Westminster Music Theater will present Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Oklahoma! on Friday, February 29, at 8 p.m., Saturday, March 1, at 8 p.m. and Sunday, March 2, at 3 p.m. in the Princeton Regional Schools Performing Arts Center at Princeton High School. Awarded a special Pulitzer Prize in 1944, Oklahoma! is the treasured tale of a cowboy and farm girl finding love on the American frontier and features such classic songs as Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’ and The Surrey With the Fringe on Top.

The cast of Oklahoma! is composed of students at Westminster College of the Arts under the direction and choreography of Ginger Thatcher and the musical direction of Steven Gross. The collective experiences of Thatcher and Gross promise a vibrant and creative production of the wartime classic, whose original Broadway run continued for a then-unprecedented 2,212 performances.

Thatcher is a former principal dancer with the Cleveland Ballet and a former member of the Lar Lubovitch Dance Co. Both an acting and dance professional, she has choreographed more than 30 works for television, Broadway and film, including a self-production of her own works in Lincoln Center and for Princeton’s American Repertory Ballet. Her Broadway credits include The Red Shoes, Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake, and Carousel. As the founding director of New Steps Choreography Project in Cleveland, Thatcher received an Achievement in the Arts Award nomination.

Gross has numerous national and international theater, conducting and arrangement/orchestration credits throughout his impressive career.  Some highlights include Les Miserables and Sweeney Todd in New York City, Miss Saigon and Phantom of the Opera in London’s West End, and Carmen in Hamburg, Germany. He has taught master classes at New York University, The New School, Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, and several universities throughout Europe. A Fulbright and Rotarian Scholar, Gross received a doctorate in conducting from Yale University.

Tickets are $15 for adults and $10 for students and seniors. All tickets can be reserved by calling the Westminster Box Office at 609-921-2663 weekdays between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m.  The Princeton Regional Schools Performing Arts Center is located in Princeton High School on Walnut Lane, on the corner of Franklin Street, in Princeton.

Submitted on February 29, 2008