(BLOOMFIELD, NJ) -- Skyline Theatre Company, a 20-year-old professional theatre company previously calling Bergen County its home, will present its 2023 season in Bloomfield at the Oakeside Bloomfield Cultural Center, 240 Belleville Avenue.
The first special event of Skyline’s 2023 season in Bloomfield, BROADWAY IN THE WORKS, will be a one-night-only staged reading of a new musical in development: “A Thousand Faces: The Lon Chaney Musical” on Friday, April 21 at 7:00pm. This event is part of the New Jersey Theatre Alliance’s 2023 Stages festival, a state-wide spring festival of free and low-cost theatre events for all ages. Thanks to the New Jersey Theatre Alliance, of which Skyline Theatre Company is a long-time member, admission for BROADWAY IN THE WORKS is free. Reservations are recommended and can be made in advance at Skyline’s online box office here.
“A Thousand Faces: The Lon Chaney Musical” -- developed with the cooperation and participation of the subject’s own great-grandson Ron Chaney -- tells the incredible true and heart-warming biographical story of the pioneering silent movie star who changed the face of film. Born to deaf parents who didn’t speak, Lon learns at an early age to communicate through facial expressions and pantomime. With their son in tow, Lon performs with his charismatic first wife as a song and dance man in vaudeville houses across the country. When a family scandal destroys his theater career and results in a bitter divorce, Lon must quickly find work and establish a stable home or lose his son. He turns to the budding silent film industry transforming himself with incredible depth and humanity into characters living on the fringe. Lon shoots to international fame as the star of over 150 films, including the original Hunchback of Notre Dame and Phantom of the Opera. He struggles to meet the demands of career, along with those as a father, as talking pictures sweep the nation.
Sam Scalamoni, Skyline Theatre Company’s co-founder and artistic director, directs the staged reading. “A Thousand Faces: The Lon Chaney Musical” has a book by Eric Lane, music by Rachel Devore Fogarty, and lyrics by Kevin Fogarty.
“All of us at Skyline Theatre Company are thrilled to bring live professional theatre back to Bloomfield!” says Artistic Director Sam Scalamoni. “Our 2023 season at Oakeside Bloomfield Cultural Center in partnership with the Township of Bloomfield promises to be an exciting one and we look forward to welcoming area theatre lovers to Oakeside to see professional theatre right in their own backyard.”
BROADWAY IN THE WORKS is made possible by support from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts; The Horizon Foundation for New Jersey; OceanFirst Foundation; Fund for the New Jersey Blind; and Customers Bank. For more information on New Jersey Theatre Alliance’s Stages Festival, visit njtheatrealliance.org/stages
The rest of Skyline Theatre Company’s 2023 season in Bloomfield kicks off this fall with BROADWAY IN CONCERT: WORKING THE MUSICAL, a NYC Encores-style concert of Broadway’s musical celebration of the American worker featuring music by Stephen Schwartz, James Taylor, Lin-Manuel Miranda and others. The performance is Saturday, September 16 at 7:00pm.
The season continues in A NIGHTMARE ON BROADWAY on Sunday, October 29 at 4:00pm for a fa-BOO-lous afternoon with the family for a ghoulishly fun musical revue recognizing Broadway’s most thrilling and chilling showtunes and wickedly fun tales of the Halloween season.
The final season event is HOLIDAY CAROLS & STORIES, a jolly fun and musical afternoon of sing-alongs, carols, and holiday stories suitable for kids from 1 to 92, on Sunday, December 10 at 4:00pm.
Tickets are available to reserve in advance through Skyline’s website and online box office at SkylineTheatreCompany.org. Tickets range from $15 to $25.
Founded in 1995, Skyline Theatre Company’s mission is to bring together professional artists to create quality theatre that entertains and inspires an audience. We make commitments to the education of young people in all aspects of the arts and to cultivating and nurturing new artists and their works.
Skyline Theatre Company is a proud Associate Equity Theatre Member of the New Jersey Theatre Alliance. As a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, Skyline Theatre Company depends on private donations, corporate sponsorships, grants, and supportive audiences to fund its programming. Funding is made possible in part by the New Jersey State Council on Arts/Department of State, through grant funds administered by the Bergen County Department of Parks, Division of Cultural and Historic Affairs.
Skyline Theatre Company enjoys warm support for bringing inspirational, professional theatre to Northern New Jersey, having spent its first 20+ years in Bergen County and presenting its 2023 season in Essex County’s beautiful Bloomfield. More information can be found at SkylineTheatreCompany.org or on Facebook at SKYLINETHEATRECOMPANY, Instagram @SkylineTheatre Company, Twitter @SkylineBergen.
