by Mark G. Auerbach
Kevin Rhodes
The Springfield Symphony Celebrates The Golden Age of Broadway on March 9
“There is no tune like a showtune” wrote Broadway composer Jerry Herman, and The Springfield Symphony Orchestra serves up a banquet of classic showtunes from Broadway’s Golden Age on March 9 at Symphony Hall. Maestro Kevin Rhodes is on the podium, joined by sopranos Luretta Bybee, Emma Grimsley, and tenors Bronson Norris Murphy, and Jeremy Stolle. The program includes classics from Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma and Carousel; Jule Styne’s brilliant overture to Gypsy, and selections from Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim, Frank Loesser, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Marvin Hamlisch.
The piece de resistance is a performance of George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, with Kevin Rhodes both conducting and performing as the piano soloist. Rhapsody in Blue was originally written for a 1924 premiere performed by Paul Whiteman and his Orchestra, but it was incorporated into Broadway’s George White’s Scandals of 1926. The Gershwins contributed numerous Broadway songs, the opera Porgy and Bess, and a lot of symphonic music with a Broadway beat. Decades after their deaths, Broadway invents musicals with Gershwin scores from My One and Only to Crazy for You.
Kevin Rhodes started his conducting career in pit orchestras of Broadway musicals, and he’s known for his work in opera and ballet, both the ultimate in musical theatre. So, expect the orchestra to dazzle
The Westfield News Group is one of the sponsors. For details: 413-733-2291 or www.springfieldsymphony.org.
Of Note
Williamstown Theatre Festival’s 65th season includes a production of Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in The Sun with S. Epatha Merkerson from TV’s Law & Order, a new translation of Ibsen’s Ghosts with former Amherst resident and Northfield Mount Hermon grad Uma Thurman, and five world premieres and two commissioned works in Williamstown June 25-August 18.Bess Wohl’s Grand Horizons has its world premiere. Wohl’s Make Believe premiered at Hartford Stage last fall. Additional casting and creative team members for the 2019 season will be announced at a later date. For details: https://wtfestival.org/
Ken Fuchs. Photo Dario Acosta.
Kenneth Fuchs, professor of musical composition at UConn, took home a Grammy in the Best Classical Compendium category for his album “Piano Concerto ‘Spiritualist’/Poems of Life/Glacier/Rush.”In March 2016, the Springfield Symphony Orchestra commissioned Fuch’s Piano Concerto (“Spiritualist”), After Three Paintings by Helen Frankenthaler, which was performed at Symphony Hall with Maestro Kevin Rhodes conducting and guest pianist Jeffrey Biegel
Tina Packer
Tina Packer, Founding Artistic Director of Shakespeare an Company, was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award by The Shakespeare Theatre Association (STA). She received the Douglas N. Cook Lifetime Achievement Award while attending the 2019 STA Conference in Prague. The award honors STA members who have made and are still making significant contributions to the field of Shakespeare Theatre.
Darcy Parker Bruce
Chester Theatre Company has commissioned rising star playwright Darcy Parker Bruce to write a new play to have its world premiere on Chester’s 2020 season. Bruce comes to the project with a host of impressive credits. She is a graduate of the MFA Playwriting program at Smith College and is currently on faculty at several Connecticut colleges, where she teaches Playwriting and Theater Activism. She was the recipient of a 2017 Tennessee Williams Scholarship through the Sewanee Writers’ Conference and was recently granted ATHE’s 2018 Judith Royer Award for Excellence in Theater, which brought her play, Soldier Poet, to Boston. For details: www.chestertheatre.org
The Berkshire Museum named Jeff Rodgers as its new executive director. He brings with him more than 20 years of museum experience, and currently serves as provost and chief operating officer of the South Florida Museum in Bradenton, FL. The museum in Pittsfield suffered a credibility in the national arts community, and among locals, when it sold off some famous art pieces to subsize a new vision. Rodgers replaced former leader Van Shields, who retired after the art sale. For details: https://berkshiremuseum.org/
Berkshire Opera Festival announces its fourth season, featuring Donizetti’s Don Pasquale, in a new venue, Great Barrington’s Mahaiwe Theatre. Performances are slated for August 24, 27, and 30. For details: https://www.berkshireoperafestival.org/.
Keep in Mind
Arts Beat Radio airs every Friday at 8AM, on 89.5fm/WSKB. On March 8, we’ll check in with WAM Theatre about their upcoming season. ArtsBeat Radio, live on Fridays at 8AM on 89.5fm/WSKB, on Westfield Comcast channel 15, or streamed on www.wskb.org. And, if you miss an episode, find it on YouTube at WSKB Community Radio’s page
The UMass Fine Arts Center, in partnership with New Amsterdam Records, presents saxophone quartet Battle Trance and percussion trio Tigue in concert on March 1 in Bowker Auditorium on the UMass/Amherst campus. New Amsterdam Records was co-founded by WMass resident Judd Greenstein. For details: 413-545-2511, 800-999-UMAS, or www.fineartscenter.com/NewAmsterdam
Boeing-Boeing, Marc Camoletti’s classic French farce lands at West Springfield’s Majestic Theater through March 31. The comedy, translated and adapted by Beverley Cross, premiered in London in the 1960s where it ran for seven years. A 2008 Broadway revival garnered a Tony Awards for Best Revival of a Play. A busy bachelor juggles relationships with three flight attendant who are never in town at the same time, until there’s a schedule change. Rand Foerster directs. For details: www.majestictheater.com
Kodo
Kodo, the world’s premier taiko company that has singlehandedly played the most influential role in popularizing modern taiko drumming, brings its exhilarating production, Evolution, to the UMass Fine Arts Center Concert Hall on March 6.Evolution is a program of large-scale works performing on a wide variety of drums with impeccable precision, from the Katsugi Daiko (or “portable taiko”) drums to timpani to the massive 660-pound o-daiko drums. The show also highlights dance, song and bamboo flute performances, and incorporates surprising visual effects. For details: 413-545-2511,800-999-UMAS, or www.fineartscenter.com/Kodo
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Mark G. Auerbach studied theatre at American University and the Yale School of Drama. He’s worked for arts organizations and reported on theatre for newspapers and radio. Mark produces and hosts ArtsBeat Radio for 89.5fm/WSKB.
