The Sharon L. Morse Performing Arts Center will open on April 30 with a gala event starring Broadway star Patti LuPone.
The first musical to play what is known as “The Sharon” will be “Million Dollar Quartet,” on May 18-19. That show tells the story of a one-night concert back in the 1950s featuring Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash and Carl Perkins. It was a smash on Broadway and the national touring company will be here for it.
The new theater will seat about 1,000 people and feature state-of-the-art acoustics and staging. It will have the following seating levels: orchestra, mezzanine, balcony and boxes.
Tickets and other information will be available at www.TheSharon.com.
Opening the Sharon, “will be a landmark moment,” for The Villages, said Jennifer Parr, daughter of the late Sharon and H. Gary Morse. They transformed The Villages into one of the most dynamic and successful retirement communities in the world.
Parr, along with her sister, Tracy Mathews, and brother, Mark Morse, spoke in a Vmail sent to Villages residents on Saturday. To see it go to:
http://www.thevillages.com/newsletter/201504a6R1l5/
The video featured a video tour of the new theater.
Also, the theater will be managed by two members of the Morse family. Whitney Morse, daughter of Mark, and her husband, Jason Goedken, will run the Sharon.
Both have extensive backgrounds in theater. Whitney Morse has an MFA in acting from Columbia University. She has worked in theater in Chicago, where she met her husband while appearing in a play. For the past five years, the couple has lived in New York City.
Goedken has also acted but spent most of the past five years working in the technical part of theater, while his wife appeared in stage productions around the country.
Whitney Morse said the theater has been in the planning stages for nearly five years. Finally, when it became close to reality, “they asked us to come down and run it,” she said in the Vmail.
The new theater is a tribute to Sharon and Gary Morse’s love of theater and entertainment, their children said.
“It is rooted in mom and dad’s sense of the dramatic,” Mark Morse said in the Vmail. “Dad was all about the show; mom was the show.”
Sharon Morse was a singer who once appeared on the “Tonight Show” with Jack Paar. Gary Morse invested in many Broadway shows and would often attend premiers in New York City.
The Villages has long stressed entertainment as part of its lifestyle attraction. Town Squares offer free music 365 days a year. There are many local theater productions and the bigger ones are held in The Savannah Center. That is expected to continue, while bigger, professional events are held in the new theater.
“Entertainment brings people together,” Jennifer Paar said. And the Sharon is here, “because residents requested it,” Mark Morse said. “The Sharon is the next step in bringing the types of entertainment here that people will enjoy.”
The new theater will feature a variety of entertainment, including solo performers, bands, orchestras, comedians, circus-type acts, and all forms of dance, including ballet.
“We’re going to try a variety of things in the first few years,” Mark Morse said. “We’re going to see what the community likes.”
Among the acts expected to appear this year: Tony Orlando, BJ Thomas, Lee Greenwood, Deanna Martin, Rockapella and Pepe Romero and the Romeros.
The April 30 opening will be one of the major events in The Villages’ entertainment history.
Patti LuPone is a member of the American Theater Hall of Fame. She won two Tony Awards for her Broadway roles, including Best Actress for her role as Eva Peron in “Evita.”
She has two Grammy Awards and also captured a Tony for her role as Mama Rose in the 2007 revival of “Gypsy.”
