Elvis and Anne to star in 2017 Charlottetown Festival

The Charlottetown Festival revealed its lineup for 2017. Big additions to the Festival stage include shows like Million Dollar Quartet and A Misfortune.

Million Dollar Quartet tells the story of famed recording session

Julie Clow · CBC News · Posted: Oct 19, 2016 1:00 PM EDT | Last Updated: October 19, 2016

Adam Brazier announces new acts for 2017 Festival at Confederation Centre of the Arts. (Natalia Goodwin/CBC)

The Charlottetown Festival revealed its lineup for the summer of 2017 Wednesday.

It will include a new musical, Million Dollar Quartet. It is the true story of the 1956 recording session where producer Sam Phillips brought together Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis Presley.

The Centre is describing it as a story and song musical. It features hits including Blue Suede Shoes, Hound Dog, Fever, Great Balls of Fire, Walk the Line and more.

Confederation Centre's artistic director Adam Brazier hopes Million Dollar Quartet will pick up where previous musical hit Mamma Mia left off with the centre.

"There's very few Mamma Mias in the world, right? Let's be blatantly obvious about that," Brazier said.

"That show has been a box office juggernaut for over a decade. But we believe Million Dollar Quartet is exactly of that ilk and of that energy and we are very excited about it."

Brazier to direct Anne of Green Gables:The Musical

Brazier will also be directing Anne of Green Gables: The Musical next season. This will be the 53rd season for Anne at the Festival.

[image]

"This has been a plan for two years for this succession to take place," said Brazier.

"Anne works. She works as she is. My goal is to honour what she is, to honour the past, but to move it forward and to move it to a contemporary audience and an audience that is ready to sit through a three hour family show."

New musical for The Mack

A new Canadian musical will debut at The Mack next summer. A Misfortune is adapted from a short story by Anton Chekhov. It follows the story of a a young lawyer and a married woman in pre-revolutionary Russia.

Bittergirl: The Musical will return for another year at The Mack. It premiered in 2015 in Charlottetown before touring through Winnipeg, Edmonton and British Columbia.

"We did the world premier of this in 2015," said Brazier. "It's now being done nation-wide … and the stamp of the Confederation Centre of the Arts, the stamp of Prince Edward Island, is on that show."

Glenda's Kitchen will also return in 2017. It is an afternoon cabaret is returning to the Studio 1 theatre with new scenes and songs next year.

Young Company going on tour

The Centre had already announced a new touring production for the Young Company.

Approximately 20 young artists will participate in two different Young Company productions — one that stays to perform in P.E.I., and another that tours Canada.

The production is called Dream Catcher and highlights the work of Indigenous artists.