Aurora’s 29th season serves up a feast of new and classic stagings

Fans of musicals will love the 29th season at Aurora Theatre, which includes stagings of classic favorites, plus a few new surprises.

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Aurora Theatre’s 29th season commences next month, and the lineup includes two heartfelt and soulful classics, an uproarious comedy, a whimsical new musical and a well-loved holiday classic. The theater’s tagline for the season is “a feast for the soul.”

Kicking off year 29 is The Color Purple, originally a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Alice Walker. The musical adaptation had its world premiere at Atlanta’s Alliance Theatre in 2004, before transferring to Broadway the following year, eventually receiving a highly successful revival in 2015 and a film adaptation in 2023. Aurora Theatre’s production will run from August 15 to September 15.

During the holidays, audiences will see the return of Aurora’s annual Christmas Canteen, a long-running tradition. Christmas Canteen is a variety show consisting of musical performances, comedy routines and other assorted forms of entertainment. This year’s Canteen will start on November 29 and run through December 22, with direction by Katie Erin Chambers and choreography by Kari Twyman.

As part of Aurora’s New Musical Initiative, the theater will stage King of Pangea, a folk rock musical about a college student who is left reeling after a devastating loss and retreats into the imaginary island he invented as a child. Book, music and lyrics are all written by Martin Storrow, who was inspired by his own real life experiences. The piece was previously produced at the National Alliance for Musical Theatre New Musical Festival and will run from January 23 to February 16.

Ken Ludwig’s The Gods of Comedy will hit the stage from March 20 to April 13, a farce in which a young classics professor discovers a lost, intact manuscript by Euripides — which his assistant misplaces. The assistant calls on the Greek Gods to save her, and, to her absolute shock, they appear. As a playwright, Ludwig is no stranger to Aurora; the theater previously produced Lend Me a Tenor, Moon Over Buffalo and A Fox on the Fairway.

Finally, Aurora will wrap the 2024-2025 season with the hit musical Waitress. Based on the 2007 film of the same name, the stage adaptation boasts a score by multiplatinum recording artist Sara Bareilles and a book by Jessie Nelson. The musical opened on Broadway in 2016 to rave reviews and has since become a nationwide fan favorite. Directed by Amanda Wansa Morgan, the production runs May 22 to June 22.

Artistic Director Ann-Carol Pence — who will be musically directing every show except The Gods of Comedy — said: “As we embark on a new season, it is with immense joy that we take you on an artistic journey. As always, we promise to continue elevating the voices of remarkable artists, many of whom call Atlanta home.”

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Luke Evans is an Atlanta-based writer, critic and dramaturg. He covers theater for ArtsATL and Broadway World Atlanta and has worked with theaters such as the Alliance, Actor’s Express, Out Front Theatre and Woodstock Arts. He’s a graduate of Oglethorpe University, where he earned his bachelor’s degree, and the University of Houston, where he earned his master’s.