BLUE MOUNTAIN LAKE – The Adirondack Lakes Center for the Arts has announced its 2016 Adirondack Lakes Summer Theater Festival.

The touring festival will feature “The Best of Broadway,” a musical revue, as well as free outdoor performances of “The Taming of the Shrew” as its Shakespeare in the Adirondack Park feature, and a cabaret to promote the center’s annual Great Arts Benefit.

The festival will run from July 15 through Aug. 14, bringing entertainment and culture to towns and hamlets around the Adirondacks.

“The Best of Broadway” features lesser-known musical gems by Broadway composers like Charles Strouse (“Bye Bye Birdie,” “Annie”) and Sheldon Harnick (“Fiddler on the Roof”) along with comedic sketches, including a spoof of Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman” by Mel Brooks.

“The Taming of the Shrew,” a 40-minute version of the Shakespeare comedy, is the center’s free outdoor show at town parks, beaches and campgrounds. In the play, Petruchio decides that Kate, the beautiful girl with the awful temper, will make a wonderful wife once she’s tamed. Kate, of course, wants nothing to do with any suitor, and hilarity ensues. This madcap story of imperfect love is told in the Elvis-meets-“I-Love-Lucy” setting of the 1950s. Indoor facilities are available in the event of inclement weather.

The Great Arts Benefit cabaret will feature a mix of American songbook, musical theater, operetta and opera.

New Arts Center Artistic Director George Cordes, of Tupper Lake, will direct and appear in all three productions. North Country audiences know him from his appearances with Pendragon Theatre in Saranac Lake in the title roles of “Man of La Mancha” and “Sweeney Todd,” his performances with High Peaks Opera, the Lake Placid Sinfonietta and Northern Lights Choir, and his work as stage director for the spring musicals at Tupper Lake High School. Cordes has recruited several performers for the productions, including two Pendragon regulars based in New York City.

Cassidy Dermott is a New York City-based actress and teaching artist with Shakespearean training. She is a company member of 8Players and has recently performed in Shakespeare’s “Richard III” and “Henry VI” with the Gallery Players. North Country audiences may remember her performances with Pendragon as Chloe in “Arcadia,” Emma Goldman in “Tintypes,” Myrtle Mae in “Harvey,” Antonia in “Man of La Mancha” and the Devil in “The Soldier’s Tale” with the Lake Placid Sinfionetta.

Lake Placid native Lucky Cerruti has also been featured in several Pendragon productions, including “The Snow Queen,” “The Seagull,” “Man of La Mancha” and the title role in “Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp.” With Camp Pendragon, he appeared in “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown.” As a musician, he studied at Berklee College in Boston. As a student in Lake Placid, he performed lead roles in several musicals, including Danny Zuko in “Grease.” He currently resides in New York City.

Brandon Bedore is a senior musical theater major at Catholic University in Washington, D.C., and recently spent a semester abroad studying at the London Dramatic Academy. He performed in several main-stage shows at Catholic University, appearing in “Carousel,” “Sweet Charity” and as Clem in “The Most Happy Fella.” In 2015, he performed as Bernardo in “West Side Story” selections at the Kennedy Center. He previously appeared with the Arts Center in “Shrek: The Musical.”

Danielle LaMere appeared in Pendragon’s “Death of a Salesman” and served as assistant director at Camp Pendragon for two summers. She has appeared with the local Community Theatre Players in “The Wizard of Oz” and “Disney’s The Little Mermaid.” Danielle enters her senior year at SUNY Potsdam with a double major in theater and education. There she has participated in the Ten Minute and One Act play festivals as an actor, stage manager and director, and most recently appeared in the musical “Return to the Forbidden Planet.”

Both Bedore and LaMere are Tupper Lake natives who sang lead roles with the Red and Black Players in “Annie,” “Thoroughly Modern Millie,” Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Cinderella,” and “Back to the ’80s: The Totally Awesome Musical!”

The Adirondack Lakes Summer Theatre Festival is supported by a grant from the New York State Council on the Arts. The Adirondack Lakes Center for the Arts is located at 3446 state Route 28 in Blue Mountain Lake. For more information on these and other performances, events, and classes, go to adirondackarts.org or call 518-352-7715.