For its 34th season, the Atlanta Lyric Theatre won’t shuffle off to Buffalo exactly, but it will relocate from the Marietta Square to the Jennie T. Anderson Theatre at the Cobb Civic Center. The season begins Aug. 9 with The Producers.
To finish this season, the Lyric will stage Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, running June 7-23.
The company began life in 1980 as the Southeastern Savoyards and has morphed through the decades, branching out without pulling up musical roots. Beginning with an enthusiastic but singular focus on Gilbert & Sullivan, it later became the Savoyards Light Opera, and then expanded and rebranded itself the Savoyards Musical Theater Company. It became the Atlanta Lyric Theatre in 1998, with a mission to do family-friendly, Broadway-style musicals. It has been at the Strand Theatre on the Square since 2008.
An impasse, then failed negotiations prompted the move to the 600-seat Anderson Theatre, which is 1.5 miles from the Strand. The season lineup:
The Producers. Aug. 9-25. Madness, mayhem, larceny and laughs from the twisted imagination of Mel Brooks. The classic musical comedy is a 12-time Tony winner.
Guys and Dolls. Oct. 25-Nov. 10. One of the most durable musicals around, with a memorable score by Tony, Pulitzer and Academy Award winner Frank Loesser.
White Christmas. December dates TBA. You know the song, and you’ll likely leave the theater humming it. The show is based on the 1954 Bing Crosby-Danny Kaye movie musical. Its score, by Irving Berlin, has been expanded with tunes not in the film.
Sophisticated Ladies. Jan. 3-19, 2014. Two words: Duke Ellington. This is a jazz-filled, tuneful jukebox take on the legendary era of the Cotton Club.
Annie. April 4-20. Sandy. Little Orphan Annie. The sun will come out tomorrow. Need more be said? Winner of seven 1977 Tony awards.
Spamalot. June 13-29. King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table quest for the holiest of relics and encounter flying cows, killer rabbits and thoroughly irritating French folks. Won the 2005 Tony Award for best musical.
Stay tuned: The Lyric is working on a plan with the city of Marietta to provide shuttle service to their shows from the Square.
Season subscriptions and single tickets go on sale June 3.
