Broadway Found: Straz announces 2012-13 season

Hang on tight for the Straz Center's 2012-13 Broadway season, which will feature high drama, high fashion, high kicks and a higher power.

"War Horse," "Priscilla Queen of the Desert," Cole Porter's "Anything Goes," and "Sister Act," based on the movie starring Whoopi Goldberg, are among the acclaimed shows coming next season to the David A. Straz Jr. Center for the Performing Arts.

In addition to the eight-show Best of Broadway series, Tony Award-winning "Wicked" will paint the town green with its fourth stop in Tampa. And Green Day's "American Idiot" and "Elf the Musical," based on the popular Will Ferrell holiday movie, will make their first stops here.

"Our Broadway season will offer theater audiences in the Tampa Bay area the opportunity to experience a vast array of top-notch theatrical productions," Judith Lisi, president and CEO of the Straz Center, said in a news release. "This entertaining and rewarding series has something for everyone and showcases the best that theater has to offer."

The Straz's Bank of America Best of Broadway Tampa Bay season features:

• "Jekyll & Hyde" (Oct. 23-28): Following multiple tours, the musical from composer Frank Wildhorn ("Wonderland") stops in Tampa to tell the dangerous story of Dr. Jekyll, who unleashes his dark side in an experiment gone wrong.

• "Sister Act" (Dec. 11-16): Based on the popular movie, this musical promises to rock the rafters as a wanna-be diva, fleeing the mob, finds shelter in a convent and helps the nuns raise their voices and their profile.

• "Traces" (Jan. 29 to Feb. 3, 2013): Actor/acrobats push the limits of their bodies in a show that fuses circus moves with street performance. Music, dance, skateboarding, awe-inspiring acrobatics – even basketball – merge in gravity-defying showmanship.

• "Flashdance – The Musical" (Feb. 19-24, 2013): Tear the collar off your sweatshirt, put on your legwarmers and live the dream of going from welder to professional dancer in this musical based on '80s pop culture phenomenon. What a feeling!

• "Anything Goes" (March 12-17, 2013): The 2011 Tony Award-winning shipboard musical, chockfull of love stories, tap dancing, kick-lines and Cole Porter classics, including "I Get a Kick Out of You" and "You're the Top," drops anchor in Morsani Hall.

• "Priscilla Queen of the Desert" (April 9-14, 2013): Three friends looking for love and family board a battered bus for a road trip across the Australian outback. Filled with extreme costumes and dance-hits such as "I Will Survive" and "It's Raining Men," this musical also deals with adult themes and contains explicit language, so you might want to leave your pre-teens at home.

• "War Horse" (April 30 to May 5, 2013) Now an Academy Award-nominated movie, this Tony-winning play uses life-sized puppets to bring to the stage the tale of a beloved horse sold to the cavalry in World War I. In a story of courage and friendship, Albert, his young owner, goes on a treacherous journey to bring his horse home. BYOT (bring your own tissues).

• " 'S Wonderful" (Feb. 7 to April 28, 2013): From New York City in 1916 to '30s Paris to today, five mini-musicals take the audience on a grand adventure that made George and Ira Gershwin an iconic songwriting team. The show features more than 40 Gershwin hits, including "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off," "Someone to Watch Over Me" and "Rhapsody in Blue."

The season's three add-on shows are:

• "Elf The Musical" (Nov. 20-25): An original musical comedy spawned by Ferrell's movie about Buddy, an orphan who learns he's not really one of Santa's elves and travels to the big city to find his real father.

• "Wicked" (Jan. 9-27, 2013): It's not easy being green in the empowering musical about the backstory of the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda in Oz – before Dorothy and that house fell into Munchkinland.

• "American Idiot" (May 17-19, 2013): In a musical that is as brash and bold as the band behind it, three friends have to choose between pursuing their dreams and a safe suburban life. What are they, idiots?

Season tickets go on sale at noon today, at the Straz ticket office, 1010 MacInnes Place, Tampa; by phone at (813) 229-7827 or online at www.strazcenter.org.