Arts Club season to include "children's theatre for 40-year-old gay people"

One thing is for sure, when the Arts Club Theatre Company presents Xanadu as the closer for its 2011/2012 season, they know the demographic they are after.  How else can you explain the line plucked directly from this musical spoof: "this is like children’s theatre for 40-year-old gay people."

Yes, it is that Xanadu, the stage adaptation of the 1980 Olivia Newton-John movie of the same name, complete with the original Electric Light Orchestra (ELO) songs, a whole lot of leg-warmers and, of course, roller skates.

But while we’ll have to wait until June 2012 for the headbands and spandex to hit the Granville Island Stage, the Arts Club will present a season of 16 shows on three stages, that can only be described as eclectic.

Along with classics like Cole Porter’s High Society and Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest , the Arts Club welcomes back two seasonal favourites: The Patron Saint of Stanley Park and White Christmas: The Musical.

Continuing its relationship with the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival, the Arts Club will co-present Do You Want What I Have Got? A Craigslist Cantata from locals Bill Richardson and Veda Hille in what is being described as “your personal ads set to music”.

“There is so much in next season’s lineup that will grab you,” said Artistic Managing Director Bill Millerd.

And with seven Canadian works, three premieres, recent plays from Margaret Atwood and Morris Panych, plus Calendar Girls and the award-winning musical Blood Brothers all on tap for next season, even the toughest theatre fan would find it hard to argue otherwise.

Arts Club Theatre Company
2011/2012 Season

For more information and subscriptions visit the Arts Club online or call the box office at 604.687.1644.