Montgomery College Summer Dinner Theatre may seem a long way from the stages of Broadway, but there is more that connects the two than just the coincidence that the Tony-award winning 42nd Street is one of the two musicals being performed in Rockville this summer.

This year’s revival of 42nd Street was greeted with honors during the recent Tony awards in New York City, taking the award for the Best Revival of a Musical. But the decision to mount the classic musical here in Rockville was made long before the revival got under in New York City.

The more interesting and more exciting connection for long-time Summer Dinner Theatre fans and participants was the Tony competition for Featured Actor in a Musical, which included a former member of the summer troupe – Brad Oscar.

Oscar, who plays the Nazi playwright in the run-a-way hit The Producers, lost out to fellow cast member, Gary Beach. Nonetheless, the thrill of having one of their own on Broadway was not diminished by the results of the competition.

"It is an exciting thing to watch someone develop over the years into Tony-award nominated performer," says Rick Pevey, managing director of the Summer Dinner Theater. "It is a rare achievement."

Like Oscar, who spent three summers honing his craft on a Montgomery College campus stage, nearly one hundred students from around Montgomery County will block scenes, learn lines, create costumes and set light cues, as well as attend classes in voice, stage make up techniques and movement for musical theater.

The ten-week intensive course in musical theater arts, offered by the College’s Department of Music, has produced must see theater for county audiences for the past 24 years. More importantly, the students, who come from local high school and other college theater programs, learn first hand the craft of musical theater from veteran teachers and professionals in the field.

In addition 42nd Street, the Summer Dinner Theatre will mount a production of another classic Broadway musicals Gilbert and Sullivan’s Pirates of Penzance. Coincidentally, the original "Pirates," which opened in New York City in December 1879, was given its own revival in 1981, the year 42nd Street took the Tony for Best Musical.

Come to Montgomery College and enjoy the conundrums Frederick faces as he gives up his pirate-ways and tries to win the heart of the fair lady in this Gilbert and Sullivan classic. Or experience the thrill of "those dancing feet" and the rise of small-town girl Peggy Sawyer to stardom on Broadway in 42nd Street.

Each performance will run for three weekends with one Sunday matinee. The dates for Pirate of Penzance are June 22, 23, 29 30, July 6 and 7 with the Sunday matinee on July 1. Performances of 42nd Street will run on July 13, 14, 20, 21,28 and 29. There is a Sunday matinee on July 22. Tickets cost $28.50 for adults and $21.50 for children under 12. There is a 10 percent discount on the purchase of tickets both productions.