Ordway's new season bringing Broadway hits to St. Paul

The Ordway Center for the Performing Arts will present several current Broadway hits as part of its 2011-2012 season, including Tony Award winning Musical "Memphis."

Ordway Artistic Director James Rocco said St. Paul will be one of the first cities to get the show outside New York.

"It just won the Tony award and it's just about to start its national tour," Rocco said. "It will start its national tour in the fall and we will have it very shortly after that. It's a coup for us."

Rocco said another show has particular significance for the St Paul theater.

"'The Addams Family' is coming to the Ordway and we are even more excited about it because we took part in the creation of the Addams family," he said. "We are part of a conglomerate of producers who got together a few years ago to nurture new American musicals, and indeed this is the first fruit of that labor."

The season also includes the Frank Sinatra tribute "Come Fly with Me," the Bill T. Jones hit "FELA!" which features the life of the creator of Afro-beat music, a program of world music and dance, and Roger and Hammersteins's "Cinderella".