Theatre Under the Stars will be creating one of the first regional productions of Disney's Frozen directed and choreographed by TUTS Artistic Director Dan Knechtges during its upcoming 2024-25 season designed to offer a wide choice for theater goers.

As he ran through the season lineup, Knechtges said TUTS, like most other theaters in the country, is still trying to return to pre-pandemic sales levels with its productions With that in mind, he planned a season both serious and funny, with a range of musical styles designed to interest more than one type of patron.

Frozen offers what Knechtges considers a watershed moment for TUTS in its history. "We're one of the first in the country to get our own production of it. We’re creating it from scratch. I think that's a bigger deal than most people realize. We had to go to Disney. and do a big presentation and that's hopefully going to be the basis for several other shows from Disney Theatrical coming next. "

TUTS will also be taking its own  look at Little Shop of Horrors as they worked to figure out: "How we can make a production that number one, fills our theater and takes into account more modern ways of staging it. It's hopefully going to be more environmental. It might thrill people and surprise in different ways," Knechtges said. .

"A mistake some productions make is to focus only on the musical aspects and not the book," Knechtges . The book of the show is so good. You’ve got to nail the tone of the piece honoring those glorious B movies of Roger Corman. That tone is really the key to Little Shop of Horrors. If they nail it, and I believe we will,
that's everything, it makes everything soar. It's also the casting. You cast the right people that know how to do that borderline camp/ and serious at the same time, it's marvelous."

Besides the wonderful music, Knechtges had other reasons for including for the Tony Award-winning Dear Evan Hansen in the season:

"I also think not every show needs to be light and funny. that Musicals can also talk about hard to talk about things like suicide and families dealing with that. That was important to me to make sure that our season has a balance of that. That our audiences are exposed to all facets of musical theater.

The national tour of Mean Girls is on its way to Houston. "The movie was such a big hit and I feel like it’s in everybody’s mind. The trick of these seasons is trying to get something for everybody and I hope that Mean Girls is going to be attracting a different audience now.  Plus it's so fun and who hasn't experienced that high school experience that they talk about."

TUTS is doing Waitress in collaboration with the 5th Avenue Theatre in Seattle.  said Knechtges there was a very small window to get rights and TUTS was able to get them back to back with 5th Avenue." I think it's going to bring in a different audience than some of the other shows. Sara Bareilles (a two-time Grammy Award winner who has sold over three million albums in the United States) wrote the score and it's really wonderful for somebody of her caliber to write for the theater and it be such a big hit. That mixture of disciplines is really awesome."

Another one that should attract a crowd is a personal favorite of Knechtges' — Lin-Manuel Miranda's In the Heights.

"I love In the Heights. If I had to choose between In the Heights and Hamilton, I would choose In the Heights. Both are brilliant. But In the Heights has such heart. At its core it's about  a family and a community dealing with change and it's presenting everybody from this Latinx community in a positive light and the music is so wonderful that it encompasses a broad range of styles.

It's based in more modern, hip hop and rap but within   that there are all kinds of things, showtunes, Broadway, pop along with hop hop and rap. I don't think he could have written Hamilton had he not written this first.

Last season , TUTS premiered The Ugly Xmas Sweater Musical written by Dan Knechtges and Megan Larche Dominick. They're bringing it back for another holiday season.

"We're going to be tweaking it, trying to update it, but it is coming back. It was a big success for us. There's going to be  some new sweaters we hope. The great thing about that show is  is it changes based on the audience that’s there. So every time you go it's going to be a new show.

"I love that kind of theater that you don't know what you're getting all the time, but you know that you're going to get fun. So it bears repeating."


The TUTS Season as described by Theatre Under the Stars:

Dear Evan Hansen
September 10-22
Music and Lyrics by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul
Book by Steven Levenson
The winner of 6 Tony Awards®, the Grammy® Award and the Olivier Award for Best
Musical, Dear Evan Hansen is the deeply personal and profoundly contemporary
musical about life and the way we live it.

Little Shop of Horrors
October 22- November 3
Music by Alan Menken
Lyrics and Book by Howard Ashman
Based on the film by Roger Corman, Screenplay by Charles Griffith
Houston get ready to feed your appetite for the macabre this October with a brand
new production of Little Shop of Horrors from Theatre Under The Stars!
Follow the story of Seymour, an unremarkable shop boy who discovers a rare and
unusual plant that will bring him everything he’s ever wanted, but at what price?

The Ugly XMas Sweater Musical
November 29 - December 24
Book by Dan Knechtges and Megan Larche Dominick
Houston’s new favorite holiday tradition returns to fill your season with joy and
laughter.
The Ugly Xmas Sweater Musical is the laugh-out-loud, interactive, hysterically funny
musical that thrilled audiences last year. The leaders of Regalia Uniforms invite you to
help them save their beloved company from a takeover by an international
conglomerate by making the best ugly xmas sweater ever. Come dressed in your ugly
Christmas sweater, sing along and walk the runway with us!

Disney's Frozen
December 10 – 29
Music and Lyrics by Kristen Anderson Lopez and Robert Lopez
Book by Jennifer Lee
Based on the Disney film written by Jennifer Lee and directed by Chris Buck & Jennifer Lee
Originally produced on Broadway by Disney Theatrical Productions
Theatre Under The Stars brings you Disney’s magical wintery treat, Frozen, for this
holiday season! TUTS Artistic Director, Dan Knechtges, directs and choreographs a
brand-new staging of this smash hit musical.

Enter the icy world of Arendelle where the newly crowned Queen Elsa has
accidentally set off an eternal winter. Join her younger sister, Anna, along with
Kristoff, Olaf and Sven on a snowy adventure to find Elsa and save the kingdom.
Filled with enough magic, joy and laughter to thaw even the coldest heart, Disney’s
Frozen is the holiday treat you won’t want to miss!

Mean Girls
January 28 - February 9, 2025
Music by Jeff Richmond
Lyrics by Nell Benjamin
Book by Tina Fey
Direct from Broadway, Mean Girls is the hilarious hit musical from an award-winning
creative team, including book writer Tina Fey (30 Rock), composer Jeff Richmond
(Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt), lyricist Nell Benjamin (Legally Blonde) and original
director and choreographer Casey Nicholaw (The Book of Mormon).

Cady Heron may have grown up on an African savanna, but nothing prepared her for
the vicious ways of her strange new home: suburban Illinois. Soon, this naïve newbie
falls prey to a trio of lionized frenemies led by the charming but ruthless Regina
George. But when Cady devises a plan to end Regina's reign, she learns the hard way
that you can't cross a Queen Bee without getting stung.

Waitress
April 15-27, 2025

Music and Lyrics by Sara Bareilles
Book by Jessie Nelson
Based on the 2007 film of the same name, written and directed by Adrienne Shelly
Waitress is the smash hit musical loved by many, and we have a brand-new
production just for you. An Artistic Collaboration with The 5th Avenue Theatre in
Seattle, this heartwarming musical tells the story of Jenna Hunterson, a baker and
waitress in an abusive relationship with her husband, Earl. After Jenna unexpectedly
becomes pregnant, she begins an affair with her doctor, Dr. James (Jim) Pomatter.
Looking for ways out of her troubles, she sees a pie baking contest and its grand prize
as her chance. Featuring music and lyrics by Sara Bareilles and book by Jessie
Nelson, the musical is based on the 2007 film of the same name, written and directed
by Adrienne Shelly.


In the Heights
May 20-June 1, 2025

Music and Lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda
Book by Quiara Alegría Hudes
Conceived by Lin Manuel Miranda
For our final show of the Season, Theatre Under The Stars brings you Lin Manuel
Miranda’s first exhilarating musical, In The Heights.

Enter the vibrant New York City neighborhood Washington Heights, a place where the
coffee from the corner bodega is light and sweet, the windows are always open and
the breeze carries the rhythm of three generations of music. It’s here that a bodega
owner named Usnavi and his friends dream, hope and work for a bright future.
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