Billings Studio Theatre has announced its 2011-12 theatre season, which runs from September 2011 through June of 2012.  The season is highlighted by two recent Broadway musical smash hits.  The season opens with The Drowsy Chaperone, which boldly addresses a great unspoken desire in all of our hearts: to be entertained. If you've ever sat in a dark theatre and thought, "Dear Lord in heaven, please let it be good," this is the show for you!  BST will also be staging Spring Awakening, winner of 8 TONY Awards, including BEST MUSICAL.   Spring Awakening celebrates the unforgettable journey from youth to adulthood with a power, poignancy, and passion that you will never forget.  Adapted from Frank Wedekind's 1891 expressionist play about the trials, tears, and exhilaration of the teen years, it has been hailed as the "Best Musical of the Year" by the New York Times, New York Post, Star Ledger, Journal News, New York Observer, and USA Today.

For those who enjoyed Buddy Holly last season, you’re sure to enjoy Ring of Fire, the music of Johnny Cash.  Though he is never impersonated, his remarkable life story is told through some of the greatest songs of one of America's most brilliant singer/songwriters, Johnny Cash.  The show climaxes in a concert that will both move and exhilarate!  Leapin' Lizards! The popular comic strip heroine takes center stage in one of the world's best-loved musicals.  Annie, the story of a spunky Depression-era orphan determined to find her parents, who abandoned her years ago on the doorstep of a New York City Orphanage will be the Christmas musical.

Three comedies will also appear on the season.  In Christmas Belles a church Christmas program spins hilariously out of control in this Southern farce about squabbling sisters, family secrets, a surly Santa, a vengeful sheep and a reluctant Elvis impersonator. The Battle of Shallowford, takes place on a quiet Sunday night in October of 1938 at Burton Mock's general store in Shallowford, North Carolina.  A host of colorful locals arrive at the store only interested in local gossip until they turn on the radio and learn that the Martians have invaded! It is the night of Orson Welles' history War of the Worlds radio drama! They fall hook, line and sinker for the broadcast and run out to do battle. The final comedy is Maggie’s Getting Married by Norm Foster, Canada’s most produced and funniest playwright.  In this touching romantic comedy, you'll join the Duncan family as they prepare for the wedding of their daughter. It is the night before the big day, and Maggie's older sister discovers that she knows the groom a little better than Maggie would like her to.

Also on the season is the classic The Trip to Bountiful by Horton Foote.  This is the poignant story of Mrs. Watts, an aging widow living with her son and daughter-in-law in a three-room flat in Houston, Texas. Fearing that her presence may be an imposition on others, and chafing under the watchful eye of her daughter-in-law, Mrs. Watts imagines that if she can get away and return to her old home in the town of Bountiful, she is sure to regain her strength, dignity and peace of mind.