Little Women, another adaptation from a novel, the beloved classic by Louisa May Alcott, whose marketing campaign targets its namesakes and their mothers. Producers estimate that 75 percent of the musical's audience on Broadway, where it opened in January, has been female. Maureen McGovern will play matriarch Marmee in the tour.

The rest of the TBPAC season is made up of revivals, including two more musicals centered on female characters, Annie and Evita. Cathy Rigby returns as Peter Pan to open the season. Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, with Patrick Cassidy as the biblical Joseph and American Idol's Amy Adams as the Narrator, winds it up. The revue I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change will run in the Jaeb Theatre.

Oct. 11-16, Peter Pan

Nov. 8-13, Evita

Dec. 13-18, Annie

Jan. 18-Feb. 5, Wicked

March 7-12, Little Women: The Musical

April 18-23, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat

Feb. 17-May 14: I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change

[Last modified March 17, 2005, 09:53:04]