Hey NDP Family

We are trying to make an important decision, and we need your help to do it! We have narrowed down our list of potential summer musicals to 4 options, but we want to know what would excite you the most to see coming to the stage this summer. Below is a list of descriptions of the 4 options as well as a poll. Please select the options that interest you the most, and please only submit your vote once. We trust your integrity and value your opinion!

The Choices

The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas

First produced in 1978. Genre – Comedy

The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, a rollicking hootenanny of a musical, is based on the true story of a legendary Texas brothel, which operated from the 1840s to 1973. Protected by a friendly sheriff and frequented by politicians, football teams, and others, the “Chicken Ranch” thrived in the small town of Gilbert, Texas. Girls came from all over to work at the ranch and make a little extra cash. However, a crusading do-gooder Houston radio commentator and his conservative audience expose the Chicken Ranch, forcing it to shut its doors forever.

First Date

First produced in 2012 – Genre – Comedy

What does a person expect out of a blind date? The 2012 musical First Date takes the audience through the first meeting of Casey and Aaron, two 30-ish New York City singles set up by friends and family. The two have nothing in common: Aaron is a conservative banker, Jewish, and looking for a meaningful relationship, while Casey is an artist, a shiksa, and a little too funky for Wall Street. With the influences of their friends and family (played out in their imaginations) as well as the effects of social media (Google, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube personified), this first date seems to be doomed. But with the help of a meddling but well-meaning waiter, Casey and Aaron might make a connection after all. With a contemporary rock score, First Date gleefully pokes fun at the mishaps and mistakes of blind dates and gives hope that there could be that one perfect moment.

Drowsy Chaperone

First produced in 1998 – Genre - Comedy

With the houselights down, a man in a chair appears on stage and puts on his favorite record: the cast recording of a fictitious 1928 musical. The recording comes to life and The Drowsy Chaperone begins as the man in the chair looks on. Mix in two lovers on the eve of their wedding, a bumbling best man, a desperate theatre producer, a not-so-bright hostess, two gangsters posing as pastry chefs, a misguided Don Juan and an intoxicated chaperone, and you have the ingredients for an evening of madcap delight. Winner of five Tony Awards, including Best Book and Best Original Score, The Drowsy Chaperone is a loving send-up of the Jazz Age musical, featuring one show-stopping song and dance number after another.

Chicago

First produced in 1975 – Genre: Dark Comedy

Broadway’s longest-running American musical, Chicago is a dazzling and satirical look at fame, justice, and the media machine. Set in 1920s Chicago and based on real-life murders and trials, Chicago follows Roxie Hart, a wannabe vaudevillian star who murders her lover and is arrested, despite her attempts to convince her pushover husband, Amos, to lie for her. In the Cook County Jail, Roxie meets her hero, the famed double-murderess and nightclub performer Velma Kelly. When both acquire the same lawyer, the greedy and lustful superstar, Billy Flynn, tensions come to a head as they vie for the spotlight-- though instead of onstage, they’re mugging for the flashbulb of the newspaper reporters. With catchy, sexy music and timeless lyrics by John Kander and Fred Ebb, and a funny, intelligent, and utterly engaging book by Kander and Bob Fosse, Chicago is a musical spectacular that is as addictive as gossip rags and as unforgettable as any trial of the century.