Ahrens, Connick, Flaherty, et al. to Be Featured at Kansas City’s Coterie

Musicals by Grammy Award winner Harry Connick, Jr. and the Tony Award-winning team of Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens will be presented in the next year by the Coterie Theatre in Kansas City, which specializes in shows for young audiences.

Twice Upon a Time will have its world premiere production June 26-August 5. The show consists of two one-act musicals by Flaherty and Ahrens, Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax and The Emperor’s New Clothes, an adaptation of the famed Hans Christian Andersen story. The Lorax was originally a segment from Seussical, but was excised before the musical made it to Broadway.

Connick wrote the score for The Happy Elf, which features a book by Andrew Fishman. The musical tells the story of Eubie, an overly exuberant elf who is sent by Santa to Bluesville, where joy is squelched by the repressive town authority. The show will run November 13-December 28.

The Coterie’s 2007-2008 season also includes Judi Ann Mason’s A Star Ain’t Nothin’ But a Hole in Heaven (September 25-October 14), a drama about a rural Louisiana girl who must decide between a college scholarship and her fragile family; Night of the Living Dead (October 18-28), based on George Romero’s horror film of the same title; In Spite of Thunder: The Macbeth Project (January 22-February 15), based on the classic Shakespeare play; A Separate Peace (March 4-22), an adaptation of John Knowles’ beloved novel about two very different schoolmates; and Sideways Stories From Wayside School (April 18-28), an adaptation of Louis Sachar’s award-winning book about the funniest school in the universe.

The season will conclude with a new version of Flaherty and Ahrens’ popular musical Once on This Island (June 24-August 3), which tells the story of Ti Moune, a poor peasant girl on a Caribbean island who falls in love with the wealthy young Daniel.

For more information, visit www.coterietheatre.org.