{"id":362013,"date":"2026-07-05T18:45:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-05T18:45:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/362013\/"},"modified":"2026-07-05T18:45:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-05T18:45:08","slug":"utep-dinner-theatre-closes-2025-26-season-with-school-of-rock","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/362013\/","title":{"rendered":"UTEP Dinner Theatre closes 2025-26 season with ‘School of Rock"},"content":{"rendered":"

EL PASO, TEXAS (KFOX14\/CBS4) \u2014 The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) Dinner Theatre is closing out its 2025-26 season with School of Rock – The Musical.<\/p>\n

The production, directed by UTEP Dinner Theatre’s interim director, Jaime Barba, opened June 26 and is running through July 18 on the UTEP campus.<\/p>\n

The musical is based on the 2003 movie School of Rock, by Mike White, featuring Jack Black. The production features music composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber, with lyrics by Glenn Slater and a book by Julian Fellowes.<\/p>\n

“If you are a fan of the film and you come see this musical, you are going to hear the songs that were in the movie, plus Andrew Lloyd Webber wrote new music for the musical, so it is kind of all-encompassing,” Barba said.<\/p>\n

Barba shared that like the movie original, the UTEP Dinner Theatre production features about 12 children who perform as part of the regular cast.<\/p>\n

“There’s a saying in the theatre that you never work with kids or dogs, and I was really worried about the kids in the show… I thought ‘Well, I’ve been an educator for 30 years; I can do it,” Barba said.<\/p>\n

Contrary to his worries, the children in the cast proved to be a joy to work with for the interim director.<\/p>\n

“The kids have been great — they are a joy to work with; they’re prepared, they do their homework, anything you ask of them they do,” Barba said. “The great thing about this show is the kids that are actually musicians in the band in the show play their own instruments, so they will be playing them live on stage.”<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The UTEP Dinner Theatre’s production of School of Rock \u2013 The Musical runs through July 18 on the UTEP campus. (Credit: KFOX14\/CBS4)<\/p>\n

UTEP Dinner Theatre offers several performance options for guests. Upcoming dinner performances are scheduled for July 9, 10, 11 and 18. An evening non-dinner performance will be on July 8, and the matinee non-dinner options are set for July 5 and 12.<\/p>\n

The dinner and brunch menu includes:<\/p>\n

Romaine salad with mandarin oranges, goat cheese with candied walnuts and a champagne citrus vinaigretteCalabrian chili honey-glazed chicken breast with scallionsThyme-roasted fingerling potatoesGarlic butter broccoliniFrench cream cheesecake with a fresh berry sauceDinner rollsDrinks of iced tea, water, and coffee.<\/p>\n

A Summer Musical Theatre Kids Camp<\/a> tied to the production will run July 13-18, for kids ages 10-18 at the UTEP Dinner Theatre. Campers will have the opportunity to perform alongside the cast during a special performance Saturday, July 18, following their participation in the kids camp.<\/p>\n

“When we decided on this show, we picked it because we are now doing a summer musical theatre kids camp, and we thought, ‘What show would work for a new audience, something people would love and would work well with our summer kids camp? ‘ So we chose this show,” Barba said.<\/p>\n

The UTEP Dinner Theatre is in its 43rd season and is part of UTEP\u2019s Department of Theatre Arts and Dance. Organizers say it is the only functioning dinner theatre on a university campus in the country, and that a majority of the cast, band, and crew are students or recent UTEP alumni.<\/p>\n

Tickets are available through the UTEP Ticket Center at (915) 747-5234 and at Ticketmaster.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EL PASO, TEXAS (KFOX14\/CBS4) \u2014 The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) Dinner Theatre is closing out…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":362014,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[138,140,139],"class_list":["post-362013","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-el-paso","tag-el-paso","tag-el-paso-headlines","tag-el-paso-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362013","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=362013"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362013\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/362014"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=362013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=362013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=362013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}