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Bringing Broadway home

Musical fans won't havelong to wait: The 2006-07 TBPAC season includessuch current hits as Spamalot and The Light in the Piazza, as well as the return of Wicked.

TAMPA -- Broadway shows are moving out on the road faster than ever these days, and that trend will show up next season at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center.

"In the past we've had maybe four new shows, but this is the most we've ever had in one season that are still playing in New York,'' said Judi Lisi, president of the center, which announces its 2006-07 Broadway series today.

The season, presented with Broadway Across America, part of Clear Channel Entertainment, includes tours of four musicals - Spamalot, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee and The Light in the Piazza - plus a play, Doubt, that continue to do healthy business on Broadway. Filling out the schedule are On Golden Pond, starring baby boom favorites Richard Chamberlain and Hayley Mills, and Cigar City Chronicles, a cabaret show on the history of Tampa.

Two shows provide the foundation of the season, in Lisi's view. "You always go for what is going to be your biggest hook,'' she said. "The two for me were Spamalot and Doubt. I figured if I could get those, then I'd be able to work around them.''

Spamalot, derived from the movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail, won the 2005 Tony Award for best musical and will play two weeks at TBPAC. Doubt, John Patrick Shanley's play set in a Bronx Catholic school in 1964, won four Tony Awards, including best play. The last straight play to be on the Broadway series was Master Class, with Faye Dunaway as Maria Callas, in 1997.

"I would love to put a play on every year, but they don't tour,'' Lisi said. "There's not enough interest on the road. When we can get them, we do them. People don't realize that a great play is just as fulfilling, if not more, than a big spectacle musical.''

In addition to the six shows in its Broadway series, TBPAC is bringing back Wicked, the hit of the current season. The

musical from Oz broke box office records with ticket sales of $4-million in its sold-out three-week run. "It has been a phenomenon across the country,'' Lisi said. "It is selling easily as much as The Lion King and Phantom ever did.''

Wicked, which is not included on the Broadway subscription series, will play from Feb. 21, 2007, through March 11, 2007. Already, advance sales have topped $1.2-million.

The Broadway series now has about 10,000 subscribers, who take up half the seats available for a week's eight-show run in TBPAC's 2,500-seat Morsani Hall. Single tickets go on sale closer to each individual show's opening. Lisi expects Spamalot to do well.

"There's no question that because Spamalot is only two weeks it's going to sell out very fast,'' she said. A sleeper might be The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, a charming comic musical with a score by William Finn.

"I think Spelling Bee is going to be fun on the road,'' Lisi said. "I think a lot of people have heard of it, because it's such a quirky show, a little bit offbeat.''

The Light in the Piazza, set in Florence, Italy, and inspired by a short story by Elizabeth Spencer, is the first Broadway musical by Adam Guettel, grandson of Richard Rodgers. It won six Tony Awards, including best score. Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, with music by David Yazbek (The Full Monty), is based on the movie about a pair of con men, who were played onscreen by Michael Caine and Steve Martin. Cigar City Chronicles, created by cabaret director Claude McNeal, will play in the Jaeb Theater.

With next season set, Lisi is looking at the 2007-08 season. "We're totally at the mercy of what happens in New York. Every show that opens, you have your fingers crossed,'' she said.

So far, the current Broadway season has one bona fide smash, Jersey Boys, the jukebox show of songs by Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. Avenue Q, which won best musical over Wicked in 2004 but flopped in its exclusive Las Vegas engagement, will now probably tour. The Color Purple, adapted from Alice Walker's feminist novel, seems to be overcoming lukewarm reviews, thanks to the clout of its producer, Oprah Winfrey. The most innovative show this season is probably the scaled-down revival of Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd, whose 10 cast members, including Patty LuPone, double as the orchestra.