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Izzo Goes To Broadway Tickets On Sale

Spartan basketball coach joins professional Broadway performers to fight cancer.

 

EAST LANSING, Mich. -- Tickets are on sale for Izzo Goes To Broadway, a Broadway-style performance featuring Tom and Lupe Izzo and six accomplished Broadway performers, benefitting the American Cancer Society. A high-energy, family-friendly, 75-minute production, Izzo Goes To Broadway will be held on Wednesday, May 6 at the Wharton Center Cobb Great Hall on Michigan State’s campus at 7:30 p.m. Tickets can be purchased at the Wharton Center box office, online at www.whartoncenter.com or by calling 1-800-WHARTON.

     Izzo Goes To Broadway was written exclusively as a mini-Broadway show telling the story of Coach Izzo’s journey from high school to Michigan State to making it to the top on Broadway. The performance features music from several Broadway standards, including 42nd Street, Cats, Chicago , The Phantom of the Opera and A Chorus Lineas sung by professional Broadway performers. Among the six-member cast is one actor with 13 Broadway credits on his resume. One of the other professionals is a Lansing native who attended Waverly schools. Several of the performers are taking a break from their current Broadway roles to be a part of this special production. The cast has performed in Broadway shows such as Smokey Joe’s Cafe, The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Sweeney Todd, Tarzanand The Color Purple.

     The show is written and directed by East Lansing native Greg Ganakas (son of former Spartan basketball coach and current radio broadcaster Gus Ganakas). Ganakas is an award-winning director, choreographer and teacher. His credits include direction of many musical theatre productions, as well as opera and television. He has collaborated with Disney Live Entertainment and Radio City Music Hall Productions. Ganakas is a committed educator. He has served on the faculty of New York University , where he founded their nationally-renown Music Theatre program. Accomplished musical directorKeith Thompson will serve as conductor for the band. Thompson has many Broadway credits including Jersey Boys, Les Miserablesand Little Shop of Horrors. Costumes were designed by Gregory Gale, currently represented on Broadway by the new-hit musical Rock of Ages.

           Proceeds from the event will benefit the American Cancer Society, which Tom and Lupe Izzo proudly support through their involvement in the Society’s Coaches vs. Cancer initiative. Coaches vs. Cancer is a nationwide collaboration between the American Cancer Society and the National Association of Basketball Coaches that empowers basketball coaches, their teams and communities to join the fight against cancer. Money raised from the event will held fund deserving cancer researchers, send children with cancer to summer camp for a week of fun, provide transportation to treatment centers for cancer patients, and assist educational programs on cancer prevention and early detection.

 

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