The Arkansas Repertory Theatre — which had suspended operations earlier this year because of financial problems — announced on Tuesday evening that it is returning with four shows in 2019.
They are:
• Feb. 19-March 24: The musical Chicago.
• April 16-May 5: Native Gardens, a new play by Karen Zacarias that questions whether, in fact, good fences make good neighbors. The laissez-faire gardening style of a young Latin couple (a lawyer for a big firm and his pregnant wife) brings them afoul of their white neighbors, whose garden is carefully manicured.
• Sept. 3-Oct. 6: Million Dollar Quartet, which focuses on the Dec. 4, 1956, Sun Records recording session that brought Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins together with producer Sam Philips.
• Dec. 3-22: A radio-play version of It’s a Wonderful Life, based on the 1946 film classic that starred Jimmy Stewart.
In addition, the Rep stage will also host:
• Opera in the Rock’s previously announced production of Giacomo Puccini’s opera Madama Butterfly, May 17-19, with members of the Arkansas Symphony in the pit.
• The Education Classes and Junior Mainstage Show, Willy Wonka Jr., June 21-30, featuring a company of local actors 18 and younger.
• The Saints & Sinners fundraiser, either Oct. 19 or Nov. 2, an annual gala that has been a huge moneymaker for the Rep, outdrawing all but one stage production over the past two years.
The nonprofit theater has been trying to get back on its fiscal and artistic feet. On April 24, the board had declared that it was suspending operations, canceling the final production of the 2017-18 season and the entire 2018-19 season because of critical cash-flow problems. In August, the theater announced it would return in 2019 with a short season.
Read Wednesday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.