The New Albany High School Theatre Dept. is bringing the immortal Rodgers and Hammerstein classic, “The King and I” to the New Albany Riverfront Stage on Saturday night, May 22 at 7:00 p.m. It had been 24 years since the show last appeared at the school in 1986 prior to New Albany High School Theatre’s April production and director David Longest reports that he chose the show for this spring “because it has EVERYTHING going for it! It has a huge cast including lots of children, big sets, magnificent costumes, and the music is some of the most beautiful ever written for the New York stage!”

The current production involves a cast and crew of over 100 students, and amphitheatre visitors will notice a very unique “look” about this production.  Because this production was designed to play at the Riverfront amphitheatre on Saturday, May 22, the current show had to be designed to be portable and to be able to adapt to the amphitheatre stage which doesn’t allow for any flying scenery or wing space.  To solve this problem, the NAHS parent group “Dads With Tools” designed giant periaktois, prism shaped scenic units, which spin and rotate right in front of the audience to facilitate scenic changes.  In Longest’s 26 year tenure at NAHS, he’s never worked with a set quite like this one.  He’s promised that audiences should enjoy this unique solution to the portable set problem.

This musical made popular such musical theatre standards as “Getting to Know You,” “I Whistle a Happy Tune,” “Something Wonderful,” and “Shall We Dance” among many others.

These performances represent a FIRST for New Albany High School Theatre.  Although the award-winning theatre department has often toured huge shows to both Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana and the Lincoln, Nebraska Lied Center, the school has NEVER performed an “outdoor musical” in their hometown!  New Albany High School Theatre was even featured on the Music Theatre Louisville Iroquois Park Amphitheatre stage with “Crazy For You” in the summer of 2004 as part of their first “Rising Stars” productions.   But the New Albany Riverfront?

No school has never performed a musical there before.

The entire production is being underwritten by a generous grant from the Horseshoe Foundation of Floyd County and so the production is FREE TO THE PUBLIC.   Audiences are encouraged to arrive early, bring your own lawn chairs if you want to sit up close, and pack a picnic supper!

The show starts promptly at 7:00 p.m.