The Paramount Theater is shifting things into high gear in downtown Aurora this spring, not only keeping its 1,888-seat home busy with Broadway-caliber musicals and amazing guest performers, but also presenting the nostalgic jukebox revue Route 66 for a nine-week run, four shows a week, in the intimate, 216-seat Copley Theater right across the street.

Tickets are on sale now for Paramount’s new production of Roger Bean’s Route 66, a jukebox comedy about a gang of rowdy Chicago service station attendants who take an imaginary Chicago to L.A. road trip singing tunes by Willie Nelson, Woody Guthrie, Roger Miller and The Beach Boys, just to name a few.
Performances run through June 10, 2012: Wednesday at 1:30 pm; Friday at 7:30 pm; Saturday at 8 pm; and Sunday at 3 pm in the Copley Theater, 8 E. Galena Blvd, in downtown Aurora.
All tickets are only $29. For tickets and information, go to ParamountAurora.com, call the Paramount box office, (630) 896-6666, or visit the Paramount box office (located directly across the street from the Copley at 23 E. Galena Blvd.) Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and 2 hours prior to evening performances.
Take a dollop of Grease, mix in some Pump Boys & Dinettes and add a generous dose of Forever Plaid, and you’ve got the high-octane fun of Route 66. Beginning with the sounds of 1950s Chicago and traveling along the Main Street of America to the California coast and the surf music of the 1960s, this exciting jukebox revue features 34 of the greatest “Rock ‘n’ Road” hits of the 20th century including “Dead Man’s Curve,” “King of the Road,” “Little Old Lady From Pasadena,” “Beep Beep,” “Six Days On The Road,” “G.T.O.,” “Fun, Fun, Fun,” and many more.
Paramount’s production of Route 66 will be directed and choreographed by Stacey Flaster, director of Paramount’s smash hit Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat earlier this season, with music direction by Alan Bukowiecki. The talented cast of singer/musicians includes Dan Beno, Courtney Crouse, Robert Deason, Rusty Koenig, Adam Michaels and Doug Pawlik.
Paramount’s Route 66 production team also boasts such top-flight Chicago design talent as Angie Miller, scenic designer; Matt Guthier, costume designer; Jesse Klug and Greg Hofmann, co-lighting designers; Mike Ross, sound designer; and Jesse Gaffney, properties designer. Matthew McMullen is stage manager.
Acclaimed writer/director Roger Bean is well known for his success with jukebox musicals. He is the creator and director of the long-running Off-Broadway hit The Marvelous Wonderettes, first written for the Milwaukee Repertory Theater, where Bean has created 11 new musicals that re-imagine eras of American music through the creative use of established and lesser-known radio, phonograph and jukebox hits. In addition to Route 66, Bean’s stage hits include The Andrews Brothers, Why Do Fools Fall In Love?, Winter Wonderettes, Honky Tonk Laundry, Don’t Touch That Dial!, and Life Could Be A Dream.
Chicago director/choreographer Stacey Flaster has been Praised by the Chicago Tribune as “fearless…a young director making her mark on the world of Chicago musicals,” Flaster has dozens of credits directing and choreographing for Marriott Theatre, Drury Lane Oakbrook, Theatre at the Center, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Light Opera Works, Noble Fool Theatricals, Steppenwolf and Provision Theatre. She also has been nominated for two Jeff Awards for her choreography.