A brilliant detective, a mad scientist, romantic gangsters, brothers in high finance, and Russian lovers will be hitting the stage of Pioneer Theatre Company next season.
PTC announced its 2023-2024 lineup on Monday, four musicals and three plays — including the planned first production in the still-under-construction Meldrum Theatre at the Einar Nielsen Fieldhouse on the University of Utah campus.
Season tickets go on sale Monday, to new and returning subscribers, online at PioneerTheatre.org, or by calling 801-581-6961, or by visiting the box office at the Simmons Pioneer Memorial Theatre, 300 S. 1400 East, during the current production of “What the Constitution Means to Me.”
Starting next season, Pioneer Theatre will no longer charge ticket fees, for either season or individual tickets, so the listed ticket price will be the total price.
Here are the seven productions planned for PTC’s season:
Sept. 22-Oct. 7 • “Murder on the Orient Express,” an adaptation of the beloved murder mystery. Playwright Ken Ludwig (“Lend Me a Tenor,” “Crazy for You”) has been commissioned by the Agatha Christie Estate to adapt Christie’s story of the Belgian detective Hercule Poirot, investigating a murder on a luxurious train filled with suspects.
Oct. 20-31 • “The Rocky Horror Show,” marking the 50th anniversary of Richard O’Brien’s cult favorite glam-rock musical, in which the crazed Dr. Frank N. Furter invites innocents Brad Majors and Janet Weiss to check out the muscleman he’s creating in his lab. PTC staged concert versions of “Rocky Horror” in 2014 and 2015, but this is a fully staged, interactive version.
Dec. 1-16 • “Christmas in Connecticut,” a new musical adaptation of the 1945 holiday movie, which starred Barbara Stanwyck as a food writer who has lied about being the perfect homemaker — and must fake the part for her boss and a returning war hero. PTC will have only the second staging of this still-in-development musical, with music by Jason Howland and lyrics by Amanda Yesnowitz, and the only 2023 staging in the United States.
Jan. 12-27, 2024 • “Native Gardens,” the Utah premiere of Karen Zacarias’ play about a dispute between neighbors — when a young attorney and his doctoral candidate wife move into their D.C. home, next to a well-established couple whose prize-worthy English garden becomes a point of contention.
Feb. 23-March 9, 2024 • “Bonnie & Clyde,” a musical account of the infamous gangster couple, told through blues, gospel and rock ‘n’ roll. With music by Frank Wildhorn (“Jekyll & Hyde,” “The Scarlet Pimpernel”) and lyrics by Don Black, the musical had a brief Broadway run in 2011.
March 29-April 13, 2024 • “The Lehman Trilogy,” Stefano Massini’s 2022 Tony winner for Best Play tells of the three immigrant brothers who came to America circa 1844, and started a massive investment firm that spectacularly collapsed in 2008. The play is scheduled to be PTC’s first production in the Meldrum Theatre at the Einar Nielsen Fieldhouse, which is still under construction.
May 10-25, 2024 • “Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812,” composer-lyricist Dave Malloy’s musical based on a fragment of Leo Tolstoy’s “War and Peace,” about a countess, Natasha, who has an affair with an aristocrat, Anatole, while her fiancé, Andrey, is away at war — all while Andrey’s melancholy friend, Pierre, searches for meaning in his life. Nominated for 12 Tonys in 2016, it won for scenic design and lighting design, but lost Best Musical to “Dear Evan Hansen.”
