Steppin' Out

Story

AMT brings Broadway musicals close to home in local shows

By Heather Zimmerman

American Musical Theatre of San Jose is returning to locally produced shows this season, but that's not to say it's straying from Broadway. The company's 2007-08 season of full-scale, homegrown productions is filled with a variety of favorites from the Great White Way.

The season opens with the beloved musical comedy Guys and Dolls, which plays Oct. 9-21 at the San Jose Center for the Performing Arts, 255 Almaden Blvd., San Jose.

"Part of the reason we picked Guys and Dolls is absolutely because it's a classic," Michael Miller, CEO and executive producer of AMTSJ, says. "It's full of great music, it's fun, the characters are rich, but not caricatures."

Guys and Dolls tells of wiseguy gamblers who make what seems to be a sucker bet about wooing a local lady missionary. Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows based the show's book on Damon Runyon's stories of the 1920s and '30s New York City underworld; the score by Frank Loesser features songs that have become standards, in particular "Luck Be a Lady." The original Guys and Dolls opened on Broadway in 1950, won six Tony awards, and has been followed by two revivals. The musical was last seen at AMTSJ in 1989.

The other three shows in AMTSJ's season are also well-loved Broadway shows from across the spectrum: cult fave Little Shop of Horrors (Jan. 22-Feb. 3); dark masterpiece Cabaret (March 4-16) and lavish fairy tale Disney's Beauty and the Beast (May 13-25).

The company's productions will combine pools of talent from the Bay Area and Broadway. "We're going back to breathing life into Broadway musicals and we are still casting in New York," Miller says, "but we are definitely engaging more of our local artists, stagehands and actors."

Beginning in 2002, AMTSJ had primarily presented productions on tour from New York, most of them through a five-year agreement with theatrical-producing powerhouse the Nederlander Organization. "We brought in some terrific shows but at the end of the five years, we agreed not to renew the partnership," Miller says. He notes that AMTSJ, as a nonprofit, found its community outreach efforts, such as workshops and programs for local youth, didn't fit with the needs of a for-profit company not based in the area.

Returning to producing musicals locally was best for AMTSJ's mission, Miller says, which is to serve as a public benefit company. Homegrown shows keep more money in the local economy, and that's in keeping with the company's place in the Bay Area artistic community and its long history in San Jose.

AMTSJ is marking its 73rd season as a musical theater company, having started in 1935 as the San Jose Civic Light Opera performing such operettas as Gilbert and Sullivan's The Mikado. "Part of what made this company great was that a lot of people in the community grew up working for us, raised their children, and some of those children came to work for us," Miller says. "That's part of who we are. We don't really need to be San Francisco or be in competition with San Francisco."

Interestingly, Miller notes that when the company holds auditions in New York, it's not uncommon to find actors originally from the Bay Area who may have started at Children's Musical Theater San Jose (unaffiliated with AMTSJ), and then as young adults came to AMTSJ before heading to New York.

Locally produced shows will make up the subscription season, but the company will still occasionally present some popular tours as special engagements, such as this season's Go Diego, Go Live! (Nov. 2-4), Jesus Christ Superstar (Dec. 27-30) and the recently announced Mamma Mia! (April 22-27).

Tickets are $14.75-$74. For more information, call 888.455.SHOW or visit www.amtsj.org.