By Jackie Demaline
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Cincinnati flexes its Broadway touring muscle next season with two fresh shows now playing in New York and a coveted slot on Patti LuPone's six-city pre-New York tour of her one-woman show, Matters of the Heart.

Billy Joel's musical Movin' Out will play Feb. 22-Mar. 6.

New tours of current Broadway hit revivals Wonderful Town and Little Shop of Horrors are part of an all-musical seven-show season that starts in September.

The season has been in the planning stages for more than two years, says Leslie Broecker, executive vice-president of Clear Channel Entertainment's Midwest Theatrical division, with an eye to meld golden oldies to the pop tastes of the baby boom generation who are becoming the new "traditional" Broadway audience.

Fifth Third Bank Broadway in Cincinnati continues to have one of the largest touring bases in North America, with a subscription average of 20,000 and a total attendance of more than 250,000 every year. (This season's numbers will not be available until after the April run of Oklahoma!)

The season will include the Billy Joel musical Movin' Out, which was rescheduled from this season.

Season extra Mamma Mia is another pop-driven musical. The by-the-sea musical set to an Abba songbook took audiences by surprise two years ago when word-of-mouth turned it into a sellout by the end of its two-week run.

"We want a balance," says Broecker, and that includes young professionals. She says that the response to pushing the envelope earlier this season with Urinetown encouraged the series to stretch beyond well-known revivals.

LuPone is best known to most of America as the mom on TV's Life Goes On. She's also a multiple Tony Award-winning Broadway legend, who originated roles including Evita, Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard and Maria Callas in Master Class. Matters includes songs by Lennon and McCartney, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Randy Newman, Cole Porter and more.

Revivals continue to anchor the series. Chicago last toured to Cincinnati in 1998.

Wonderful Town, a 1950s hit from Leonard Bernstein, Betty Comden and Adolph Green is a charmer about two sisters from Columbus who move to Greenwich Village. Cincinnatian Rick Steiner is among the producers of the revival of Little Shop..

The two non-Equity entries on next year's tour schedule are Miss Saigon, a Vietnam-era spin on Madame Butterfly, and Oliver!, a tour that currently features a number of Cincinnati youngsters (who will have left the show by the time it arrives).

Broecker says it's likely we can expect more off-Broadway tours next season, following the success of Late Nite Catechism earlier this year, possibly even a reprise of Catechism.

Season schedule

What: Fifth Third Bank Broadway in Cincinnati 2004-05 season:

Sept. 21-Oct. 3 - Chicago

Oct. 19-31 - Matters of the Heart starring Patti LuPone

Nov. 23-Dec. 5 - Miss Saigon

Jan. 11-23 - Oliver!

Feb. 22-March 6 - Movin' Out

March 15-27 - Wonderful Town

April 5-17 - Little Shop of Horrors

Season extras

Aug. 3-8 - Mamma Mia

Nov. 16-21 - Riverdance

Feb. 4-6 - Rent

Where: Procter & Gamble Hall, Aronoff Center for the Arts, 650 Walnut St.

Tickets: Season packages range from $99 to $513 and are on sale by phone at (800) 294-1816 at the Broadway in Cincinnati ticket office in the Mercantile Center, 120 E. Fourth St., from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays, and online at BroadwayAcrossAmerica.com.Single tickets will go on sale several weeks before to individual shows.

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E-mail jdemaline@enquirer.com