Announcing: our updated 2020-2021 season!
While we had planned to produce 3 fully-mounted musical productions at the El Cerrito Performing Arts Theatre for our 16th season, the continued severity of COVID-19 has forced YMTC, like so many other theater companies, to change and adapt. The result: a new, updated, and exciting 16th season of 4 wonderful musicals, presented entirely on our newly-built outdoor stage at our Aquatic Park campus for socially distanced, masked, small audiences.
FALL 2020 – The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee
Music and lyrics by William Finn, book by Rachel Sheinkin
Directed by Jennifer Boesing
Music Direction by David Möschler
September 26–October 11, 2020 on the outdoor stage at YMTC’s Aquatic Park Campus
6 kooky kid spellers. 3 questionably-competent adult administrators. 1 spelling bee – during a global pandemic. The stakes couldn’t be higher, and the resulting musical romp with zippy, toe-tapping music by William Finn couldn’t be funnier. Learn more about the show, the cast and team, and our COVID-compliant production here.
WINTER 2021 – Merrily We Roll Along in Concert
Music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, book by George Furth, based on the 1934 play by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart
Directed by Jennifer Boesing
Music Direction by David Möschler
March 20–28, 2021 on the outdoor stage at YMTC’s Aquatic Park Campus
How did you get to be where you are? Where did you go wrong? Where did you go right? And, most importantly, who was there with you all along the way? Merrily We Roll Along explores these questions through the story of struggling-composer-turned-successful-producer Franklin Shepard, as the audience travels backwards in time to see just how Frank got to be where he is. Smart, nuanced, and equal parts hilarious and heartbreaking, Merrily takes us on a 20-year journey of the moments and choices that make up a life, set to the tune of one of Stephen Sondheim’s brassiest and most sparkling scores. Normally a big show with a full cast, we will present Merrily with concert staging.
SPRING 2021 – 13
Music and lyrics by Jason Robert Brown, book by Dan Elish and Robert Horn
Directed by Jennifer Boesing
Music Direction by Jon Gallo
Choreographed by Angel Adedokun
May 22–June 6, 2021 on the outdoor stage at YMTC’s Aquatic Park Campus
Evan Goldman has it made. He lives in New York City, he has great parents, and his bar mitzvah is about to be the party of the year. But when his folks split up and he’s forced to move to a town in the middle of nowhere, Indiana, just before his 13th birthday, his life seems pretty much over. Can Evan win the approval of his new classmates, find out who his real friends are, plan a killer bar mitzvah, and figure out what it means to “become a man”? Jason Robert Brown’s catchy, jazzy pop-rock score tells the classic story of coming-of-age against all odds. YMTC’s 13 will be a fully-staged production featuring a small band playing the original orchestrations.
SUMMER 2021 – The Light in the Piazza
Music and lyrics by Adam Guettel, book by Craig Lucas, based on the 1960 novella by Elizabeth Spencer
Directed by Jennifer Boesing
Music Direction by David Möschler
July 16–July 25, 2021 on the outdoor stage at YMTC’s Aquatic Park Campus
Set to a soaring, operatic score by Adam Guettel, Light in the Piazza is the story of an American woman, Margaret, and her adult daughter, Clara, on vacation in Florence in the 1950s. Love blossoms between Clara and a young Italian man – and Margaret, who holds close many secrets about herself and Clara, is forced to reconsider her daughter’s future, as well as her own unrealized hopes, dreams, and loves. Piazza is a modern musical fable, romantic, complicated, and richly told. YMTC’s production of Light in the Piazza will be a fully-staged production featuring a chamber orchestra playing the original orchestrations.
