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Book, Music, and Lyrics by Tim Acito
Directed by Michael Matthews
Celebration Theatre
Los Angeles, CA
April 21 – June 7, 2010

“Critic’s Choice!”
-BACKSTAGE

“GO!”
-LA WEEKLY

”The Women of Brewster Place: The Musical” raises the roof in its West Coast premiere at Hollywood’s Celebration Theatre. Michael Matthews’ scrappy, impassioned staging triumphs through the same indomitable spirit that gets the show’s impoverished characters through the adversities of life in a big-city housing project circa 1975.”

-LA TIMES

“Enjoying its West Coast premiere, the show exploded off the Celebration Theatre stage like a Greek tragedy…It is theater free of the trappings of celebrity, ego and artifice…”Brewster Place” is burning with theatrical fire, and desire…The action takes place in the kind of 1970s Chicago tenement-cum-social experiment that has become the stuff of urban legend, putting black people in silos so they couldn’t contaminate the white middle class. It worked out all wrong, of course, instead of creating a sordid mess of broken people and their lies and lives.
From the opening beat, the way in which song and dialogue become interchangeable pays further tribute to the talent and teamwork that never gives less than 100%…With its colorful score and sense of dignity, “Brewster Place” is the kind of truly American musical theater that other countries adore and that we all too often relegate to the back door. It doesn’t take a brain to see that this deserves to run at a bigger theater…”

-THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

“Gloria Naylor’s episodic novel about struggle and triumph among a disparate group of African-American women in a dilapidated urban project anywhere in the country, circa 1975, offers moving, character-driven drama, comedy and social commentary. Tim Acito’s musical adaptation captures much of Naylor’s storytelling brilliance…a production of immense scale in this tiny venue….”

-LA WEEKLY

“It makes its West Coast debut under the expert direction of Michael Matthews, who pulls off a gangbusters entertainment that’s driven by warmhearted comedy and a touch of tragedy…A first-rate design effort adds to the production’s success: Kurt Boetcher’s set, Cameron Zetty’s lighting, and Cricket S. Myers’ sound. The Celebration is in high-flying form in this lovely rendition of an outstanding new musical…”

-BACKSTAGE

“How thrilling it is to see a small space – and they don’t come much smaller than the Celebration Theatre – transformed into an opera house. By the time The Women Of Brewster Place sings its final notes, one fully knows that one has experienced a work of serious musical art…writ large by the size of the talents involved and by how much its ambition is matched by its realization….”

-STAGE AND CINEMA

AWARDS/NOMINATIONS:

Ovation Nomination- Director/Musical
Ovation Award- Production/Musical
Ovation Nomination- Ensemble
Ovation Nomination- Choreography
LA Weekly Award- Ensemble
LA Weekly Nomination- Choreography
LA Weekly Nomination- Adaptation
LA Weekly Nomination- Music Direction
NAACP Award- Director/Musical
NAACP Award- Choreography
NAACP Nomination- Music Direction
NAACP Nomination- Lead Performance
NAACP Nomination- Supporting performance