Rich season for Italian theatre goers

[Martina]

In season 2009/2010 Compagnia della Rancia, the most famous musical company in Italy, will stage Cats in Italian. So, after more than 20 years, we'll finally have an Italian production of Lloyd Webber's most successful show. Cats had already reached Italy two times thanks to international tours, but this is the first time that an Italian company will stage such a well-known musical. The news has also been reported by broadwayworld.com; premiere should be in October in Rome.
There is already a website, though it's empty atm: www.cats.musical.it

Moreover, Stage Entertainment will open its first Italian production this fall as well, with Disney's Beauty and the Beast. The show will be staged in Italian, and will play at the Teatro Nazionale in Milan.

There are also talks that SE will also buy another theatre in central Italy in order to stage Zorro (link), with the music of Gypsy Kings, but at the moment this is just a far away project, while Cats and BatB are more certain.

Anyhow, finally things look interesting for us as well...

[Martina]

Yesterday some of the cast to the Italian production of Beauty and the Beast was presented during a gala evening. Alan Menken was present and played and sang some songs.
The leads will be played by Michel Altieri (Rent and many Italian musicals, some audio and video here and Arianna, mostly known some years ago as a Disney singer.

You can watch some of the videos of the evening here: dietrolequinte.blogosfere.it/2009/06/dietro-le-quinte-allo-showcase-de-la-bella-e-l-bestia-altieri-arianna-ealan-menken-il-videoservizio.html#more

[Fantasma da Opera]

Thanks;D
I loved their voices. Can't wait to see more about the production!

[Martina]

On Thursday "Cats" was presented to the Italian press in the Colosseum in Rome.
Here are some pictures from the event, and here on the other hand some videos.

Since this production is touring Italy and stopping in Florence, I think I'll give the cats a try, even if it isn't my favourite show...

[Fantasma da Opera]

Martina,

I'm going to Milan in end November! Do you know when will BatB be playing and where in Milan?

[Martina]

Sept 28, 2009 15:40:40 GMT -5 Fantasma da Opera said:

Martina,

I'm going to Milan in end November! Do you know when will BatB be playing and where in Milan?

Obviously...

The show is playing in the renewed "Teatro Nazionale", located in Piazza Piemonte 12, and these are the times of the shows:
Tuesdays to Fridays 20.30
Saturdays and Sundays 15.30 / 20.30

(PM me for any other information )

[Fantasma da Opera]

Thanks! =) I'm definitly gonna take the chance to see it ;D

[Martina]

A couple of links before the opening night:

tinyurl.com/y9deonc

tinyurl.com/ya66zj4 (this one also has some pictures)

I quote: "Stage entertainment invested 5 million euro, the cast is composed by 33 artists, there are 200 costumes, and set changes every 7 minutes" (how did they calculate that, I don't know... )

And in 15 days I will see if the millions were well-spent. ;D