'Les Miz,' 'South Pacific' headline Arts Center's 2008-'09 season

Rodgers and Hammerstein's "South Pacific," winner of the 2008 Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical, is one of five shows that will be produced at the Arts Center of Coastal Carolina during the upcoming 2008-09 theater season.

Topping the blockbuster lineup is the epic French saga, "Les Miserables," the longest-running musical in the world. The "People's Choice" Theater Series also will include the acclaimed musical comedies "La Cage aux Folles" and "Menopause the Musical," along with the touching "Steel Magnolias."

"This season promises to be among our best yet," said Arts Center President and CEO Kathleen Bateson. "We're producing all of the top choices of our theater patrons surveyed in the spring."

Opening the season in September is "La Cage aux Folles," winner of six Tony Awards, including Best Musical and Best Score. Jerry Herman, of "Mame" and "Hello, Dolly!" fame, wrote the music for this comedy about a nontraditional family desperately trying to clean up their act to impress their conservative future in-laws.

This year's holiday show will be "South Pacific." This American classic, which opened on Broadway nearly 60 years ago, won 10 Tony Awards and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Now in its first Broadway revival, it just picked up another seven Tonys, the most awarded to any show in 2008.

"Steel Magnolias" takes the stage in February, re-creating Robert Harling's enduring comedy about a group of Southern women who gather for advice, sympathy, gossip and the occasional shampoo at their favorite Louisiana beauty parlor.

In the spring, it's another Tony Award winner, "Les Miserables," the No. 1 musical pick of Arts Center audiences. Set in 19th-century France, the story follows Jean Valjean, an ex-con who turns his life around only to be relentlessly pursued by police inspector Javert.

Wrapping up the season next summer is the regional premiere of "Menopause the Musical," which pokes fun at every menopausal malady from hot flashes and nocturnal sweats to chocolate cravings and wrinkles, all set to a hilarious score that includes clever tongue-in-cheek lyrics sung to old rock 'n' roll favorite tunes.

PLANS AND TICKETS

Subscriptions for the 2008-09 season are now available, offering $25 off single ticket prices, along with advanced seat selection, free ticket exchange and a subscription to the Arts Center's newsletter. Subscribers also receive a $10 discount on an additional theater ticket purchase and $5 offtheir ticket to one of the Presenting shows.

Packages include the $208 Full-Season Plan, which offers one ticket to each of the five shows, and the $193 Full-Season Preview Plan, which features one ticket to each of the preview performances of the five shows on the first Wednesday and Thursday of the run.

The third option, the Flex Plan, includes five tickets that can be redeemed in any fashion -- one for each of the five shows, five for one of the shows or in any other combination. The cost of this package is $220.

As an added bonus, "early bird" subscribers who purchase prior to July 21 will also receive $5 off their tickets to "Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story," now on stage at the Arts Center, and "Absolutely Andrew," a musical tribute to Broadway composer Andrew Lloyd Webber, being presented Aug. 19-24.

For information or tickets, call the Arts Center box office at 843-842-2787.