The Paramount Theatre in Aurora has announced its 2022-23 Broadway Series of musicals will feature “Dreamgirls,” “The Sound of Music,” “Into the Woods” and the professional regional premiere of “School of Rock.”
Paramount Theatre artistic director Jim Corti and president and CEO Tim Rater made the announcement at a Monday reception at the renovated Copley Theatre. The 165-seat Aurora venue at 8 E. Galena Blvd. hosts the debut of the Paramount’s four-show Bold Series, which starts this week with preview performances of Lynn Nottage’s Pulitzer Prize-winning drama “Sweat.”
“The promise of season 11 is a theatrical panorama,” Corti said in a statement, highlighting that the Paramount will be presenting “some of the most popular Broadway shows ever written for the stage.”
“Dreamgirls” opens the season from Aug. 31 to Oct. 16. Christopher Betts makes his professional Chicago-area directing debut with this hit 1981 musical depicting the showbiz struggles of a fictionalized African American girl group in the 1960s.
Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “The Sound of Music” runs through the holiday season from Nov. 9 to Jan. 8. Amber Mak directs the beloved 1959 musical inspired by the real-life von Trapp Family Singers, faced with the rise of the Nazis in 1938 Austria.
“Into the Woods” plays Feb. 1 to March 19, 2023. Jim Corti directs this meaningful mashup of Grimm Brothers tales first dreamed up back in 1987 by playwright James Lapine and the late composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim, who died this past November at the age of 91.
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“School of Rock” rounds out the season from April 12 to May 28, 2023. Trent Stork directs this 2015 stage adaptation of the hit 2003 Jack Black film about a substitute teacher who uses rock music to help prod private school kids to let loose. The musical features a score by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Glen Slater, plus a script by “Downton Abbey” creator Julian Fellowes.
Current Paramount Theatre subscribers can make renewals starting at 10 a.m. today. There is also a “Buy Two Shows, Get Two Shows Free” subscription offer starting at $56. Single tickets go on sale in July.
For more information, visit the box office at 23 E. Galena Blvd., Aurora, or go online at paramountauora.com or call (630) 896-6666.