'Producers,' 'Spelling Bee' to highlight 2008 for North Shore Music Theatre

It's three cheers for Susan Stroman. Actually, it's three productions she was involved with that will make up part of the North Shore Music Theatre's 2008 season.

Incoming artistic director and executive producer Barry Ivan said when planning upcoming seasons, he wants to pay tribute to one artist - whether it be a director, choreographer or producer, for example. This year Ivan will be paying tribute to fellow director/choreographer Stroman, perhaps the most renowned woman in musical theater today, by presenting on the NSMT stage three of the shows she turned into hits.

What are those hits? "The Producers," "Contact" and "Show Boat."

When "The Producers" plays at NSMT it will be the New England regional premiere of the hilarious Mel Brooks mega-hit that was directed and choreographed by Stroman, It won more Tony Awards than any other show in Broadway history.

Originally directed and choreographed by Stroman, "Contact" won four 2000 Tony Awards, including Best Musical. "Show Boat" is a critically acclaimed American masterpiece and was revived on Broadway in 1994 in a production that featured Tony Award-winning choreography by Stroman.

In addition to those shows, NSMT will also produce the classic "Bye Bye Birdie" and the more recent shows "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels" and "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee," both Broadway hits in 2005.

As always, in December you can see "A Christmas Carol." This will be its 20th year at NSMT and the hope is that outgoing artistic director and executive producer Jon Kimbell will return to direct it.

Ivan said there were two reasons he chose Stroman to highlight next season. The first was that Kimbell had already secured the rights for "Show Boat," which Stroman had choreographed. The other reason was that Ivan wanted to demonstrate that there are opportunities for women in this business.

"Jon was so supportive and instrumental in supporting directors and choreographers," Ivan said. "Then there was the element to show there is opportunity for women."

Something else that Ivan will introduce to audiences in the next few years is a "new works festival" at NSMT - now scheduled for 2009. Instead of producing one new work each season seen by audiences on the main stage, Ivan had another idea.

"I am trying to present it in another format," he said.

The idea is to hold a new works festival over a three-day period. You would buy tickets to the festival. You could then, for example, go see the reading of one act of a new play. Or hear new music from a composer.

Ivan will then take feedback he receives from a committee he will form - Kimbell will be on that committee, Ivan said - and audience participants to decide what NSMT should showcase and produce.

"It becomes a little less risky" for the audience to go along with a new work "if they feel invested in it" from the beginning, Ivan said. Also, he said it might make people want to invest in it financially as well.

"People will really get a sense of what goes into it," Ivan said.