Theatre Under The Stars holds a unique place in the Houston theater landscape. Since its founding over 55 years ago, the company has become one of the largest Houston theater companies by both producing its own versions of classic and contemporary musicals and also presenting the latest Broadway shows on national tours.
Talking to artistic director Dan Knechtges about their mostly contemporary lineup, I got a fascinating lesson on the business of show business licensing. When a recent smash musical closes on Broadway and its national tours also end, sometimes a licensing window opens to allow regional theaters to produce their own version. Such is the case for the feel-good musical about love, motherhood and pie, Waitress. But those regional production opportunities become ever rarer when it comes to recent Disney mega musicals like the juggernaut Frozen.
With only a few regional companies given a coveted Frozen license, Knechtges credits TUTS’s long history with Disney as a factor. TUTS was the company that helped develop the now classic Beauty and the Beast stage musical.
But Knechtges says they also did a lot of preparatory creative work to earn their biggest show of the season, opening Dec. 10.
“Part of the process is that we had to do a proposal for Disney to get the license. Theaters from across the country put in proposals and ours was pretty in-depth.”
Knechtges got personal with the TUTS proposal. Thinking about his Swedish heritage, he plans to use traditional Swedish folklore as inspiration.
“It’s still the Frozen everyone knows and loves,” he assures. “But it’s going to be with a little more of an authentic Scandinavian bent to it. That was of interest to Disney. They didn’t want it to look like the Broadway production. They wanted theaters to do their own takes on it.”
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Frozen Costume Shop Backstage with Colleen Grady and Logan Keslar gathering material for one of Elsa's costumes. Photo by Melissa Taylor.
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Frozen Costume Shop Backstage with Colleen Grady working on Frozen costumes. Photo by Melissa Taylor.
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TUTS Artistic Director, Dan Knechtges, and his sister, Kristy, visiting Gamala Stan, one of the oldest parts of Stockholm where he found inspiration for the new TUTS production of Disney’s Frozen in the historic architecture. Photo courtesy of TUTS.
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The Cast of The Ugly Xmas Sweater Musical. Photo by Melissa Taylor.
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Alexys Morera (Janis Sarkisian) and the Tour Company of Mean Girls. Photo by Jeremy Daniel, 2024.
As both director and choreographer, Knechtges says he’ll “be exploring some authentic dancing elements,” but he also plans to reference Swedish folklore, including supernatural Scandinavian creatures.
Balancing the beloved and expected aspects of Frozen with a fresh vision, Knechtges says they want to “deliver” on Elsa’s big “Let It Go” dress reveal while also having their own vision for some of the design elements, including brand new puppetry for the show from Houston’s own puppet designer extraordinaire, Afsaneh Aayani.
In some of our previous conversations, Knechtges has expressed a desire to add immersive qualities to his productions, bringing audiences closer to the action or the action closer to the audiences, especially in the Hobby Center’s large Sarofim Theater. Though he won’t reveal any tricks up his directorial sleeve just yet, he does have similar ideas for Frozen.
“The other thing I think we do quite well is trying to bring it into the audience.”
For Waitress in the spring, TUTS will partner with 5th Avenue Theatre in Seattle. The collaborative new production will debut in Seattle before the same cast heads to Houston.
“It will be a trend when it happens 10 times. I fear we’re going to run out of Halloween musicals that are worth anything,” he said with a laugh.
I mentioned that most productions of Little Shop I had seen had been in smaller venues, perhaps making it easier to deliver an ever growing, human-eating plant on stage.
“I think the brilliance of the show is that it can fit anywhere and work. That’s part of our job right now is to deliver on that. It will fill the stage and maybe other parts of the theater,” he hints.
Along with Frozen, TUTS will bring back their original holiday show that Knechtges wrote with Megan Larche Dominick, The Ugly X-Mas Sweater Musical. Staged as a holiday office party, the show tells the story of a HR director who has to save her small clothing manufacturing company when it’s swallowed by an international conglomerate. With a premise that encouraged audience participation, including singing and costume design, the show did very well in the Hobby’s smaller Zilker Theater. Knechtges says they’ll likely make some tweaks to the script to keep it fresh.
In the new year, TUTS goes back into presenting mode, bringing in the touring Mean Girls to town. As a musical based on the cult non-musical comedy that later spawned a filmed version of the musical, audiences can’t get enough of the “fetching” show.
The 24-25 season ends in late May with In the Heights. Since 2025 will be the 20th anniversary of the pioneering Tony-winner, their production will likely become a theatrical celebration.
“I just love that show. It has such heart and it’s sort of a perfect musical comedy. The music is still so fresh to this day. It also feels like it’s a good summer show or leading into summer. It’s got hope. The music’s hot. I think it’s good to end the season on a populous favorite.”
—TARRA GAINES
