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"Dinner With Disney" is the sixth collaboration for the theater company with a longtime creative partnership of director Michele Grace of Fairfield and jazz pianist Chris Coogan of Weston. The show will have cabaret-style seating so audience members may bring in food and beverages.
“The great songs from Disney cross so many cultures and generations, that this show will appeal to people of all ages,” said Grace. The Grace/Coogan collaborative partnership extends over 20 years.
The show represents musical pieces from almost every decade of the 75-year Disney animated catalog, focusing on periods that were especially prolific for Disney. Many classics, including “Be Our Guest,” from "Beauty and the Beast," “Let It Go” from "Frozen," and “When You Wish Upon A Star,” from "Pinocchio," have been selected for presentation by a 19-member cast, ranging in age from 12 to 75.
Born into a family of musicians that once operated the popular Fraioli Music stores in Greenwich and Port Chester, N.Y., Grace studied with Uta Hagen and has appeared professionally in the U.S. and abroad as an actress, singer, director, playwright, vocal coach and voice-over narrator.
The Disney production features The Chris Coogan Quartet, a jazz band lead by Coogan. Coogan’s quartet has Jim Clark, of Norwalk, playing reeds; Peter Hohmeister, of Greenwich, on drums; and John Mobilio, of Waterbury, on bass. Coogan has recorded eight CDs as a jazz and gospel musician and has been described by the New York Times as “a masterful pianist.”
The production features performers Linda Colucci, Peggi de la Cruz, Cathy Hickey, Jodi Maxner, and Karen Joyce-Miller of Stamford; Mickey Raimondi, Martin Diamond, Laura Skutch, Norris Wakefield, and Rosalind Cormier of Norwalk; Leslie Duchin, Dan Swartz, Maryann Ferrara Ramos, and Gracie Marinelli of Greenwich; Janice Rudolph of Ridgefield; Stephen Bustamante of Monroe; Eric Sporborg of Vista, N.Y.; and Kara Hodge of Port Chester.
Ticket are $25. The curtain opens at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday nights, and 2 p.m. for the Sunday matinees. For reservations and information, visit www.ctplayermskers.org or call 203-249-5419.
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