Santa Monica Playhouse announced today that Actors' Repertory Theatre will kick off Part II of its 50th Anniversary Festival of Theatre with the world premiere musical comedy "DOLLS! - Not Your Usual Love Story," a cheerfully mysterious, unexpectedly amorous musical unveiling of the remarkable secret life of the dolls we left behind. The feel good musical previews Saturday, July 23, opens August 6 and plays weekends through September 25, 2011.

In its signature Commedia-circus theatre style, renowned Actors' Repertory Theatre (ART) brings to bold, beautiful life a delightful world premiere musical comedy as your favorite dolls of olde (sic) - the handsome Tin Soldier, the ephemeral Music Box Dancer, the ever-smiling Raggedy Girl, the cracked (literally and figuratively) Porcelain Victoriana, the anatomically incorrect Fashion Doll and more - burst onto the Santa Monica Playhouse stage, baring their souls, and their startling private lives, for all to see. ("The Playhouse is truly a gem in this city, and visiting it should be on the top-of everyone's Los Angeles to-do list." Daily Bruin.)

Written and directed by the internationally acclaimed creative team of Evelyn Rudie and Chris DeCarlo ("Your work is brilliant!" English Shakespeare Company), with words & music by E. Rudie and Matthew Wrather and musical direction by Playhouse Associate Director Serena Dolinsky, the cast of nine triple-threat performers features ART members Dolinsky and Melissa Gentry (Love in Bloom, Backstreet, Moonlight Madness), joined by guest artists Jessica Erin Bennett (Pygmalion, A Charlie Brown Christmas, all the female roles in the animated pilot Jake Hammered), Annie Mackay (Girls Behaving Badly, the cult classic The Butcher, The Group Repertory Theatre); Nancy Dobbs Owen* (Phantom of the Opera national tour; Sweeney Todd; Assassins, M. Butterfly, choreographer), Garett Stevens (Guiding Light, As the World Turns, Blood Night), and Troy Titus-Adams** (Numb3rs; The Bill; Lord of Illusions, directed by Clive Barker), with Evelyn Rudie* as Baby Babette and Chris DeCarlo* as Gigoletto, the love-struck, no-strings-attached marionette. Costume and design concept by award-winning designer Ashley Hayes. Production Stage Manager George J. Vennes III.