York Little Theatre Opens XANADU, 4/13

Xanadu, the musical adventure on roller skates about following your dreams, rolls across the YLT stage April 13 – 22.  It's described as "a moving, electrifying tale of endless fun that keeps audiences in stitches, while dancing in their seats to the legendary chart-topping tunes from the original hit score composed by pop-rock legends Jeff Lynne and John Farrar."  

In 2008 The Broadway production won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Book of a Musical and the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding New Broadway Musical.

Based on the cult classic movie of the same title starring Olivia Newton-John and Gene Kelly, Xanadu follows the journey of a magical and beautiful Greek muse, Kira, who descends from the heavens of Mt. Olympus to Venice Beach, California in 1980 on a quest to inspire a struggling artist, Sonny, to achieve the greatest artistic creation of all time - the first Roller Disco.  But, when Kira falls into forbidden love with the mortal Sonny, her jealous sisters take advantage of the situation and chaos abounds. It's hilarity on wheels for adults, children and anyone who has ever wanted to feel inspired and the score includes the chart-topping songs "Magic", "All Over The World", "Suddenly", "I'm Alive", "Evil Woman", "Have You Never Been Mellow" and "Xanadu."   

"It's just a truly fun, campy show," says Director Aaron Dalton.  "When I first saw the show I left the theatre in such a good mood!"  Dalton's biggest challenge was to not only pull together a comedy-musical,  but do it all on roller skates.  "Most of the cast has not roller skated in 20 or more years," Dalton laughs, "so we had a lot of work to do in order to be able to dance on skates on all kinds of surfaces. The cast travels all over the stage on skates including going up and down ramps--we have to be careful that every surface is extremely clean to avoid accidents." 

The local cast of 11 includes Tatiana Dalton (Kira), Randy Robbins (Sonny Malone), Jeff Sneeringer (Danny Maguire), Tammy Oppel (Calliope), Lisa Young (Melpomene), and Jasmine Burns, Marisa Hoover, Mary Peck, Andrew Matseur, Lee Howard and Sean Deffly as muses. "The cast has been working very hard," says Dalton. "We were blocked and choreographed very early so we would have plenty of time to become completely comfortable dancing on skates."  The production team includes choreographer Catherine Howard, Costume Designer Tatiana Dalton, and Musical Director Ken Bateman who will be leading a rock-band style pit of four musicians.  

Dalton wanted to create an experience almost exactly the same as the Broadway show which presented some challenges for Technical Director Bob McCleary, who, along with Set Designer and model-builder Ray Olewiler had to create a 6-foot high floating Pegasus upon which Kira (Tatiana Dalton) must ride. "We also have to place more than 30 disco balls and create a Centaur.  The set itself is a Greek Amphitheatre," adds Dalton. "Some audience members actually sit on stage in the amphitheatre and become part of the show.  The actors will play off the audience, but there is nothing required of the audience members other than to be there and enjoy the experience."  Special amphitheatre seating is only available by calling the theatre, and tickets are specially priced at $15.  "Each performance is a little different because of the interplay with the audience," explains Dalton.  

"I wish I could provide some deep insight, but we're not doing Othello," laughs Dalton.  "It's just as described by the Washington Post-Bursts of joy exploding all over the stage."   Xanadu is sponsored by Almost Like Home Self-Storage and The Markets at Shrewsbury, media sponsor flipsidepa.com, and runs April 13 14, 19, 20 and 21 at 7:30 p.m. and April 15 and 22 at 3:00 p.m.  Adult tickets are $23, seniors are $21, students are $18, children are $10. Tickets can be purchased at www.ylt.org or 854-5715, from 11 - 5 weekdays.   

York Little Theatre, now enjoying its 79th season of shows, is a nonprofit community theatre which values and nurtures the irreplaceable role of the arts and is dedicated to engaging and enriching its entire, diverse community in the dramatic arts through a broad range of professionally directed, entertaining, stimulating, and sometimes provocative performances. 

York Little Theatre is located at 27 South Belmont Street, York PA, just south of Market Street at the intersection of I83. 

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