For the third straight year, Pioneer Theatre Company will be one of the first regional theatres in the country to produce a blockbuster musical, closing its 2008-09 season with Miss Saigon, the spectacular musical event by Les Misérables creators Alain Boublil and Claude Michael Schönberg.

For the first time in over twenty-five years, the theatre will produce three musicals. The season will open in September with the Lerner and Loewe classic My Fair Lady. In December, the theatre will produce the Utah premiere of the Tony award-winning musical The Light in the Piazza.

The season will also include Noises Off, the sidesplitting comedy PTC first introduced to Utah audiences twenty years ago, The Yellow Leaf, a world premiere drama about the Romantic poets Lord Byron and Percy Shelley, Shakespeare’s beloved tragedy Romeo & Juliet, and the classic murder mystery Dial ‘M’ for Murder.

Remarking on the season, PTC Artistic Director Charles Morey said, “In the last five years, we’ve tackled very ambitious musical projects like last season’s Les Misérables. Miss Saigon is as challenging and as spectacular as any of them, and we’re delighted to be able to produce it for our audiences.

“Part of our mission is to produce contemporary plays of significance – the recent Broadway or London hit that would not be seen in Utah unless we produce it. Usually we’re talking about dramas when we talk about that kind of work, but next year we’re producing a new musical that most theatergoers in Utah haven’t had a chance to see.

“The Light in the Piazza is a wonderful musical that ran in New York for almost two years and won the 2005 Tony award for Best Musical Score and Lyrics. It’s a lovely, uplifting love story, and the composer/librettist is the grandson of Richard Rodgers, of Rodgers and Hammerstein fame.

“We were the first theatre in Utah to do Noises Off twenty years ago. Now everyone does it, but it’s been thirteen years since we last produced it. We thought it would be great to give everyone another dose of hysterical laughter next season.”

Dial ‘M’ for Murder and Romeo & Juliet are two great crowd-pleasing theatre pieces, and of course Romeo & Juliet is one of the greatest plays ever written.

The Yellow Leaf looks at three of the most fascinating literary figures of the last two hundred years – the poets Byron, Shelley, and Shelley’s wife Mary – and follows them through a fateful summer during which Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein.

Season tickets range from $70 to $256, which means that season ticket patrons are paying between $10 and $37 a ticket to see shows that cost over $100 on Broadway or National Tours. Notes PTC Managing Director Chris Lino, “For the price of one or two tickets to a Broadway show theatergoers can have a full season of entertainment at PTC, and be assured of the best seats and the convenience of exchanging their tickets if they can’t make their regular performance. And, as our long-time patrons know, you’ll be seeing the same actors who appear on Broadway stages, and the same spectacular sets and costumes that you would see on Broadway.”

For season tickets contact Pioneer Theatre Company’s Box Office at 801-581-6961 or visit us online at www.pioneertheatre.org.

Pioneer Theatre Company, Utah’s premier professional theatre, performs at the Roy W. and Elizabeth E. Simmons Pioneer Memorial Theatre, located on the University of Utah campus at 300 South and 1400 East, Salt Lake City UT 84112-0660. The theatre is equipped with an elevator, hearing assistance devices, and handicapped parking.

Free parking within a block of the theatre is available for all performances.

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Season Ticket Packages

For season tickets contact Pioneer Theatre Company’s Box Office at 801-581-6961 or visit us online at www.pioneertheatre.org.

The Seven Play Package

Get tickets for all seven shows in our season, and receive a discount of up to 65% on all tickets, a shot at the best seats before they go on sale to the general public, and a voucher good for free admission to any show in the season (excluding My Fair Lady and Miss Saigon).

The Pick Five Package

This option allows patrons to select any five shows in the season and receive both the season ticket discount and preferred seating.

The Flex Pass

This season package provides patrons with $230 worth of credit redeemable at the discounted season ticket rate for any shows the patron wishes to see.

$70 Upper Balcony Package

Patrons can purchase tickets to all seven shows for only $70.00. Seats in this package are in the Upper Balcony section, and can be upgraded to any available Main Floor or Loge seat at the discounted season ticket price. This package also includes a free voucher for any show except My Fair Lady or Miss Saigon.

The $99 Rush Pass

This is a season pass that allows patrons to come to the theatre an hour before any show and get the best available single ticket for that night. It’s good for all shows in the season, including the three musicals.

All packages include a discount on tickets, flexible exchange privileges, priority seating, the ability to purchase additional tickets to individual shows at a discount, and a subscription to Backstage, PTC’s newsletter.

Pioneer Theatre Company’s 2008-2009 Season

My Fair Lady

September 19 to October 4, 2008

Book and Lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner

Music by Frederick Loewe

Noises Off

October 31 to November 15, 2008

By Michael Frayn

The Light in the Piazza

December 5 to December 20, 2008

Book by Craig Lucas

Music and Lyrics by Adam Guettel

The Yellow Leaf

January 9 to January 24, 2009

By Charles Morey

Romeo & Juliet

February 13 to February 28, 2009

By William Shakespeare

Dial ‘M’ for Murder

March 20 to April 4, 2009

By Frederick Knott

Miss Saigon

May 1 to May 16, 2009

Music by Claude-Michel Schönberg

Lyrics by Alain Boublil and Richard Maltby, Jr.

Book by Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil

Contains strong language and mature themes.

Banner picture is PTC's 2006 production of You Can't Take It With You. Max Robinson, Michael Lluberes, Brenda Sue Cowley.