PSST! Season Kicks Off Saturday With 'Legally Blonde: The Musical'

VALDOSTA -- The 2012 Peach State Summer Theatre season will kick off Saturday, June 2, with “Legally Blonde: The Musical.” The performance will begin at 7:30 p.m.

Based on the novel by Amanda Brown and the popular 2001 movie, “Legally Blonde: The Musical” tells the story of Elle Woods, a blonde, pink-obsessed, sorority girl who travels across the country, from Los Angeles, Calif., to Cambridge, Mass., to enroll at Harvard Law School and win back Warner, the ex-boyfriend she hopes to marry. She proves that she is not the dumb blonde everyone thinks she is when she successfully defends exercise queen Brooke Wyndham in a murder trial and goes on to graduate as the valedictorian of her class.

Directed by Jacque Wheeler, a theatre and dance professor in the Department of Communication Arts at Valdosta State University, “Legally Blonde: The Musical” features music and lyrics by Laurence O’Keefe and Nell Benjamin and book by Heather Hach. The show opened on Broadway in April 2007 at the Palace Theatre, was nominated for seven Tony awards and 10 Drama Desk awards, and joined the millionaires’ club for weekly grosses. It was recorded in September 2007 and aired on MTV in October and November 2007. From 2008 to 2011, the show enjoyed two national tours. The show has had productions in the United Kingdom, South Korea, the Netherlands, France, the Philippines, and Finland. Productions are planned for Australia, Sweden, and Austria.

Peach State Summer Theatre, or PSST!, is Valdosta’s premiere professional summer stock theatre. Each summer, dozens of singers, dancers, technicians, managers, and creators gather on the campus of Valdosta State University for nine weeks. During that time, they rehearse, build, and present three musicals in rotating repertory.

The 2012 Peach State Summer Theatre season marks the 23rd year of VSU producing professional theatre for the city of Valdosta, the state of Georgia, and beyond. From 1990 to 2004, VSU produced the Jekyll Island Musical Theatre Festival. In 2005, the summer theatre program was relocated to the university and renamed PSST! Then, in 2006, it was designated the Official Musical Theatre of the State of Georgia by the Georgia Legislature.

The musical theatre season gains momentum with the opening of “Go Dog. Go!” on Friday, June 15, and “The Light in the Piazza” on Friday, June 22. The three shows will be presented in rotating repertory through the weekend of July 14-15 on the Sawyer Theatre stage in VSU’s Fine Arts Building, which is located on the corner of Brookwood Drive and Oak Street.

The Peach State Summer Theatre box office is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sundays. It is located on the first floor of the VSU Fine Arts Building and can be reached by calling (229) 259-7770.

Individual show tickets are $25 plus tax for adults and $20 plus tax for all children, students, and senior citizens. Peach State Summer Theatre season memberships are available for $69.55, tax included, for adults and $62.06, tax included, for children, students, and senior citizens through June 2 only. Each season membership comes with three admissions for the member to redeem as he or she chooses.

Visit www.valdosta.edu/psst or read “Peach State Summer Theatre Box Office Is Open For Business” at www.valdosta.edu/news/releases/pssttickets.051712 for more information.