Tickets are now on sale for Theatre Cambrian's next two productions -  the Tony Award-winning family musical, Bye Bye Birdie, and the sexy British farce, Not Now, Darling.
"Our next two productions are definitely going to be blockbusters," said Mark Mannisto, executive director of Theatre Cambrian. "Bye Bye Birdie is one of the most captivating musical shows of our time. It is a satire of Elvis Presley's induction into the army, told with the fondest affection. It charmed Broadway for years, wowed movie audiences in 1963, and won an Emmy for the 1997 television remakes. Not Now, Darling, the hilarious farce - which set box-office records in London and Paris before coming to Broadway, with the inimitable Norman Wisdom as a featured player - makes enormous good fun of attempted infidelity and the tangle of misunderstandings which it can, and does, lead to."
Bye Bye Birdie is a rock and roll celebration, stated the news release. It inspired the movie of the same name and launched Ann-Margret's electrifying career. Lots of laughs and great songs have made it one of the most memorable musicals of all time. When rock star and teenage heartthrob Conrad Birdie gets drafted, the nation's teenagers go haywire and Conrad's songwriter, Albert, faces unemployment. So Albert and his girlfriend Rosie organize a nationwide contest in which one lucky girl wins a farewell kiss from Conrad on The Ed Sullivan Show. Kim MacAfee turns out to be the lucky teenager, and Conrad's whole entourage moves into her quiet Mid-western home in Sweet Apple, U.S.A., much to the chagrin of her ever-irritable father and her jealous boyfriend, Hugo. The result is hilarious chaos and a series of romantic complications. Bye Bye Birdie is top in imagination and frivolity, a show that will be enjoyed by the cast as much as the audience, stated the news release.
In Not Now, Darling, the scene is an exclusive London fur salon, Bodley and Crouch, where Crouch (the well-meaning innocent) struggles to keep things on an even keel, despite the energetic philandering of his partner. At the moment, Bodley is trying to secure the affections of his latest would-be mistress by selling her husband an expensive mink fur coat for a fraction of its real worth, and the stammering Crouch is saddled with the task of consummating the sale with a straight face. But, as luck would have it, the husband seizes the bargain coat as the perfect gift for his own mistress, whereupon the complications burgeon uproariously, with poor Crouch caught in the middle. Suspicious wives, mistaken identities, scantily clad girls clapped hurriedly into closets, and a continuous barrage of rapid-fire jokes all become part of the hilarious doings as the action of the play bubbles along merrily, right up to the final curtain, when, miraculously and to the great relief of all concerned, everything somehow manages to work out as it should.
Not Now, Darling runs April 18, 19, 25, and 26 at the Jubilee Centre on Applegrove Street. Tickets are $40 and include a catered meal by Diana's Catering. Tickets can be reserved over the phone, with Visa or MasterCard, at 524-7317 or bought at Records on Wheels, located at 56 Elm St.
Bye Bye Birdie runs May 14 to 25 at Laurentian University's Fraser Auditorium. Ticket prices are $26.50 for adults, $21.50 for students/seniors and $16 for children 13 and under. They can be reserved by phone, with Visa or MasterCard, at 524-7317 or bought at Records on Wheels, Jett Landry Music Ltd., or at the Four Corners Independent Grocer.
To answer demand from audiences in the outskirts of Greater Sudbury, tickets are also available at  the Azilda Rexall and Ecowater North in Val Caron.
For more information, visit www.theatrecambrian.ca .
