Contact comes to Hartford
January 10, 2005, Hartford, CT - The Tony Award-winning Best Musical contact, directed and choreographed by Susan Stroman (recreated by Fergus Logan) and written by John Weidman, is coming to The Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts' Mortensen Hall for two performances, February 15-16, 2005, as part of the Bank of America Showcase Series. Tickets, which range in price from $16.00 to $49.00, are available at The Bushnell Box Office, located at 166 Capitol Avenue in Hartford or by calling (860)987-5900. Tickets are also available online at www.bushnell.org. Groups of 20 or more should call the group sales hotline at (860)987-5959.
In 2000, contact took New York by storm, winning every major award including the Tony Award, Drama Desk Award, Outer Critics Circle Award and Drama League Award for Best Musical.
Three sensual stories told entirely through dance about people in the wild pursuit of love, contact is performed to a wide range of music - from Stephane Grappelli's rendition of Rodgers & Hart's "My Heart Stood Still," to pieces by Grieg, Tchaikovsky and Bizet to Robert Palmer, Dean Martin, the Beach Boys and The Squirrel Nut Zippers - by a cast of 24 dancers-actors who captivate and seduce the audience. A CD containing music from contact is available from RCA Victor.
When contact opened in 2000 at New York's Lincoln Center Theater it was hailed by Time Magazine for "kicking the dust off a tired old Broadway." Syndicated columnist Liz Smith called contact "one of the rare absolutely perfect things I have ever seen in the theater," adding that "not since Bob Fosse and Michael Bennett has a choreographer-director made such an intelligent, creative impact on the American musical scene. You'll be sitting on the edge of your seat, electrified." And The New York Times exclaimed that contact "restores the pleasure principle to the American musical. It is that rare entertainment that leaves you floating all the way home." Director-choreographer Susan Stroman won her third Tony Award, as well as the Drama Desk, Outer Critics, Lucille Lortel and Astaire Awards for contact. Stroman won her other Tony Awards for her choreography of the hit Broadway musicals Crazy For You, directed by Mike Ockrent, and director Harold Prince's new production of the classic musical Showboat, both of which enjoyed long runs both on Broadway and on tour. Stroman's other Broadway credits include the musicals big and Steel Pier and the annual Madison Square Garden spectacular A Christmas Carol. She won London's coveted Olivier Award for her choreography of the acclaimed Royal National Theatre production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma!, and is also the director and choreographer of the hit Broadway revival of Meredith Willson's The Music Man. She has also created ballets for the New York City Ballet and Martha Graham Dance Company and choregraphed the dances in the recent feature film Center Stage. Stroman collaborated, again as director-choreographer with Mel Brooks on the musical version of his classic film comedy, The Producers, which swept the 2001 Tony Awards and appeared at The Bushnell earlier this season.
Writer John Weidman wrote the books for the musicals Pacific Overtures (Tony nomination) and Assassins, both with scores by Stephen Sondheim, Big, (Tony nomination), and co-wrote the book with Timothy Crouse for Lincoln Center Theater's hit revival of Cole Porter's Anything Goes. He is currently working on a new musical with Stephen Sondheim and Harold Prince. Weidman won nine Emmy Awards for his writing for the PBS series "Sesame Street."
NETworks Presentations, LLC., the producer of the contact tour, was founded by Kenneth Gentry in 1995. NETworks has offices in New York City, London and Maryland and has produced national and international tour of some of Broadway's best loved shows: Show Boat, Ragtime, The Civil War, Damn Yankees, The Sound Of Music, Kiss Of The Spiderwoman, State Fair, Jekyll & Hyde, Big, Victor-Victoria, Seussical the Musical, tick...tick...BOOM!, Kiss Me Kate, and Cinderella, starring the legendary Eartha Kitt, as well as the innovative Cirque Ingenieux. Current touring companies include Oklahoma!, The Full Monty, Rent and Oliver!, as well as a Far East tour of Cabaret, starring Andrea McArdle. NETworks Presentations International is currently represented overseas by worldwide tours of Fosse and The King And I. Future projects include Annie, Me And Mrs. Jones, Pump Boys And Dinettes and a new musical, Tanguera.
Ticket and Performance Information: contact will play The Bushnell's Mortensen Hall February 15-16, 2005 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are available at The Bushnell Box Office, located at 166 Capitol Avenue in Hartford. Tickets are also available by calling (860)987-5900 or online at www.bushnell.org. Tickets prices range from $16.00 to $49.00. Groups of 20 or more should call (860)987-5959.
About The Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts: The Bushnell is Connecticut's premier performing arts center, hosting more than 450 events yearly, including major Broadway tours, symphony orchestras, family presentations, local arts and community events. In November 2001, The Bushnell completed a $45 million expansion project that added a second, 907-seat theater to the existing historic structure. The new, state-of-the-art performance hall allows for expanded arts, entertainment and community offerings. The Bushnell's nationally-recognized arts-in-education program, PARTNERS (Partners in Arts and Education Revitalizing Schools), is a cross-community educational effort serving 27 schools in 10 districts throughout the Greater Hartford area. The Bushnell opened in January 1930 and is a non-profit organization. For more information, call The Bushnell at (860) 987-6000, The Bushnell Box Office at (860) 987-5900 or visit our website at www.bushnell.org.