Kitten LaRue: Former New Orleans performer on Kitten N’ Lou’s “OVEREXPOSED!” show at One Eyed Jacks, Lady Gaga, and returning home

Posted on April 15, 2016 by davidleesimmons under burlesque

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INFO:
Kitten N’ Lou in “OVEREXPOSED!”
Sunday (April 17), 9 p.m.
One Eyed Jacks
Tickets $18 advance, $20 day of show (VIP table seating available)
Click here for tickets

Kitten LaRue has come a long way since her days in the Shim Sham Revue in the early 2000s as a part of the burlesque renaissance that emanated out of the Shim Sham Club on Toulouse Street. Moving to Seattle, she helped kick-start the burlesque scene there with the Atomic Bombshells. But the Ruston native has never lost her love of the Crescent City, so it shouldn’t come as that much of a surprise that her other project, Kitten N’ Lou — with her onstage/offstage partner, Lou Henry Hoover — actually was birthed on a dare at the Bourbon Pub in 2011.

“It was summertime,” she recalls over the phone at her home base in Seattle. “We were both living down there for a month or two, just because my sister is having her baby, and so I was spending the summer there. We weren’t married yet, and we just went and saw this drag show, and we met the Carnival Kings, who were performing, and we were like,‘Oh we’re performers, too.’ And they said, ‘You should do an act, and we just kind of threw together, a little fun, dance-y lip-synch act, and that’s kind of where it all started.”

The song? Big Sean’s “Dance A$$.”

And so began Kitten N’ Lou, which over the past five years has become one of the most original, funny and popular burlesque acts in the world. The couple was named Most Comedic Act at the 2014 Burlesque Hall of Fame festival in Las Vegas. Months later, they performed as showgirl dancers (along with burlesque star and friend, Angie Pontani and two others) backing up Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett in their “Cheek to Cheek“ concert as part of their appearance on PBS’s “Great Performances” series and from their duet album of the same name.

Kitten N’ Lou made a return to New Orleans in 2015, co-producing the “CREAM!” show with Bella Blue and held at One Eyed Jacks, the former Shim Sham Club, and hosted by their frequent collaborator, BenDeLaCreme.

“They’ve taken a combination of many elements of burlesque and then added their own flair to it,” said Bella Blue. “And they have also added an element of drag to it well with their makeup and costuming. Like if you watch their acts you’ll see dancing, tassel-twirling, striptease. Those are the basic elements. But, when you are dancing to ‘Last Dance’ in a 1970s-inspired costume with heavy choreography and camp and gender fuckery (Lou as a drag king), it makes it uniquely Kitten N’ Lou.”

And 2016 is off to an amazing start, considering that the duo was voted the most popular burlesque act in 21^st Century Burlesque’s poll of the top 50 performers.

Now they’re back, bringing their first-ever full-length show, “OVEREXPOSED!,” to One Eyed Jackson on Sunday (April 17) at One Eyed Jacks. LaRue discussed the concept for the show, which plays on their married life at home and onstage, as well as their long-term plan to make New Orleans their home base, among many other topics in this edited Q&A.

Let’s start with “OVEREXPOSED.” This is your first full-length show, but it also incorporates some of your previous acts, and you get to extend those, or simply draw out everything a little bit more, and there’s also a little bit of a more thematic approach at work here as well, correct?

Yeah, that definitely is, so this is our first evening work as a duet, and it does indeed include some of our more icon acts that we’ve created over the years, but it tells a story. It’s sort of a show within a show. It kind of follows the ups and downs of being the world’s show-busiest couple, so to speak, what that entails, and there are some acts that are also new material, and theater, and all kinds of stuff in there. The premises is essentially that we start the show with one of our bigger acts, and then we quickly discover that we are the only ones in the show, and we didn’t get that memo until just now, so there’s a narrator (BenDeLaCreme, pre-recorded) who interacts with us, and speaks to us, and kind of guides us through. And so it’s really funny, and it’s has some serious moments as well.

And a lot of it is meta thing, right? Where your show-biz people are talking about show biz, but also there’s a lot about being a couple as well. You can kind of expand on that a little bit.

Absolutely, yeah. I mean it’s kind of a we sort of talk about how we artist to reveal truth, and our drag, and in our work. It’s kind of about who are Kitten and Lou without Kitten and Lou. What happens when you strip that away? What happens when the goal of success on the stage interferes with your personal relationship? It explores some of those ideas.

Is it tough being a couple, and performing?

Yeah, I mean it definitely has its challenges. It’s also obviously it’s like we’re the luckiest people in the world to get to do this together, and do it all over the world, but it’s definitely not without its challenges. We’re together like 24 hours a day, and you have to make a real group effort to carve out non-work time with each other. Where we’re just us, and this show supports that. What the concept of just us means, and it’s also at levels of exploring what it’s like to be a queer couple in the world. What that sort of otherness means.

Kitten N’ Lou are… OVEREXPOSED! sizzler reel! from Kitten N’ Lou on Vimeo.

You said something in the Huffington Post, I’ll read the quotes it says, “It’s really thrilling to get to bring to the stage both our biggest show biz acts, along with the kind of theater that only works in longer perform. And we use the duration in a way that doesn’t really work in a five-minute act.” And you expand on that a little bit, but I really love the idea of talking about making it thematic, cabaret act of where the length matters, so to speak. Pardon any puns, but you really get to kind of stretch things. What is the beauty in this stretching?

Within this context of a burlesque act, we’re trying to tell a story within five minutes. And that story has a beginning, middle and end, and you have to really make a lot of very clear vast choices of how to do that. With an evening length work we’re able to play with this idea of duration in that we can have awkward silences if we want to.

So there’s this section where I essentially like eat my feelings with a bag of potato chips for three minutes, and people really responded to it. That’s exciting, and that’s not something I can just do in the context of an act. I mean I guess I could, but it would not kind of work. There’s a section where Lou and I have a very uncomfortable, awkward picnic. Where we cast a beer bottle back and forth. And that has within the context of our show has different layers of meaning, and metaphor that we get to play with, and explore.

One of the things that really struck me, just from a very zippy, snappy highlight reel is everyone talks, and you talk a lot about theater and drag, and burlesque and more. What I got was that this extended time kind of brings a mime-style theater into the act more.

We both draw heavily from mime, and clown, and we’re both like deeply interested in the different levels of meaning that it can be found in a gesture, and a real economy of theater in that way. I mean we love like bringing the over-the-top element with our burlesque acts. It’s just over the top, but we’re also interested within this kind of work this evening lengths work were we’re exploring that sort of economy of how much can we convey within a single gesture, or movement or eyebrow raise.

You’re blurring so many lines in there, whether it’s burlesque, boylesque, cabaret and drag. Do you see a kind of (audience) acceptance of your blurring these lines more now compared to five years ago? In other words, do audiences get it more than they did five years ago?

I think they do, and I feel like in our world it sort of depends on what they’re looking at, but this is what we have found to be true for ourselves, and we can only really speak for ourselves is that what we aimed to do with our work was give the spoonful-of-sugar approach. So we’re sort of like of delivering these subversive notions, or these subversive scenes of queerness, and drag, and there’s definitely like political under-curtain in what we’re doing because of that, but we wanted to do it in a way that was just pure eye candy, and pure 100 percent show-biz entertainment so that a broader audience would be open to receiving that message.

I guess when you say spoonful of sugar, you’re trying to make it as fun as possible to get this acceptance shot through your own filter a little bit.

Exactly, the things that we come from, we’re all like the different musical-theater world, and Lou actually before Lou got into burlesque kind of career as a contemporary dance choreographer and performer (as showgirl Ricki Mason), so Lou is coming from contemporary dance world. I’ve been in the theater and burlesque world for years, and we’re really just kind of interested for the two of us in creating this sort of new kind of performance that wasn’t just one thing, and then actually pulled from all of our influences, and both of our backgrounds, and could appeal to a really broad audience that also all the while delivering the inherent subversive message of us being clear performers.

The other part of your life that I’m curious about is, how you as a person and your sexuality evolved, was something that, one became more apparent before the other as a performer? Or was that something that was always you was aware of as a younger person?

Yeah, that’s a good question. I definitely have always been aware of my queerness since I was a teenager maybe, perhaps even before that, but I just didn’t have a word for that because I live in a small town in the Deep South (Ruston, La.), so there weren’t really like a lot of examples for me to look to, or a lot of people talking about it, but I definitely had been aware of it for a long time. But your question about its relationship to burlesque was really interesting, I think, because burlesque definitely helped me feel more comfortable with my sexuality in general, as I think it does for many burlesque performers, and it also really helped me kind of discover a way to express femininity and to perform femininity in a way that felt comfortable to me.

And here you are discovering things either about yourself or your performances, and both seem to have been playing also and maybe an emboldening the other. Whether creatively or emotionally. I’m not trying to dimestore psychoanalyze you, but it just sounds interesting that your creative side, and your sexual sides were kind of able to really meet in these really cool places.

Well, actually because as a queer person trying to figure that out about myself, burlesque kind of helps you reclaim your sexuality and reclaim performing femininity in a way that’s not strictly about the male gaze. So it’s like using drag — first of all bringing drag into my performance plays with that idea of femininity as a construct. And femininity can be a fun, playful thing. and it’s not exclusively for the purpose of attracting male attention.

Right, but most guys think that it still is (laughs).

Yeah, well, I think that’s one of the reasons why in the burlesque world a lot of people have responded to what Lou and I are doing, is because there’s kind of like no questions that what we’re doing is not exclusively for men to look at. It’s like we’re clowns, and we’re obviously like queer women who are together and Lou is his own weird character. It’s not like it’s not for men to enjoy. It’s for everyone to enjoy, but it’s very clear when we are onstage doing what we do that this was not created to attract male attention.

Was winning Most Comedic Act at the Burlesque Hall of Fame weekend in 2014 a flashpoint that started getting you more and more attention, or were you already in ascendance when that happened?

We already had a lot of people excited about us, but there’s something about performing at the Burlesque Hall of Fame, where so many of your peers get to see your work in one place. They’re all there like Mecca for burlesque, so everyone is there and so, so many of your peers, so many producers are there watching you, and so doing our act on that stage for the first time really like brought our public profile up to a different level, and after doing that and winning that award we then got Lou to perform at like 15 festivals that year or something as headliners. And before that we were kind of maybe still like not people were aware of us. They didn’t really know what we did, but then after that event we started getting calls to headline festivals, which is really great, and then from that point on you have people from other countries or all over the world who become aware of your work.

The Internet obviously is a very useful tool as well. We now have people will go … We’ll be headlining a town we’ve never been to for example and we’ll have people say to us oh my God I’m your biggest fan. I watch all your videos on YouTube. They haven’t actually seen us even perform live, but they are aware of our work from what’s been posted on the Internet.

Was performing in “CREAM!” with Bella Blue at One Eyed Jacks over last year’s Southern Decadence kind of one of your bigger moments? Coming back to New Orleans to perform as Kitten and Lou?

For me, personally, it was so cool to come back to the stage that I started doing burlesque on. I have such a history with that stage. Just being on that stage, and being backstage, and there’s something really meaningful for me about producing my first big show in New Orleans on the stage that I got my start on. It felt really like a full-circle moment. It was really thrilling.

http://player.pbs.org/viralplayer/2365352892

How did your involvement in the PBS show “Cheek to Cheek” with Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett come about?

Lou and I were performing in Provincetown at the time, and we got a call from Angie Pontani, who’s a burlesque star …

And a pretty big one.

She was one of the originals, and we worked with her before, and she couldn’t even tell us what it was. She just said I have something really big on the horizon. She said send me all of your press stuff, and so we sent in our press stuff. Lady Gaga wanted five burlesque dancers, burlesque performers to be part of that show, and we were two of the ones chosen. We had just dropped everything, hightailed it to New York, and spent three very intense days learning like in the dance studio with Lady Gaga and her choreographer. Learning, like, three different dances, and then performing it to be taped.

And this was with Lou as a dancer …

A glamorous showgirl. It’s interesting they chose us out of all the people who submitted, because we submitted Kitten and Lou as we are — Lou, with the mustachioed character. But they still just picked us anyway.

So tell me about some of the meetings. What were the moments like?

The moments? They were very intense moments! Just a couple of highlights where in one of the rehearsals, the choreographer wanted Lou and I to be flanking Lady Gaga, to be on either side of her. So we were just standing next to her in rehearsal, and (the choreographer is) like, “Don’t stand so far away from her. Get in close like she’s your homegirl! So we kind of scooted up a little closer to her, and she just looked at us and was like, “Are you having fun?” I was like, “Yes, Lady Gaga, I’m having fun. Actually it’s like the most nervewracking job I’ve ever had in my life! (Laughs.) Another real highlight, which you can even see a little glimpse of on the TV special, is that it choreographed us to be doing a dance around Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga. And they had one of the pieces of choreography was for us to be backing up, like with our backs towards up stage, and Tony Bennett was supposed to head and move to the side of the stage when we did that, but during the filming he didn’t do that. So I basically just like crashed right into him, because he was directly behind me, so that was a special moment.

That’s one way to meet a star.

Mmm-hmm!

For The NOLA Project’s 12th season: Survival of the fittest

Posted on April 12, 2016 by davidleesimmons under theater

The NOLA Project recently announced its 2016-17 season, with the theme of “Survival.” Often topical, sometimes irreverent and almost always excellent, The NOLA Projects offers some of the most consistently compelling productions in New Orleans.

This season, according to a press release, will feature world and regional premieres along with a Broadway comedy. Here’s the rest of the release in full. I’ll have more thoughts later:

“We open the 2016-17 Season with the World Premiere of FLOOD CITY by Gabrielle Reisman.Award-winning director Mark Routhier (Marie Antoinette and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest)will bring to life Reisman’s striking and quirky story that examines the working class residents of Johnstown, Pennsylvania during both the famous Johnstown Flood of 1889 and in the midst of the steel mill closures of 1992. Traversing time and space, Reisman’s distinct magical realism infuses the words and stories of these distinctly American workers who, more and more it seems, are fading into total extinction. FLOOD CITY will run September 1-18, 2016 at NOCCA’s Nims Black Box Theatre.

Next is the Regional Premiere of the new Pulitzer Prize-nominated play 4000 MILES by Amy Herzog. This hilarious and heartbreaking new work tells the story of a young man seeking solace from his feisty 91-year-old grandmother in her West Village NYC apartment after a lengthy and painful cross-country trip on his bicycle. The New York Times called the original production, which starred New Orleans local Mary Louise Wilson, “a funny, moving, and altogether wonderful drama.” Stepping into the roles of grandmother Vera and grandson Leo are New Orleans stage luminaries Carol Sutton and James Bartelle. They will be directed by Big Easy Award-winning director Beau Bratcher. 4000 MILES will run October 20-November 6, 2016at a location to be announced.

In January, The NOLA Project will partner with Delgado Community College for the first time ever to present a massive co-production of John Steinbeck’s THE GRAPES OF WRATHadapted by Frank Galati. The play will be the first professional production to appear in the brand-new Delgado MainStage Theater and will feature a cast of over twenty actors, directed by NOLA Project Ensemble Member Jason Kirkpatrick. Through beautiful staging and story-theatre techniques, the ensemble will bring Steinbeck’s classic tale of the Joad family to life as they pile everything they own into a battered old truck and head west to California in the desperate hope for work and a living wage. Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre Company premiered the epic stage work in 1991 where it transferred to Broadway and won the Tony Award for Best Play. THE GRAPES OF WRATH will run January 26-February 12, 2017.

May 2017 brings the annual return to the New Orleans Museum of Art’s Besthoff Sculpture Garden with the World Premiere of THE SPIDER QUEEN by NOLA Project Ensemble Members James Bartelle and Alex Martinez Wallace. In this imaginative new play, two teenage siblings become lost in the woods and encounter a kingdom in peril, filled with fantastical creatures, nefarious villains, and the giant Spider Queen who has been frozen by a sorcerer’s curse. Like “The Goonies” meets “The Chronicles of Narnia”, THE SPIDER QUEENintends to awaken the adventurous spirit in us all as the audience travels through NOMA’s Sculpture Garden and the young heroes befriend elves and trolls, battle ogres, and learn lessons of courage, kindness, self-sacrifice, and finding direction without a smartphone. Big Easy Award-nominated director Jon Greene will helm the production.

And to end the season in a big way, we are teaming up on our first-ever co-production with Le Petit Theatre du Vieux Carre to present the hilarious love letter to theatre IT’S ONLY A PLAY by Terrence McNally. It’s the opening night of THE GOLDEN EGG on Broadway and the wealthy producer Julia Budder is throwing a posh party in her lavish Manhattan townhouse. Downstairs the celebrities are pouring in, but the real action is upstairs in the bedroom where a group of insiders have staked themselves out to await the reviews. Will it be the massive flop to end their careers or the greatest new American play of this century? Only The New York Times will tell. NOLA Project Artistic Director A.J. Allegra will direct a cast of New Orleans all-stars including Ricky Graham, Sean Patterson, Leslie Castay, Cecile Monteyne, James Bartelle, Keith Claverie, and Alex Ates. IT’S ONLY A PLAY will run June 8-25, 2017 at Le Petit Theatre.

“This season we’re exploring what it means to be an American,” says NOLA Project Artistic Director, A.J. Allegra. “We are in a fight for our national existence. In every facet of American culture, there are battles for agency and recognition from different races, genders, and other groups and we see this in the American Theatre just as strongly as we see it in our politics. For our 2016-17 Season we chose stories that reflect that sentiment and cause us to start meaningful dialogue with one another rather than divisive argument.”

With “Piety,” Michael Cerveris finds his way home to New Orleans

Posted on March 4, 2016 by davidleesimmons under music

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INFO:
Michael Cerveris and friends perform “Piety”
Friday, April 29, 8 p.m.
The Theatre at St. Claude
Tickets: $20

When Michael Cerveris went into the studio to create the 2004 album, “Dog Eared,” he did so with what felt like a who’s who of ’90s rockers, including members of Sleater-Kinney, Sonic Youth, Guided by Voices and Teenage Fanclub along for the ride. Twelve years on, Cerveris — once again taking a break from what has become a stellar Broadway career — is back with another moving collaborative effort.

But this time, the all-stars are from New Orleans, which Cerveris increasingly has embraced as his home even while continuing his Tony Award-winning work in “Fun Home.” The result is “Piety,” which features contributions from several of the New Orleans musicians who helped collaborate on the Katrina musical-in-progress “Nine Lives.”

When he made “Dog Eared,” he recalled, songs were recorded as musicians were available, “making this sonic house where all these people came to hang out.

“This is the New Orleans version of the same thing,” Cerveris said of the album, which includes such “Nine Lives” collaborators as Shamarr Allen, Paul Sanchez and Alex McMurray. “It’s true of how I like to work in theater, too. I sit and write songs in my apartment or house, and then record something, and my ideas only get me so far. I like handing it over to people and say, ‘Here’s the core, and respond to it in terms of what you hear. Play me what you hear when I play this for you.’

“I’m always excited to hear that (result), and that might spark an idea with me.”

Cerveris recently announced that he will reunite with many of the musicians for a live performance April 29 at The Theatre at St. Claude, co-owned by another “Nine Lives” collaborator, playwright Jim Fitzmorris. Expected to re-join Cerveris: Anders Osborne, Mia Borders, Paul Sanchez, Shamarr Allen, Alex McMurray, Rod Hodges (the Iguanas), Linzay Young (Red Stick Ramblers) and old friend Kimberly Kaye, who also performs with Cerveris in their Americana band Loose Cattle. (She also worked on the latest script for “Nine Lives.”)

“Piety” is an evocative, ruminative work that, not unlike “Dog Eared,” feels like a departure from the rock ’n’ roll creations that helped make Cerveris a rising musical-theater, whether in “Tommy” or “Hedwig and the Angry Inch.”

Instead, we hear echoes of Louisiana folklore in “Evangeline,” an eight-minute, acoustic opus flush with fiddle, banjo and even accordion that seem to float on air as Cerveris recalls Longfellow’s famed poem:

Knew so little when she learned of heartache /
Looking for him by another name /
All the ones that never were her Gabriel /
Making sure she never was the same

There’s also the restless spirit in “Crescent” and the closing “Phoenix,” a song of rebirth that can’t help but make one think of Hurricane Katrina even when it’s never explicitly mentioned, with former New Orleans Saints player Steve Gleason underscoring the closing words, “Wise up / Rise up / Rise and shine.”

The subtle stars of “Piety” might be the backing female vocals. With Cerveris content to underplay his own vocals, practically breathing his lines at times, a chorus rises underneath him, led by Kimberly Kaye and Kendall Meade and including “The Gospel Queens”: Edna M. Johnson, Bobbie Grant and Judy Gibbs.

Cerveris says he struggled at first to put a label on the musical style he was going for here, starting with the term chamber folk, “but that didn’t work.” Instead, he said, imagine “If Nick Drake and Elliott Smith made a record down South, this is what it would be.”

If anything, as the title might suggest, “Piety” feels like an elegy to Piety Street Recording and its owner, Mark Bingham — the album’s legendary producer.

It’s also where they recorded the music for “Nine Lives,” and where Bingham prodded him for original material that he might have for a solo record. From there, the collaboration, years in the making, progressed. At that point, Cerveris noted, there was no inkling that Piety might close, which it since has — leaving behind a legacy of great recordings.

“I’ve been in some other great studios, but there are very few studios that had the soul that Piety Street did,” Cerveris said. “It seemed like a magical place from the time I got there. Mark spent equal time making sure the food was proceeding well on the stove at the same time that stuff was going down on tape. I found that significant and meaningful.

“I just love the place so much and wanted the album to be a footnote in the history of the place.”

He expressed the same love for Bingham behind the sound board: “He’s pretty ego-less as a producer. He’s more interested in the music than putting his own stamp on it. He really listens. He’ll offer his opinion, but also will listen to yours.”

While it was years in the making, “Piety” in Cerveris’ mind seems to have arrived at the right time. When he started making the record, he noted, he wasn’t as invested in his new home like he is these days. Now he owns a home in Treme and practically commutes from New York City whenever he can find a break from “Fun Home.

“My commit to the place is more solid and evident to people,” he said. “It’s being received as the New Orleans record that it is even though it’s not a traditional New Orleans record, but it’s representative of a broad vision of the city and the music scene, and certainly includes so many people from the music scene.”

LPO’s “Louie the Buoy” family concert lifts all spirits

Posted on February 21, 2016 by davidleesimmons under music

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If you’ve got kids and haven’t yet attended one of the Louisiana Philharmonic’s Family Concerts, you owe to your family and yourself to go. Aimed at children but really a delight for everyone, the occasional series, held inside Loyola’s Roussel Hall, delivers themed concert programming under the vibrant direction of Carlos Miguel Prieto. He’s a performer unto himself, but more on that later.

This month’s concert (Sunday, Feb. 21) featured several familiar works wrapped around the world premiere of composer Tucker Fuller’s musical score set to children’s author Allain Andry’s popular book “Louie the Buoy: A Hurricane Story.” The score, vivid and inventive, worked over, under and around the words of the story, as read here by legendary New Orleans actress Carol Sutton.

There was a risk here: How can one narrate a children’s story set to music without one getting in the way of the other. Well, thanks to Fuller’s score, which captured the moods and rhythms of the story, and Prieto conducting Sutton like a seamstress threading a needle.

Fuller and Andry were in attendance, and all joined Sutton, Prieto and the LPO onstage for acknowledgments. This is where Prieto, who always takes breaks in the action to interact with the audience, really kicked into high gear. He missed his calling as a stand-up comic, and often keeps the crowd fully engaged with his explanations of the program. On an afternoon where kids are constantly brought into the mix — musicians (including LPO Associate Concertmaster Ben Hart) perform out in the halls before the show — Prieto loves to work the audience. He peppers kids in the audience with questions about the programming and the composers, and loves to keep it light and fun and funny.

But here he especially excited, as he recruited Andry’s two great-grandchildren to take turns conducting the orchestra for the final two pieces: Richard Strauss’ “Thunder and Lightning Polka” and “When the Saints Go Marching In.” The latter came with a command by Prieto for the audience to stand on their feet, clap to the beat, and belt out a round of “Who Dat?!”

The program opened with a rousing rendition of Rossini’s “Overture to William Tell” and Beethoven’s “Overture to Egmont.”

In the spirit of not missing this series, the next performance is “Adventures in Space!” on April 3.

“Black Angels Over Tuskegee” offers history lesson at WWII Museum this weekend

Posted on February 19, 2016 by davidleesimmons under theater

Photo by Grace Finlayson

INFO:
“Black Angels Over Tuskegee”
7:30 p.m. Fri.-Sat., 1 p.m. Sun.
Stage Door Canteen, National World War II Museum, 945 Magazine St.
$65 for dinner/brunch and show; call 504-528-1943 or visit the ticket link

Back when he was in his 30s, Alexandria native Layon Gray was channel-surfing on the couch of his Los Angeles home in 2007 when the actor and playwright ran across a C-SPAN airing of the aging Tuskegee Airmen receiving the Congressional Gold Medal from President George W. Bush.

“Wow,” he recalled thinking, “this is incredible!”

As an African-American actor struggling to find roles that spoke to his culture, Gray (now in his early 40s) became inspired to create a stage drama telling the story of the black aviators who overcame prejudice to become a vital part of the United States’ air campaign during World War II. After years of research, Gray developed “Black Angels Over Tuskegee,” a hour show that will enjoy a weekend run at The National World War II Museum’s Stage Door Canteen.

Debuting in Los Angeles in 2009 before a jump to off-Broadway in 2010, the show follows the story of six aviators who join the U.S. Air Force during both World War II and the height of the Jim Crow era of segregation.

Gray is quick to point out that this came at a time when mainstream America accepted research that suggested blacks were inherently inferior to whites — especially in terms of intellectual capacity. Basing his narrative on research but also interviews with several surviving airman, Gray hopes to present a story that not only inspires in showing how the airmen overcame these odds, but also the bonds they built while serving their country.

“When I interviewed one of the veterans, he didn’t talk about the medals he’d won but the friendships he made behind closed doors,” said Gray, who graduated from what is now the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. “I wanted to find a story that was organic and from the heart. We do this show for kids a lot, and I always stress that we as African Americans have no reason not to succeed. This was at a time when they were considered less than men.

“If they could take all that and still fight for their country, then we have no reason not to succeed today,” Gray continued. “I want to tell young men that everyone should be accountable for themselves and be responsible for their own success.”

“Be a New Orleanian” remount helps Jim Fitzmorris put a fuzzy idea in sharper focus

Posted on February 18, 2016 by davidleesimmons under theater

Jim Fitzmorris in “Be a New Orleanian”

INFO:
“Be New Orleanian: A Swearing In Ceremony” (presented by Dirty Coast)
Written and performed by Jim Fitzmorris, directed by Mike Harkins
8 p.m. Thurs.-Sat., 6 p.m. Sun., through March 6
The Theatre at St. Claude, 2240 St. Claude Ave.
Tickets $20; call (504) 638-6326 or visit the website

NOTE: The final performance is 6 p.m. Sunday, March 6.

It’s only fitting that Jim Fitzmorris’ brilliant “Be a New Orleanian” one-man show now comes in booklet form, courtesy Dirty Coast. After all, Fitzmorris’ treatise on what makes one a citizen of the Big Easy — especially in the post-Katrina world of “New New Orleans” — is an instructional manual as much as it is a manifesto.

But it’s also because of Fitzmorris himself. Arguably the city’s most important playwright expounding on the city itself, Fitzmorris as both writer and performer comes at his audience with machine-gun ferocity, spitting out paragraphs of parables. In verbal form, at times they feel almost free of punctuation. He knows how to pack a lot of insight, humor and reflection in his one-hour show currently enjoying a remount at his new Theatre at St. Claude space (the old Marigny Theatre) behind the AllWays Lounge on St. Claude Avenue.

He premiered the piece in time for the 10-year anniversary of Katrina last August, which was fitting for many and garnered great reviews from NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune’s Ted Mahne and Gambit’s Tyler Gillespie. As someone who’d already burned out of both reading and creating 10^th anniversary stories (and already filled with anxieties that a couple weeks later came home to roost), I’d consciously avoided anything with a whiff of the flood, and while I felt a twinge of regret at the time, I’d argue that now is an even better time to see this show. The show crystallizes every conflicting emotion about living in New Orleans … and, in my case, returning to New Orleans, for better and worse.

New Orleans now enters its even more uncertain post-post-Katrina period, one in which the recovery money and tax incentives are starting to dwindle, the media’s packed up its vans, and legacy of a Bobby Jindal governorship suggests a looming recession. If you want stormy weather, the city might be heading into it once again, and so Fitzmorris’ perspective is needed more than ever.

As other reviewers have astutely pointed out, Fitzmorris, despite possessing a razor-sharp wit, often has a bark worse than his bite. He can be pointed in his criticism and blunt in his tone, but “Be a New Orleanian” (subtitled “A Swearing In Ceremony”) is as much a love letter to his hometown as it is a cautionary to those who think they “get” the city but don’t, and maybe never will. Maybe that’s because Fitzmorris, like many, have tired of the vitriol aimed at the carpetbaggers and gentrifiers and going-native types who have flooded the city since the flood. In a city filled with so much love, why hate?

It’s cleverly structured around six basic tips, starting with the most timely in which he clearly distinguishes between the actual New Orleans and “N’Awlins,” with all its post-K perils, and divided into two suburbs: “Sadsaxophoneville” and “Spookyvoodooland.” The former suburb is what hit me right in the gut and the funny bone:

This is the place that provides generic N’Awlins background music for NPR. It is a particular favorite for the sort of people who consider Ira Glass, Terry Gross and Garrison Keillor as their holy trinity. When you step into Sadsaxophoneland, you will see an old saxophone player under a street lamp playing a soulful tune and occasionally stopping to say even more soulful things like … ‘Once you get inside N’Awlins, N’Awlins gets inside of you.”

Then there’s Spookyvoodland, which is just as rife with cliché:

Spookyvoodland has Congo Drums, and Skeleton Keys, and Angel Hearts, and moon glowed cities of the dead, and endless nights, and fortune tellers, and psychics whose gifts have driven them so mad they choose to help honeymooners from Scranton, Pennsylvania rather than play the stock market … Spookyvoodooland is filled with anyone who has ever sharpened their teeth and gone looking for a front row seat for the 15-round battle between the top-hatted Papa Laba and The Lou Garou in a loser-leave-town match.”

For sure, “Be a New Orleanian” suggests at times a New Orleans culture — however defined — under siege, and some of Fitzmorris’ anecdotes ring true to the teller. He delivers them on a spare stage, often getting up from behind his table (surrounded by New Orleans trinkets and iconography) to tell his stories. In pointing out the “New Orleans Linger,” he conjures the story of a Dorignac’s cashier who takes her sweet time ringing up two polar-opposite customers. One’s an aging, sweet-natured local who’s happier to chat than get through the line, and the one (behind her) is an impatient hipster rolling his eyes at the pair’s extended exchange. The cashier sizes up the temperament of both, and takes her sweet time checking out both customers — one out of love, the other out of spite.

“(I)f you take the linger out of New Orleans, you take its smile along with it,” he says. “And you turn us into a version of Atlanta with better food and more mosquitos.”

As someone who lived for seven years in Atlanta after moving from New Orleans, only to return a couple years ago, I felt that familiar twinge of defensiveness about living in the Crescent City’s favorite rival city and punching bag. The Atlanta I came to know and ultimately appreciate is a little better than perceived from a distance, but, really, its only crime was not being New Orleans. Whether driving around the city or interviewing New Orleans authors I’d coaxed to the Decatur Book Festival, I’d kept near me that sliver of a bumper sticker that read, “Be a New Orleanian. Wherever You Are.” For seven years, I knew what it means to miss New Orleans.

But the return to the city, despite years of visits back with friends and family and familiar and new spots, felt like a crash landing and at times felt like a strange new world all over again. I wondered, for a second time, if I had any right to call myself a New Orleanian. It reminded me of a commentary I’d penned for Gambit (Weekly, thank you) when I was the managing editor after Katrina, titled “So Long … For Now.” Among other things, I pondered what effect staying to help rebuild the city would affect us as others left, not realizing at the time I would fit in both categories:

I’ve often thought about how, because of New Orleans’ sometimes provincial nature — where natives are polite but sometimes leery of transplants — non-natives have to qualify for special pins to mark the time they’ve put in here. You know, like Alcoholics Anonymous members. Now, I fear another caste system is already developing. Those who stayed through the storms will be the proudest, followed by those who returned within days, then within weeks, and then months. And we will all revel in our pride for being the brave frontier folk who stayed to fight the good fight, to rebuild the city. And then, when our friends return, when the city is in better shape — when the stink blows away, the debris clears up, the services return to normal, even homes become inhabitable — we’ll resent them.”

But in “Be a New Orleanian,” Fitzmorris takes complex emotions like these and remains gleefully positive. His basic point: If you come here and try to make New Orleans a better place without taking away that which makes it unique, you will fit in just fine.

The show ends with the suggested swearing-in ceremony. I’d planned not to participate, partly out of a critic’s objectivity, partly out of desire not to seem presumptuous or pretentious. But as everybody else in the audience rose, I couldn’t help but join in the fun.

Now it’s official. The bumper sticker is now a book, and a way of life. Thanks, Jim.

Throwback Thursday: Trixie Minx’s “Cupid’s Cabaret” conjures images of the Orpheum Theater’s vaudeville origins

Posted on January 28, 2016 by davidleesimmons under burlesque

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According to historical reports, when the Orpheum Theater opened for New Orleans fans on Feb. 7, 1921, the focus was on vaudeville.

“Jewel and fur clad women and dapper gentlemen filled the Orpheum Theater, New Orleans’ newest and most fashionable theater where ‘good taste reigned everywhere,’” one report said. “This auspicious evening’s main attraction was The Singer Midgets, who were to enter Hollywood immortality nine years later as the Munchkins of ‘The Wizard of Oz.’

“A bit of incongruous perhaps with the ‘dressed-to-the-nines’ crowd, but this was the heyday of vaudeville and the Singer Midgets was a class act – and so was the Orpheum.”

Just under 85 years later, this is music to the ears of producer Trixie Minx and the Orpheum’s Kristin Shannon, who, over coffee inside the nearby Roosevelt Hotel, are giddy with excitement over the historic theater playing elegant host to “Cupid’s Cabaret,” a mix of variety acts that celebrates Valentine’s Day, Feb. 14. While Minx has made her mark as a burlesque performer and producer — she literally performed on both the East Coast and West Coast when not in New Orleans over the course of 2015 — she is emphatic about extolling her vaudeville influences.

And while she is quick to note the vaudeville influences in her monthly, decade-old “Fleur de Tease” show at One Eyed Jacks, she wants people to think of “Cupid’s Cabaret” as a nod to those more purely vaudeville instincts.

“We want this event to be more than a show but an experience of what it was like to be in the Orpheum back then,” Minx said. “An interactive vaudeville presentation on a Vegas-size level … with a modern take.”

I’ll have more on that take soon, but first I thought it would be fun to present a little “Throwback Thursday” of historic photos, courtesy of the Orpheum staff, to remember a time when it was the likes of the Singer Sisters and Al Jolson who ruled the stage and not the silver screen that came to dominate as the theater entered the middle of the 20^th century.

More on the overall show; for now, enjoy this little trip down memory lane. For tickets and more information, click here.

The Theatre at St. Claude releases 2016 spring-summer season schedule

Posted on January 27, 2016 by davidleesimmons under theater

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The Theatre at St. Claude, the new theater launched by brothers Jim and Ryan Fitzmorris, announced a diverse lineup of shows for its spring and summer season for 2016 in a party held at the venue on St. Claude Avenue.

“It is one that lives up to its mission statement of presenting plays that revel in the whisper of conspiracy, delight in a collective gasp, and enjoy a taste for the curious oddity,” the theater said in a press release. “We hope you agree that this collection of new works, challenging plays and alternative programming proves we are New Orleans’ premiere venue for the wild, weird, and wondrous.”

In addition to the regular schedule, the theater also will host other shows such as Southern Rep’s 6×6, 3×3, and Pat Bourgeois’ “Debauchery.”

Below is the complete schedule with descriptions provided by the theater:

“Be A New Orleanian: A Swearing in Ceremony (Presented By Dirty Coast)” by Jim Fitzmorris (Thursday through Saturday, from Feb. 12 through Feb. 28 with a bonus show on Monday, Feb 29.)
Irish Voices including Samuel Beckett’s “Not I” (Thursday through Saturday, from March 10 through March 19.)
Tennessee Williams Fest
Jazz Fest
Strange For Hire Presents “Sideshow and Tell” (Friday through Sunday, from May 13 through May 15.)
“Would Jesus Thank God It’s Friday” by Paul Oswell (Friday through Sunday, from May 27 through May 29.)
“Barker’s Edge of Town” by Bradley Warshauer and “The New Wave” by Stephanie Garrison Warshauer (Thursday through Saturday, from June 10 through June 19.)
“The Killing of a Lesbian Bookie” by Jim Fitzmorris (Thursday through Saturday, from June 23 through July 9.)
Halloween in July (Thursday through Saturday, from July 14 through July 16.)
“Niagara Falls” by Justin Maxwell (Thursday through Saturday, from July 21 through Aug. 6.)
“On the Verge” by Eric Overmyer (Thursday through Saturday, from Aug 11 through Aug 27.)

“Be A New Orleanian: A Swearing in Ceremony (Presented By Dirty Coast)” by Jim Fitzmorris: Just in time to help with those post-Mardi Gras blues, the hit monologue returns for a month-long run.

“Be A New Orleanian” is a wild, comic ride through what it takes to call yourself a citizen of the Crescent City. History, heartbreak, and celebration are all part of an evening from a performer/writer The Times-Picayune calls “electric.”

Thursday through Saturday, from Feb. 12 through Feb. 28 with a bonus show on Monday Feb 29.

Opening night to feature a book signing party of “Be A New Orleanian” from Dirty Coast.

Irish Voices including Samuel Beckett’s “Not I”: It wouldn’t be St. Patrick’s Day without a few tales of melancholy, blarney and ebullience. Works of Samuel Beckett and W. B. Yeats are included in this evening of monologues featuring Kathleen McManus, Margeaux Fanning, and Blaise Lanigan.

Thursday through Saturday, from March 10 through March 19.

Tennessee Williams Fest: We will soon be announcing a series of theatrical events, ranging from the serious to the uproarious to the outright risqué, all in celebration of arguably America’s greatest playwright.

March/April: Check for dates.

Jazz Fest: “Chapter:SOUL “presents two weekends worth of after-hours musical programming guaranteed to blow the roof off and knock you through the back wall.

April/May: Check for dates.

Strange For Hire Presents “Sideshow and Tell”: Coney Island veterans Donny Vomit and Frankie Sin introduce New Orleans to their own unique version of the strange and wondrous with a full evening of acts, stories, and sexy turns.

Friday through Sunday, from May 13th through May 15th.

“Would Jesus Thank God It’s Friday” by Paul Oswell: A freelance journalist and sometime comedian, Paul Oswell brings his latest theatrical offering to The Theatre at St. Claude.

Born in the UK, Oswell has lived in New Orleans since 2010 and currently hosts two weekly comedy shows: Local Uproar and Night Church. He has written and performed several one-man shows which were featured in the New Orleans Fringe Festival, including “An Englishman in New Orleans”, “A Britsummer Night’s Dream”, “This Rhyme It’s Personal” and “Narrowing My Horizons”.

Friday through Sunday, from May 27 through May 29.

“Barker’s Edge of Town” by Bradley Warshauer and “The New Wave” by Stephanie Garrison Warshauer: Bradley and Steph Warshauer will take audiences to the shadowy tip of nowhere with a double feature of original plays set in worlds unlike our own but strangely familiar.

Thursday through Saturday, from June 10 through June 19.

“The Killing of A Lesbian Bookie” by Jim Fitzmorris: On the eve of her nightclub’s opening, burlesque dancer Triple Lexxx receives a visit from a stranger who is more than he first appears. His arrival jeopardizes her relationship, her career, and…maybe her life. Jim Fitzmorris’ “The Killing of a Lesbian Bookie” takes place in a world where romance and commitment are nothing more than the flip side of violence and vengeance.

Starring Lin Gathright, Justin Welborn and Kimberly Kaye.

Thursday through Saturday, from June 23 through July 9.

Halloween in July: Why should Christmas have all the fun? Pandora Gastelum and Jim Fitzmorris will ask the interactive question, “Is There A Good Movie Buried Inside Halloween III?”

And if that doesn’t pique your interest, then just join us for the “Halloween in July” party on July 16.

Thursday through Saturday, from July 14 through July 16.

“Niagara Falls” by Justin Maxwell: One of New Orleans’ leading playwrights, Justin Maxwell (“An Outopia For Pigeons”) takes us down a waterfall of language with his world premiere “Niagara Falls”. Though set in upstate New York, this tale of ghosts, political corruption, and deep longing will undoubtably resonate with New Orleans viewers.

As an added bonus, the three week run will include readings of Maxwell’s shorter works and a panel discussion on the state of playwriting in New Orleans.

Thursday through Saturday, from July 21 through Aug. 6.

“On the Verge” by Eric Overmyer: Our spring/summer season ends with one of the most popular language plays of all time. Eric Overmyer’s delightful delirium of words is about three female Victorian explorers who make their way into the mysterious Terra Incognito. Overcoming great obstacles, they leap forward through space and time into a world full of yearning and possibilities.

Co-produced with Rebecca Frank’s In Good Company, “On The Verge: The Geography of Yearning” will be directed by Frank.

Thursday through Saturday, from Aug. 11 through Aug. 27.

Interview with David Simon and Eric Overmyer – Treme from Peabody Awards on Vimeo.

Mystic Krewe of Satyricon’s 14th Bal Masque: “Bal des Beaux Arts” (photos)

Posted on January 23, 2016 by davidleesimmons under mardi gras

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Here is a sneak peak from Friday’s (Jan. 22) Mystic Krewe of Satyricon’s 14th Bal Masque: “Bal des Beaux Arts,” held at the Sigur Civic Center in Chalmette. I’ll have a full review of the evening complete with tableaux descriptions.

Short version: Once again, a fun time was had by all.

UPDATED WITH INFO BELOW:

Tableaux celebrated art through the ages while royalty, special guests and others were recognized. Richard Read kicked off the evening, filling in for President Wedon Brown, who was away for a family event. Varla Jean Merman and Amanda Zirkenbach served as emcees. (This capped off a busy week for Zirkenbach, who also performed at the fourth anniversary of “You Don’t Know the Half of It” on Sunday at Le Petit.)

Last year’s royals, Becky Allen and Marshall Harris, assumed their place near the front of the stage for the proceedings, with NOCCA musical theater student Kiersten-Italia Moore singing the national anthem. New Orleans costume designer Carl Mack presented as the 2016 queen, alongside the king, Darric Cavalier.

Longtime New Orleans entertainer Chris Owens was recognized for her career. Burlesque star Trixie Minx performed a costumed parody of the Confederate moments controversy.

The tableaux:

Pablo Picasso, “Women of Algiers”
Leonardo da Vinci, “Mona Lisa”
Jeff Koons, “Balloon Dog”
“A Portrait of Bobby Jindal”
Jacques-Louis David, “Napoleon Crossing the Alps”
“Elvis on Velvet”
“Learn to Paint with Bob Ross”
Salvador Dali, “The Persistence of Memory”
Andy Warhol, “Marilyn Monroe”
“An Homage to George Dureau”
Georgia O’Keeffe, “Summer Days”
Georgia O’Keeffe, “Canna (Bloom)”

Future gay Mardi Gras balls include the Krewe of Amon-Ra (Jan. 30, “All That Glittesr Isn’t Gold”), Armeinius (Feb. 6, “Beauty and the Beast”) and the Lords of Leather (Feb. 7, “There’s No Cure Like Travel”).

Rivertown Theaters announces 2016-2017 season

Posted on January 9, 2016 by davidleesimmons under theater

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Rivertown Theaters for the Performing Arts announces its upcoming seasons with all the “Let’s put on a show!” brio you’d come to expect from the most consistently popular producer of Broadway musicals. And so it was with Tony Award-ceremony grandeur, once again, that the company rolled out its 2016-2107 season Saturday (Jan. 9) with a reception and sneak preview in the venue, complete with co-emcees (and company partners) Gary Rucker and Kelly Fouchi, songs from upcoming shows, and a sneak preview of the upcoming “Sweet Charity.”

It will be the company’s fifth season. For more info, call 504-461-9475 or 504.468.7221 or visit rivertowntheaters.com.

“How do you top last year’s most ambitious season of all musicals? You raise the bar again by presenting a season filled with different, unique, yet challenging and spectacular offerings to appeal to our extremely loyal and appreciative audiences who have supported, cheered us on, and grown with us over the past years,” Fouchi, co-artistic/managing director, said in a press release. “… We are thrilled with the support and response that we have received for each season’s offerings. Topping the ‘best of’ lists, each of the shows last year played to sold out houses and enthusiastic audiences.

“Our goal is to continue to present audiences with productions that are full of high entertainment value featuring some of the area’s most talented performers.”

Rivertown Theaters’ upcoming season will see the following productions: “Let the Good Times Roll” (Sept. 9-25) another musical jukebox from the Big Easy Buddies (“Under the Boardwalk”); “1776” (Nov. 4-20), the 1969 Sherman Edwards-Peter Stone musical about the founding of a nation; “Billy Elliot the Musical” (Jan. 13-29), Elton John’s 2005 adaptation of the the 2000 movie about a boy who dreams of being a dancer; “The 39 Steps” (March 10-26, 2017), Patrick Barlow’s satire of both John Buchan’s novel and Alfred Hitchcock’s thriller; “Bye Bye Birdie” (May 5-21, 2017), the Michael Stewart-Lee Adams musical send-up of the Elvis Presley mania of the 1950s; and “The Little Mermaid” (July 13-23, 2017) Alan Menken’s 2008 adaptation of the 1989 Disney animated musical blockbuster.

At Saturday’s preview/fundraiser, which included an auction, the company recognized the contributions of “Volunteers of the Year”: Jane Hirling (Kelly Fouchi’s mother) and Kenner City Councilman Keith Reynaud.

Here is a breakdown of those productions, with descriptions provided by Rivertown Theaters:

“Let The Good Times Roll”
Sept. 9-25, 2016
Directed by Rich Arnold

“The Big Easy Buddies are back with an all new show! Since their crowd pleasing, sold out hit show “Under The Boardwalk” here at Rivertown Theaters, patrons continually request that we bring back The Buddies. So here they are kicking off our 2016-2017 season, and bringing their tight harmonies and slick choreography to your favorite doo-wop, Motown and rock ‘n’ roll hits, including classics inspired by the city of New Orleans. ‘The Buddies’ will again be joined by the dazzling ‘Big Easy Babes’ with their nod to the girl groups and diva anthems of the 1950’s and ’60’s. The great American Radio Songbook comes to life in a rollicking musical event that promises all the spectacle, excitement and extraordinary talent our audiences have come to expect. The Times-Picayune says, ‘The non-stop energy the quartet brings to the stage is positively infectious and makes the show a treat not just for those audience members who heard this music originally on jukeboxes at the malt shops. It is a night for the entire family to enjoy.’ ‘Let The Good Times Roll’ will have audiences smiling and singing along, proving that retro never sounded so new!”

“1776”
Nov. 4-20,2016
Directed by AJ Allegra

“What better time to celebrate the birth of America’s independence than during an election year … and what better way than with a Tony Award winning musical set in 1776? The turning point in American history blazes to vivid life in our November musical offering, ‘1776.’ A funny, insightful and compelling musical with a striking score and legendary book, ‘1776’ puts a human face on the pages of history. We see the men behind the national icons: proud, frightened, uncertain, charming and ultimately noble figures determined to do the right thing for a fledgling nation. Step back in time and be inspired by our founding fathers as they attempt to convince Congress to vote for independence from the shackles of the British monarch by signing the Declaration of Independence. This uplifting musical will have you beaming with pride and patriotism.”

“Billy Elliot, the Musical”
Jan. 13-29, 2017
Directed by Kelly Fouchi

“Millions of fans … Thousands of standing ovations … 10 Tony Awards including Best Musical … this is ‘Billy Elliot The Musical,’ the spectacular show with the heart, humor and passion named Time Magazine’s “Best Musical of the Decade!” Based on the international smash-hit film and featuring a score by music legend Elton John, ‘Billy Elliot’ is an astonishing theatrical experience that will stay with you forever. Set in a northern English mining town, against the background of the 1984 miners’ strike, ‘Billy Elliot’ is the inspirational story of a young boy’s struggle against the odds to make his dream come true. Follow Billy’s journey as he stumbles out of the boxing ring and into a ballet class where he discovers a passion for dance that inspires his family and community and changes his life forever. Join us for this powerful story that has captivated audiences around the world. Contains adult language, PG-13.”

“The 39 Steps”
March 10-26, 2017
Directed by Ricky Graham

“This two-time Tony Award winner is currently enjoying a second run on Broadway and is in its 10^th year of performances in London’s West End. The 39 Steps is a comedic spoof of the classic 1935 Hitchcock film, with only four actors portraying more than 150 characters, sometimes changing roles in the blink of an eye. The brilliantly madcap and gripping comedy thriller follows our dashing hero Richard Hannay, as he races to solve the mystery of ‘The 39 Steps,’ all the while trying to clear his name! This ‘whodunit, part espionage thriller and part slapstick comedy’ is great fun for everyone from 9 to 99. The show’s uproarious fast pace promises to leave you gasping for breath … in a good way!”

“Bye Bye Birdie”
May 5-21, 2017
Directed by Gary Rucker

“Before Beatlemania, before Beiber Fever, came hip-swingin’ teen idol Conrad Birdie (loosely based on Elvis), who, to the dismay of his adoring fans, is about to be drafted into the army by Uncle Sam. In Bye Bye Birdie, the 1950’s rock-n-roll musical comedy, Birdie’s agent, Albert and his secretary/girlfriend, Rosie, cook up a plan to send him off in style. They must write Birdie a new hit song and have him bestow “one last kiss” on a lucky fan, live on the Ed Sullivan Show. A town full of colorful characters including crazed teenagers, a jealous boyfriend, and a spotlight stealing father make for a rollicking good time. In addition to the popular silver screen adaptation starring Ann Margaret, Bye Bye Birdie is a Tony Award winner for Best Musical and features such beloved songs as ‘Put on A Happy Face,’ ‘Kids,’ ‘The Telephone Hour’ and ‘A Lot of Livin’ To Do.'”

“The Little Mermaid”
July 13-23, 2017
Directed by Ricky Graham

“Based on the Disney animated film, the hit Broadway musical, and one of Hans Christian Andersen’s most beloved stories Disney’s ‘The Little Mermaid’ is a hauntingly beautiful love story for the ages. In a magical kingdom fathoms below, we meet Ariel, the little mermaid who is tired of flipping her fins and longs to be part of the fascinating world on dry land. Joining her are Sebastian, Ariel’s crabby sidekick; Ursula, the evil sea witch; Triton, King of the Sea and the handsome and human Prince Eric. Dive on in! Life is the bubbles, under the sea! Reserve the best seats early for your little guppies, our summer family shows sell out quick!”