Uptown Players opens its 21st season with HEAD OVER HEELS
DALLAS, November 15, 2022 – The Uptown Players 2022/2023 season will open the bold newmusical comedy Head Over Heels, by Jeff Whitty and James McGruder, featuring the music of the Go-Go’s.
Head Over Heels is a jukebox musical adaptation of Sir Philip Sidney’s The Countess of Pembroke’s Arcadia, Head Over Heels incorporates the songs of the cultural phenomenon and revolutionary girl group The Go-Go’s into an empowering tribute to life’s fluid journey of love and self-discovery. By blending the aesthetics of Elizabethan England, 1980’s new wave, and contemporary queer culture, as well as disregarding restrictive, type-based characters and casting, this musical aims to celebrate the beauty in both the traditional and the unconventional in theatre and in life.
This laugh-out-loud love story is set to the music of the iconic 1980’s all-female rock band The Go-Go’s (2021 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inductee), including the hit songs, “We Got the Beat,” “Our Lips Are Sealed,” “Vacation,” “Head Over Heels,” and Belinda Carlisle’s “Heaven is a Place on Earth” and “Mad About You.”
This production will be directed by Penny Ayn Maas, with music direction by Lee Harris and choreography by Evor Wright. The Uptown Players cast includes Tim Brawner, Kylee Brown, Brian Hathaway, Isaiah Christopher-Lord Harris, Laura Lites, Gena Loe, Canali Miller, Grace Moore, Michael Mossucco, Seth Paden, Caroline Rivera, Michael Russell, Kylie Stewart, Lee Walter, Kelsey Ward, Brett Warner, Evor Wright and Sarah Youngblood
The production is stage managed by Kathryn Demith. Rounding out the design team is scenic designer Dennis Canright, lighting designer Amanda West, hair/make up designer Michael B. Moore, properties designer Jane Quetin, and sound designer Brian Christensen. Original costume designs by Arianne Phillips, rented courtesy of Goodspeed Musicals Costume Collection, were adapted by Suzi Cranford and Breianna Barrington.
Head Over Heels runs for 11 performances from December 2 - 18, 2022, with shows at 8 p.m. on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, and 2 p.m. on Sunday. Performances take place at the Kalita Humphreys Theater, 3636 Turtle Creek Blvd (at Blackburn), Dallas, TX 75219. There will be an ASL interpreted performance on Sunday, December 4 th at 2pm. Ticket price run from $35 - $65 and can be purchased at uptownplayers.org . Student rush tickets available at door one hour before curtain.
About Uptown Players:
Uptown Players is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, presenting plays and musicals that challenge audiences artistically and create greater positive public awareness and acceptance through the performing arts. The 2022-2023 season will be our twenty first season and our thirteenth season at the Kalita Humphreys Theater. Uptown Players is one of the leading regional theaters in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area and is providing an opportunity for a wide diversity of gender styles to come together and explore life choices through great theatre themes such as relationships, family, prejudice, and values. The response from the community and critics has been remarkable, including over 25 Leon Rabin Awards from the Dallas Theatre League, and over 30 Theater Critics Forum Awards. Uptown Players has also been named the best theatre company numerous times by the Dallas Voice Readers and by the Dallas Observer and has been featured in D Magazine and on WFAA’s Daybreak and Good Morning Texas programs.
Uptown Players has presented several world premieres, including A Very Sordid Wedding (2021), A Very Judy Christmas (2018), Gilligan’s Fire Island (2015), Redesigning Women (2013), Crazy Just Like Me (2011), and the stage adaptation of The Valley of the Dolls (2007). In addition, Uptown Players has produced the United States premieres of the West End hit musical Soho Cinders (2014), and the Pet Shop Boys Musical Closer to Heaven (2010). Uptown Players was the first regional theater in the United States to present the Tony Award Winner The Boy from Oz and the Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize winning musical Next to Normal, following the closing of the Broadway productions. Each season, Uptown Players presents several regional premieres. Past premieres include productions of Torch Song (2018), Fun Home, The Cake, The View Upstairs, Priscilla, Queen of the Desert; The Legend of Georgia McBride; It Shoulda Been You; End of the Rainbow; The Nance; Catch Me If You Can
Photo by Mike Morgan
