Lincoln Mercury to Sponsor '10-'11 Broadway in Detroit Season

Nederlander Detroit has announced that the Southeastern Michigan Lincoln Mercury Dealers will sponsor the 2010-2011 Broadway in Detroit season.  All engagements will be at the Fisher Theatre, except for Mary Poppins which will play at the Detroit Opera House.

 "The Southeastern Michigan Lincoln Mercury Dealers are very excited to be sponsoring Broadway in Detroit once again," said Walt Oben, Lincoln Mercury Dealer Association Chairman.  "All of the shows are award-winning Broadway attractions and they make a great night out." 

 The season includes the national tour premiere of West Side Story, Sept. 30 - Oct. 17, 2010 at the Fisher Theatre; Rock of Ages at the Fisher Theatre, Nov. 9 - 21, 2010; Mary Poppins at the Detroit Opera House, Dec. 16, 2010 - Jan. 2, 2011; 2008 Tony Award-winning Best Musical In the Heights at the Fisher Theatre, Feb. 1 - 13, 2011; international dance sensation Burn the Floor at the Fisher Theatre, Feb. 22 - Mar. 6, 2011; and, the triumphant return of Les Misérables in a brand new 25th anniversary production at the Fisher Theatre, Mar. 22 - Apr. 3, 2011.  

 More than 50 years ago one musical changed theater forever. Now it's back on Broadway mesmerizing audiences once again and launching a new national tour at Detroit's Fisher Theatre.   From the first note to the final breath, West Side Story soars as the greatest love story of all time. Directed by its two-time Tony Award-winning librettist Arthur Laurentis, West Side Story remains as powerful, poignant and timely as ever. The new Broadway cast album of West Side Story recently won the 2010 Grammy Award for Best Musical Show Album. The Bernstein and Sondheim score is considered to be one of Broadway's finest and features such classics of the American musical theatre as "Something's Coming," "Tonight," "America," " I Feel Pretty," and '"Somewhere." 

Five-time 2009 Tony Award nominee Rock of Ages is set in 1987 on the Sunset Strip and it's all about dreaming big, playing loud and partying on! A small town girl meets a big city rocker in Los Angeles' most famous rock club and they fall in love to the greatest songs of the '80s. Making its Detroit debut, Rock of Ages is an arena-rock love story told through the mind-blowing, face-melting hits of Journey, Night Ranger, Styx, REO Speedwagon, Pat Benatar, Twisted Sister, Poison, Asia, Whitesnake and man

y more. The New York Times calls the show "Impossible to resist! As guilty as pleasures get."   Broadway's magical hit musical Mary Poppins combines the best of the original stories by P.L. Travers and the beloved Walt Disney film. Making its Detroit debut, this Tony Award winner produced by Disney and Cameron Mackintosh will be a great holiday show for the family. The lavish production includes a wonderful score featuring such familiar songs as "Chim Chim Cher-ee," "A Spoonful of Sugar," "Let's Go Fly a Kite," and "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious." The New York Daily News hails Mary Poppins as "a roof-raising, toe-tapping, high-flying extravaganza!"  

Also appearing in Detroit for the first time ever is In the Heights, the winner of four 2008 Tony Awards and the 2008 Grammy Award for Best Musical Show Album. The show tells the universal story of a vibrant community in New York's Washington Heights neighborhood - a place where the coffee from the corner bodega is light and sweet, the windows are always open and the breeze carries the rhythm of three generations of music. It's a community on the brink of change, full of hopes, dreams and pressures, where the biggest struggles can be deciding which traditions you take with you, and which ones you leave behind. 

  The international dance sensation Burn the Floor will visit the Fisher Theatre direct from its record-breaking run on Broadway! All the passion, drama and sizzling excitement of popular TV dance shows comes alive on stage with 20 gorgeous champion dancers in a true theatrical experience. The New York Times calls Burn the Floor "Dazzling!" with its grace and athleticism. From Harlem's hot nights at The Savoy, where dances such as the Lindy, Foxtrot and Charleston were born, to the Latin Quarter where the Cha-Cha, Rumba and Salsa steamed up the stage, Burn the Floor takes audiences on a journey through the exuberance and intensity of dance. Burn the Floor is Ballroom - reinvented.  

Cameron Mackintosh will also present a brand new 25th anniversary production of Boublil & Schönberg's legendary musical Les Misérables, at the Fisher Theatre. With glorious new staging and spectacular reimagined scenery inspired by the paintings of Victor Hugo, this new production has already been acclaimed by critics and is breaking box office records. The London Times calls the new show "a five star hit, astonishingly powerful and as good as the original," and the Western Mail says "an outstanding success - the best version yet." 

 For additional information about Broadway in Detroit and individual shows, please visit www.BroadwayinDetroit.com or call the Fisher Theatre at (313) 872-1000.