Uptown Players presents the regional premiere of “The Toxic Avenger”

toxicdmn3-CSADALLAS, August 2, 2016 – Uptown Players closes its 2016 season with the regional premiere of the 2009 Outer Critics Circle Award winner for Best Off-Broadway Musical, The Toxic Avenger, running August 26 through September 11, 2016 at the Kalita Humphreys Theater. Featuring a wailing rock score and based on the campy cult classic movie, The Toxic Avenger is by the award-winning writing duo behind the hit musical Memphis, with book and lyrics by Broadway veteran Joe DiPeitro and music and lyrics by David Bryan.

The Toxic Avenger is a hot toxic love story and laugh-out-loud musical that has it all — an unlikely hero, his beautiful girlfriend, a corrupt New Jersey mayor and two guys who play… well, everyone else … bullies, mobsters, old ladies, and stiletto-wearing back-up singers. Melvin Ferd the Third turned Toxic Avenger is here to save New Jersey from toxic waste, clean up his neighborhood, and win the love of the blind librarian. It’s a love story with an environmental twist! The Toxic Avenger will leave audiences laughing in the aisles as it rocks the house.

John Campione leads the Uptown Players cast, which includes Sara Shelby-Martin, Walter Lee, Kathryn Porterfield and Clint Gilbert. John Campione is a classically trained actor, singer, dancer, and musician and is a native Texan based out of New York City. He was most recently seen as Michael on the first national tour of The Bridges of Madison County when it stopped in Dallas.

The Uptown Players production is under the direction of Jeremy Dumont, with musical direction by Adam C. Wright and runs August 26 – September 11, 2016, with shows at 8 p.m. on Thursday, Fridays and Saturdays and 2 p.m. on Sundays (no performance August 28). Performances take place at the Kalita Humphreys Theatre, 3636 Turtle Creek Blvd (at Blackburn), Dallas, TX 75219. Tickets are $30-$50 and can be purchased online at www.uptownplayers.org or by phone at (214) 219-2718.

About Uptown Players:

Uptown Players is a 501 (c) 3 non-profit organization, presenting plays and musicals that challenge audiences artistically and strive to create greater positive public awareness and acceptance through the performing arts. Now closing its fifteenth season and seventh at the Kalita Humphreys Theater, Uptown Players has gathered a dedicated following and is providing an opportunity for a wide diversity of gender styles to come together and explore life choices through great theatre themes such as relationships, family, prejudice, and values. The response from the community and critics has been remarkable, including over 25 Leon Rabin Awards from the Dallas Theatre League, and over 25 Theater Critics Forum Awards in its first thirteen seasons. Uptown Players has also been named the best theatre company by the Dallas Voice Readers and by the Dallas Observer and was also featured in D Magazine and on WFAA’s Daybreak and Good Morning Texas programs.

Uptown Players has presented world premieres, including Redesigning Women (2013), Crazy Just Like Me (2011) and the stage adaptation of The Valley of the Dolls (2007), along with the United States premieres of the West End hit musical Soho Cinders (2014), and the Pet Shop Boys Musical Closer to Heaven (2010). Uptown Players was the first regional theater in the United States to present the Tony Award winner The Boy from Oz and the Pulitzer Prize winning musical Next To Normal, following the closing of the Broadway productions. Each season, Uptown Players presents several regional premieres, including recent productions of The Nance, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike (2013 Tony Award for Best Play), Hello Again (featured in a Broadway World article about the upcoming movie) and The Producers.

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Media Contact: Nina Koch
nina@coopersmithagency.com, (214) 329-9191