A Very Wicked Season
MPAC Makes a Musical Impact on Downtown Miami

By Mary Damiano

Some of the hottest tickets on Broadway—Wicked, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, The Light in the Piazza and Chita Rivera: A Dancer’s Life—are coming to downtown Miami for the inaugural season of Broadway Across America-Miami, which begins September at the soon to be opened Miami Performing Arts Center (MPAC).

	Chita Rivera

“It is an honor to partner with the Miami Performing Arts Center by bringing the finest Broadway fare adding to their great diversity of entertainment,” says Susie Krajsa, executive vice president of Broadway Across America. “We also look forward to reaching out to the Miami-Dade community of theatre-goers that has not always in the past had the opportunity to enjoy our shows as we move forward in presenting world-class Broadway productions for many seasons to come.”

The season will be presented in the 2,400-seat Sanford and Dolores Ziff Ballet Opera House, one of the three state-of-the-art theaters that, together with an education center, an expansive outdoor plaza, and a restored 1929 Art Deco tower, make the new Miami Performing Arts Center one of the largest performing arts centers in the United States and South Florida’s premier entertainment venue.

“At Miami Performing Arts Center,” said MPAC President and CEO Michael Hardy, “our goal is to present the very best performances from a wide variety of arts and entertainment—theater, music, dance, comedy, and family shows. The inaugural season of Broadway Across America—Miami has all of that and more. In our beautifully designed Ziff Ballet Opera House, these terrific shows are going to look and sound fantastic, and together, Miami Performing Arts Center and Live Nation are going to make Miami one of the country’s most exciting places to see hit Broadway shows.”

In addition to Wicked, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, The Light in the Piazza and Chita Rivera: A Dancer’s Life, a fifth show to be named later will round out the 2006-2007 season.

Here is a rundown of the shows slated for the Broadway Across America-Miami 2006-2007 season:

The Light in the Piazza  Sept. 26 – Oct. 1, 2006

Direct from Broadway and the winner of 6 Tony^® Awards including Best Score, this romantic new musical brings together the talents of Adam Guettel and Craig Lucas in an adaptation of Elizabeth Spencer’s novella directed by Bartlett Sher. This lush, dreamy musical finds Margaret Johnson on vacation in the Tuscan countryside with her daughter, Clara, whose unexpected encounter with a handsome Florentine named Fabrizio sets the plot in motion.

A scene from Dirty Rotten Scoundrels

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels  Dec. 5 – 10, 2006

Based on the 1988 movie starring Steve Martin and Michael Caine, this musical version is set on the glorious, glamorous Riviera that follows two con artists as they take on the lifestyles of the rich and shameless—and end up with a lot more than they bargain for.

Chita Rivera: A Dancer’s Life  Jan. 2 – 7, 2007

Newsweek has hailed Chita Rivera as “the greatest musical dancer ever.” Direct from Broadway, two-time Tony Award® winner Chita Rivera is coming to Miami in a dazzling musical that celebrates her astonishing career. Written by four-time Tony winner Terrence McNally, directed by Tony nominee Graciela Daniele and featuring a cast of 11, A Dancer’s Life charts Chita's amazing journey from aspiring ballerina to Broadway legend. In story and song, she relives fascinating moments from the years she spent working with such greats as Bernstein, Fosse and Sondheim, and performs knockout numbers from some of her biggest hits, including West Side Story, Chicago, Bye Bye Birdie and Kiss of the Spider Woman.

Wicked  March 14 – 25, 2007

If you couldn’t get a ticket during its Fort Lauderdale run, here’s another chance to see wicked and learn what was going on in Oz  before Dorothy dropped in.  Long before that girl from Kansas arrives in Munchkinland, two girls meet in the land of Oz. One, born with emerald-green skin, is smart, fiery and misunderstood. The other is beautiful, ambitious and very popular. How these two grow to become the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda the Good Witch makes for a very entertaining musicals.

Season tickets for the five-show Broadway Across America-Miami 2006-2007 season are currently available and range from $100 - $429.  New subscribers should call the MPAC box office at 305-949-MPAC (6722) or visit www.miamipac.org. The MPAC box office is open Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.  Renewing season ticket holders should call Broadway Across America – Miami at 800-939-8587. The Broadway Across America phone center is open Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and also offers 24-hour automated renewal services.