CLEVELAND, Ohio - How did Cleveland become the launch site of the national tour of "Hello, Dolly!," starring Broadway legend Betty Buckley?

"Forty-five thousand season ticketholders, three-week runs, great facilities - what's not to love about Cleveland, Ohio?" says Playhouse Square's Gina Vernaci, designer of the KeyBank Broadway Series' 2018-19 season, unveiled at the Connor Palace Tuesday evening.

"Dolly" will kick off a lineup that brings old favorites and new hits to Playhouse Square, including "A Bronx Tale," Chazz Palminteri's hard knock coming of age story based on his own life.

The actor made his first trip to Cleveland to regale the sold out crowd of 2,800 with colorful anecdotes of growing up surrounded by wise guys, including "Sonny," a mobster who murdered a man in front of Palminteri when he was 9.

He refused to "rat," sparking a bond between the boy and the mob boss that chaffed his hardworking father.

"A Bronx Tale" began its life onstage in Los Angeles in 1989, featuring Palminteri, a then out of work actor, playing each of the 18 characters. "I figured they gotta notice me, right?"

Robert De Niro did, dubbing it the best one man show he'd ever seen and going on to direct a move version in 1993. But "the musical is the greatest of all," said Palminteri, "because it's operatic."

It's is also about family, he added, and "the choice between love and fear."

Also making an appearance was Beverley Bass, the first female captain for American Airlines, whose story is featured in "Come From Away," a retelling of the generosity of the tiny town of Gander, Newfoundland where Bass's jet and 37 other planes were forced to land on 9/11.

Grounded for five days, Bass recalled the morning she deplaned to find tables groaning with food. Natives had stayed up all night to make enough grub to feed 7,000 passengers and crew.

Bass isn't just a character in the musical, she's a fan, having taken in 99 performances. When "Come From Away" celebrates a year on Broadway in March, she'll be in the audience to make it an even 100.

Times, tickets and more

All shows will play in the Connor Palace, except for "Miss Saigon," which is headed for the KeyBank State Theatre. Performance times for all shows are 7:30 p.m. Tuesday-Friday; 1:30 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday; and 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sunday.

Season tickets are available now. Seven-show packages range from $100 to $680, with monthly payment plans available.

Single ticket on-sale dates for all shows will be announced later.

Visit playhousesquare.org/broadway or call 216-640-8800 for season tickets and details.

The following listings and descriptions are based on information provided by Playhouse Square and the critic's own notebook.

2018-19 KeyBank Broadway Series at Playhouse Square

Tuesday, Oct. 2-Sunday, Oct. 21, Connor Palace: "Hello, Dolly!" Music and lyrics by Jerry Herman. Book by Michael Stewart. Directed by Jerry Zaks.

Widow and matchmaker Dolly Levi knows what's best for all the young lovers in New York City at the turn of the 20th century. But everything changes when she decides that her next match will be her own.

Hosting Betty Buckley in the role famously inhabited by Carol Channing for decades will be like rolling out the red carpet for visiting royalty, says Vernaci.

And consider this delicious factoid: Buckley will perform in the four-time Tony Award-winning revival on the stage where the indefatigable Channing appeared in 1995 in her farewell tour.

Tuesday, Oct. 30-Sunday, Nov. 18, Connor Palace: "Les Miserables." Music by Claude-Michel Schonberg. Lyrics by James Fenton. Book by Alain Boublil and Schonberg. Directed by Laurence Connor and James Powell.

Thanks to the runaway success of the musical, a shorthand description will suffice: Jean Valjean runs, Javert gives chase, Fantine dies, Cosette cries.

Not only is the 1987 Broadway classic based on Victor Hugo's epic historical novel, the set of this 2104 revival is inspired by the paintings of Hugo as well.

"The world's most-loved musical," says Vernaci. What more do you need to know?

Tuesday, Jan. 29-Sunday, Feb. 17, KeyBank State Theatre: "Miss Saigon." Music by Claude-Michel Schonberg. Lyrics by Alain Boublil and Richard Maltby Jr. Book by Boublil and Schonberg. Directed by Laurence Connor.

In the last days of the Vietnam War, a Vietnamese girl falls for an American GI, but they are torn apart by the fall of Saigon.

The first time the operatic epic played here, "we had to expand the door on the loading dock to get the helicopter in," Vernaci says. And, while there is similar Whirlybird wizardry in this 2017 revival, that reference sets the wrong tone for a reimagined "Miss Saigon."

"You're not swept away with the landing helicopter; you're swept away with the impact of the love story," says Vernaci.

Tuesday, March 5-Sunday, March 24, 2019, Connor Palace: "School of Rock." Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber. Lyrics by Glenn Slater. Book by Julian Fellowes. Directed by Laurence Connor.

Wannabe rock star Dewey Finn poses as a substitute teacher at a prestigious prep school, where he turns a class of straight-A students into a mind-blowing rock band.

With "Stick It to the Man" and other songs in the infectious score, Lloyd Webber returns to his roots as a writer of rock musicals. "He was the first one who gave us an electric vibe in the pit," says Vernaci.

Tuesday, April 23-Sunday, May 12, 2019, Connor Palace: "A Bronx Tale." Music by Alan Menken. Lyrics by Glenn Slater. Book by Chazz Palminteri. Directed by Robert De Niro and Jerry Zaks.

Based on the true-life story of Oscar nominee Palminteri, this streetwise musical set in the Bronx in the 1960s features young Calogero, caught between the father he loves and the mob boss he'd love to be.

"This is his story," says Vernaci of Palminteri. "He lived it."

Tuesday, June 11-Sunday, June 30, 2019, Connor Palace: "Dear Evan Hansen." Music and lyrics by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul. Book by Steven Levenson. Directed by Michael Greif.

High school senior Evan Hansen is about to get the one thing he's always wanted: a chance to fit in. But it means living a lie and being somebody he's not.

The 2017 best musical is composed by the Oscar-winning team of "La La Land" fame and this year's Oscar best original song nominees for "The Greatest Showman." The duo brings an interior, singer-songwriter style of writing to the stage, says Vernaci, expressing Evan's "in-the-marrow-of-his-bones pain of how much it hurts to be the outsider."

Tuesday, July 9-Sunday, July 28, 2019, Connor Palace: "Come From Away." Music and lyrics by Irene Sankoff and David Hein. Book by Sankoff and Hein. Directed by Christopher Ashley.

The true story of 7,000 passengers stranded in the wake of the 9/11 attacks and the small town in Newfoundland that welcomed them.

"The very human stories of what took place in Gander is the center" of this Tony Award-winning musical, says Vernaci. "It shows all of us how to be citizens of the world."

Updated at 11:25 p.m.