Photo by Dan Norman
This winter, Theater Latté Da presents the highly anticipated return of Peter Rothstein’s innovative, award-winning staging of Puccini’s La Bohème (Jan. 20 — Feb. 27, 2022) to the intimate Ritz Theater. The production features orchestrations for Parisian street instruments by Joseph Schlefke, performed in Italian with English subtitles. Peter Rothstein directs with music direction by Sonja Thompson, featuring Corissa Bussian, Siena Forest, Benjamin Dutcher, and David Walton.
Puccini’s La Bohème, the passionate, timeless, and indelible story of love among young artists in Paris, may be the world’s most popular opera. Lyrical and touchingly beautiful, La Bohème is the definitive depiction of the joys and sorrows of love and loss and meaning of life in the face of adversity. Rothstein’s production moves the action forward 100 years to the Nazi occupation of Paris.
Photo by Lucas Wells
In the spring, audiences are invited to experience the birth of jazz as we take a journey through the life of legendary musician Jelly Roll Morton in Jelly’s Last Jam, (Mar. 30 — May 8, 2022). This award-winning musical (with book by George C. Wolfe, music by Jelly Roll Morton, additional music and musical adaptation by Luther Hendersen, and lyrics by Susan Birkenhead) will be directed and choreographed by Theater Latté Da’s associate artistic director Kelli Foster Warder and music director Sanford Moore, featuring Reese Britts and Andre Shoals.
Born to a Creole family in turn-of-the-century New Orleans, Jelly Roll Morton was a classically trained pianist fascinated by the ragtime, blues, and jazz sounds happening around him. From the back alleys of New Orleans to the dance halls of Chicago and the clubs of New York, Jelly’s Last Jam tells the troubled story of the self-proclaimed inventor of jazz with spectacular dance breaks and a smokin’ jazz score.
Season 24 concludes with the world premiere of Twelve Angry Men, (Jun. 8 — Jul. 17, 2022), with the book by David Simpatico and music and lyrics by Michael Holland, based on the teleplay Twelve Angry Men by Reginald Rose. Peter Rothstein directs, with music direction by Denise Prosek and choreography by Kelli Foster Warder, featuring Charlie Clark, Bradley Greenwald, T. Mychael Rambo, and Jon-Michael Reese.
Photo by Lucas Wells
In a small New York City jury room, on “the hottest day of the year,” 12 men debate the fate of a young defendant charged with murdering his father. In form, Twelve Angry Men is a courtroom drama; in purpose, it’s a crash course in those passages of the U.S. Constitution that promise defendants a fair trial and the presumption of innocence. Theater Latté Da is thrilled to develop and produce the world premiere of this new American musical adapted from one of America’s greatest dramas.
Theater Latté Da continues its robust commitment to new work with their Next Festival in summer 2022. Produced by Elissa Adams, director of new works, the festival showcases new works that stretch the boundaries of musical storytelling, where audience members are invited into the ground floor of the creative process.
Tickets available at latteda.org or by calling the Box Office at 612-339-3003.
