October 2, 2007 will mark the first performance of Bristol Riverside Theatre’s Twenty-First Season of producing professional theatre in Historic Bristol Borough, Bucks County, Pennsylvania. The Opening celebration of the Season will be held on Opening Night of I do! I do! Thursday, October 4.

The year kicks off with Tom Jones and Harvey Schimdt’s musical I do! I do!, which runs October 2 through October 21. Mrs. Bob Cratchit’s Wild Christmas Binge by satirist Christopher Durang is a departure from the traditional “holiday show” and will be performed from November 13 to December 2. The first regular season production of the new year, January 22 through February 10, 2008 will be the world premiere musical Clouds, written and performed by Cab’s daughter Chris Calloway. Michael Frayn’s Tony Award winning play Copenhagen fills the fourth slot of the year. Closing out the season, will be an exciting new revision of the 1969 Jerry Herman musical Dear World which earned Angela Lansbury a Tony Award for Best Actress. As an additional attraction during the holiday season, BRT will present its Fifth Annual Winter Musicale from December 13 to 23.

“I am very excited about our twenty-first season,” BRT Artistic Director Edward Keith Baker said recently. “Our 20th Anniversary Season received some of the most positive responses ever from audiences, and this year I think we have gathered not only an extremely strong season of plays, but I am thrilled with the collaborators we have lined up to work on them.”

I do! I do! (October 2-23), was the first two-person musical ever performed on Broadway, written by Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt, the creative duo behind The Fantasticks and 110 In the Shade. Mr. Baker has asked a real-life husband and wife team who met on the BRT stage in 1987 to return to star in the production. Barbara McCulloh has entertained audiences far and wide including Broadway’s The King and I and Peter Pan. Brad Little has electrified theatres worldwide in the title role of Andrew Lloyd-Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera. They pair up in this remarkably intimate, thoroughly romantic piece, which allows us into the bedroom of Agnes and Michael, as they try to maintain passion and devotion through the joys and pains, trials and tribulations, setbacks and celebrations of their fifty year marital odyssey.

Commissioned by the City Theatre in Pittsburgh in 2002, outrageous playwright Christopher Durang turns the “sickeningly sweet” traditional “holiday show” on its head in Mrs. Bob Cratchit’s Wild Christmas Binge (November 13-December 2). Without ruining all the twists and turns of this frenetic romp, ask yourself: What if Scrooge was visited by a Ghost of Christmas who couldn't keep her magic from malfunctioning? What if Mrs. Bob Cratchit actually despised her life? How would a humbug cope if planted in The Gift of the Magi, It’s a Wonderful Life or Touched by an Angel? Mrs. Bob offers holiday hilarity that is certain to surprise, and will make you wonder how much rum is in your Eggnog. BRT favorite Jo Twiss plays the title role in this brash Holiday alternative.

Chris Calloway, who provided BRT audiences a virtuoso performance as Billie Holiday in Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill (and was nominated for a Philadelphia Barrymore Award) is back at BRT in January, kicking off a year-long celebration of her father Cab Calloway’s 100th birth year. In the world premiere one-woman musical biography Clouds (January 22-February 10), which Ms. Calloway will write and perform, she introduces us to her multi-talented aunt Blanche, the woman who encouraged her brother Cab to pursue his musical dreams. Cab once described older sister Blanche as “vivacious, lovely, personality-plus, and a hell of a singer and dancer, as well.” Her success as an accomplished jazz composer, arranger and performer vaulted her into a leading role as the first black female Big Band leader of an all-male orchestra, despite the countless obstacles to African-Americans and women at the time. Chris Calloway paints a deeply personal portrait in her celebration of this inspirational spirit, a true American pioneer.

Winner of the 2000 Tony Award for Best Play, Michael Frayn’s stunning play Copenhagen (March 11-30, 2008) will reunite internationally renowned Shakespearean actor Douglas Campbell and his equally accomplished wife Moira Wiley with Edward Keith Baker in this extremely powerful, thought-provoking drama. In 1941 German physicist Werner Heisenberg entered Nazi occupied Denmark to visit renowned Jewish scientist Niels Bohr. What happened during Heisenberg’s brief rendez-vous at the home of his colleague, mentor, and father-figure is a great scientific mystery. Copenhagen hypothesizes about how this instant in time may have set off a chain reaction that altered the history of the world.

Originally produced on Broadway in 1969, composer Jerry Herman, best known for Hello, Dolly! and Mame, adapted Jean Giraudoux’s The Madwoman of Chaillot, a quirky, yet elegant parable, into one of his most beautifully melodic and lyrical scores. He has revisited Dear World (April 29-May 18, 2008) in recent years, restoring the piece to its original concept as an intimate chamber musical. This production will feature the 2006 revision of the book by David Thompson (Steel Pier, McCarter Theatre’s A Christmas Carol), with brand new songs and orchestrations by Mr. Herman himself. The tale revolves around Countess Aurelia, the enchanting “Madwoman” of Chaillot, who learns that an obsessive Prospector and a group of profit-mongering Businessmen intend to drill for oil in downtown Paris. She enlists her eccentric, yet charming friends to concoct a fantastical scheme to rid themselves of their heartless adversaries and save their homes. A tale full of warm humor, witty simplicity, and subtle romance, this innocent satire strikes an extremely relevant chord in today’s bottom-line world.

In addition to the five Mainstage productions, in December BRT presents its Fifth Annual Winter Musicale (December 13-23, 2007). This BRT family tradition celebrates the season with two hours of favorite holiday songs from yesterday and today. Full of warmth, humor and joy, audiences will hear first rate performances of traditional carols, popular classics, contemporary arrangements and even original songs.

The first two performances (Tuesday and Wednesday) of each regular season production are considered Preview performances, available at a discounted rate ($29 for plays, $34 for musicals, with a $99 reserved seat Season Membership option for the entire five show season). These initial performances offer the audience the opportunity to see the production as a “work-in-progress” and engage in a post-performance “talk back” with the director, cast and creative team of the show. BRT is pleased to announce that for its Twenty-First Season, these performances will again be offered to the community as “Pay What You Can” Previews. Special tickets for the performances will be released at 7:30pm—half an hour before show time—the day of the performance in question at the BRT Box Office. These seats are only available to walk-up customers, first come-first served and based on availability. Phone and internet orders, and previously paid for reserved-seat purchases are not eligible for this offer, and BRT unfortunately cannot guarantee any “Pay What You Can” seats will be available for those performances.

The official Opening Night performance of each production will again be held on the first Thursday performance at 8:00pm, and will include a post-show buffet and reception with the cast, creative team and BRT staff in the lobby at no additional charge. Tickets for Opening performances are $37 for plays, $42 for musicals and are available at a Season Membership price of $115 for all five productions.

Other special performance series for each of the five regular season shows include the popular “Friday Festival” Series ($37 plays, $42 musicals, $125 Series Membership), the second week of each production offering complimentary wine, hors d’oeuvres, and dessert with a guest speaker providing background information about the show prior to the 8:00pm performance. The third week of the run will again host the “Wine Down Wednesday” Series ($34 plays, $39 musicals, $110 Series Membership). An 8:00pm performance will be preceded by a 7:00pm hors d’oeuvres hour with complimentary wine, crudités and desserts. Other special events for each production will be announced in later news releases.

Numerous full-season, reserved seat Memberships are available ranging in price from $99 to $125, dependant on the day of performance. BRT has also found that in this day and age of ever-changing schedules and difficult long-range planning, that more patrons are turning to BRT’s Flexible Membership plans. Available in five, six, or eight ticket increments, these reduced rate packages offer audience members the opportunity to select any performances of their choice for just the productions they are interested in seeing. All of these tickets can be used for a single production, or spaced out throughout the duration of the season as time and interest dictate. Flexible Membership plans range in price from $135 to $185 ($27 down to $23 per ticket), up to a 46% reduced rate from individual ticket purchases.

The 2007-2008 Season has been made possible in part through the generous support of Verizon, who has been named BRT’s Twenty-First Season Grand Sponsor. All this information and more about ticket pricing, production content and behind-the-scenes interest, including the convenience of online ticket reservations, on BRT’s website: www.BRTstage.org. The BRT Box Office is typically open from 9:30am to 4:30pm, Monday through Friday, with extended hours on performance dates, and can be reached at 215-785-0100.