On Stage Dayton

Victoria Theatre Association presents the world premiere of TENDERLY: THE ROSEMARY CLOONEY MUSICAL, a musical about the inspiring life of legendary singer and actress Rosemary Clooney, playing February 21 – March 4, at the historic Victoria Theatre. TENDERLY is a product of the annual collaboration between Victoria Theatre Association and The Human Race Theatre Company.

Co-authors Janet Yates Vogt and Mark Friedman, who worked together on many projects, including Green Gables presented as part of VTA’s 2004-2005 Broadway Series, felt the story of Rosemary Clooney was a story they felt needed to be told.

“Everything appealed to us about the potential work,” say Vogt and Friedman, “from Rosie’s amazing personal story and her journey through very difficult times followed by a wonderful comeback – to the beautiful music that became her signature songs as an artist – to the fact that her roots are right here in Ohio and Kentucky. She faced many, many difficult times, some very heartbreaking, but she rose above it all and came out a winner. Her life is a lesson in overcoming obstacles and still being grateful, hopeful, and full of life. “

Tory Ross (photo credit: Scott J. Kimmins)

TENDERLY: THE ROSEMARY CLOONEY MUSICAL is the 22nd show The Human Race Theatre Company has produced for the Victoria Theatre Association’s Broadway Series. It is an intimate two-actor play starring Tory Ross as Rosemary Clooney and Scott Stoney as The Doctor, Friends and Family of Rosemary, and is directed by Kevin Moore.

Tory Ross, a graduate of The Miami Valley School and the University of Cincinnati’s Cincinnati Conservatory of Music plays the role of Rosemary Clooney. Tory has most recently been seen on stage in the touring production of the Broadway smash hit WICKED as the understudy for Madame Morrible and as part of the ensemble. She has also performed on Broadway in Irving Berlin’s White Christmas and 9 to 5: The Musical.

Scott Stoney

Local actor Scott Stoney is a familiar face in Dayton and is an artist-in-residence with The Human Race Theatre Company known for his on-stage roles at the Loft and the Victoria Theatre. Victoria shows include among others Shenandoah, Wait Until Dark, The Boys Next Door, and Green Gables. His most recent productions for The Human Race Theatre Company include Permanent Collection, Twelfth Night, August: Osage County, and Brother Wolf.

Behind the scenes, Scot Woolley is Musical Director/Arranger, Bruce Goodrich is Scenic and Costume Designer and John Rensel is Lighting Designer. Technical crew includes: Technical Director Scott J. Kimmins; Head Carpenter D. Tristan Cupp; Production Stage Manager Heather Jackson; Assistant Stage Manager Kay Carver; Prop Master Heather Powell; and Producer Tara Lail.

Rosemary Clooney

Rosemary Clooney‘s singing career began in April 1945 when she and her sister Betty auditioned for Radio Station WLW in Cincinnati where they sang during the “Crossroads Café” show and then performed on “Moon River” with Hap Lee as organist. In 1946, the Clooney sisters began touring with the Tony Pastor Orchestra until 1949 when Rosemary moved to New York to begin her solo career as a singer and actress.

In 1951, Clooney recorded her trademark song, “Come On-a My House,” which lead to recordings of “Mambo Italiano,” “Tenderly,” “Half as Much,” “Hey There” and “This Ole House.” Some of her more famous movies include Red Garters (1954) and White Christmas (1954).

[yframe url=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5WpvL8g4IA’]

Clooney was a devoted wife to Jose Ferrer (whom she married twice) and mother to their five children Miguel, Maria, Gabriel, Monsita and Rafel. In 1997, she married long-time friend Dante DiPalo. Clooney’s career spanned several decades and continued to perform until her death in 2002.

For tickets call Ticket Center Stage at 937-228-3630, 888-228-3630, online at www.ticketcenterstage.com or visit the Box Office in person, located in the Wintergarden of the Benjamin & Marian Schuster Performing Arts Center.

(from Victoria Theatre Association)

TICKET CONTEST

We have THREE PAIRS of tickets to see TENDERLY: THE ROSEMARY CLOONEY MUSICAL on Wednesday Feb. 22!  Simplythis article  and then comment below – we’ll draw three winners this Sunday Feb. 19 at 5pm.  GOOD LUCK!

The Victoria Theatre Association unveiled one of its strongest Broadway Series lineups Monday, February 13 in the Wintergarden of the Schuster Center.

"Next to Normal" - May 7-19, 2013 – Victoria Theatre

Sponsored by Premier Health Partners, the primarily family-friendly, unabashedly commercial 2012-13 Broadway Series, containing four local premieres, is an attractive mix of classic and contemporary titles. The standouts: “Mary Poppins,” Disney’s delightful 2006 Tony Award-nominated spectacle (yes, Mary will fly inside the Schuster’s Mead Theatre) particularly adhering to the book by P.L. Travers and incorporating charming new songs by George Stiles and Anthony Drewe alongside Richard M. and Robert B. Sherman’s timeless originals; “Next to Normal,” Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey’s acclaimed 2009 Tony-nominated and 2010 Pulitzer Prize-winning rock musical about a grieving dysfunctional family which will be produced by the Human Race Theatre Company; and “Dreamgirls,” a dazzling revival of Tom Eyen and Henry Krieger’s 1981 Motown-inspired hit notably inserting “Listen” from the Academy Award-winning 2006 film adaptation. The remaining productions are “Irving Berlin’s White Christmas” (an adaptation of the 1954 holiday film of the same name which arrived on Broadway in 2008 following multiple regional engagements including Springboro’s La Comedia Dinner Theatre), Jeanine Tesori and David Lindsay-Abaire’s humorous 2008 adaptation of “Shrek The Musical” (based on the 2001 Dreamworks film of the same name), and Marshall Brickman, Rick Elice and Andrew Lippa’s 2010 adaptation of “The Addams Family,” a visually appealing creepfest which has received significant rewrites since closing on Broadway six weeks ago.

"American Idiot" - March 12-14, 2013 – Victoria Theatre

Included among the special Star Attractions is the regional premiere of Green Day’s “American Idiot,” an electrifying post-9/11 tale of three disillusioned friends (based on the band’s 2004 Grammy Award-winning album) which should have won the 2010 Tony for Best Musical. The local premiere of the 1980s-infused “Rock of Ages,” a 2009 Tony nominee for Best Musical which will hit the big screen this summer starring Tom Cruise, is also worthwhile. The Victoria warns that “American Idiot,” “Rock of Ages” and “Next to Normal” contain strong language and adult themes and may not be suitable for all audiences, particularly children under the age of 13.

The season announcement event, emceed by Kim Faris of 94.5 LITE FM and attended by over 500 arts patrons, also included lineups for the Projects Unlimited Variety Series and the PNC Family Series. Next season will also feature the debut of a promising, lecture-driven series entitled National Geographic Live!, a collaboration with Five Rivers Metro Parks spotlighting first-hand accounts of exploration. The lineups for National Geographic Live!, Michelob Ultra Cool Films Series and Physicians for Kids Discovery Series will be announced at a later date.

“Dreamgirls” - June 4-9, 2013 – Schuster Center

Season tickets for the six-show Broadway Series are priced at $235, the three-show Projects Unlimited Variety Series are $90 and the four-show PNC Family Series are $40. Single tickets will be available at a later date. For more information, call Ticket Center Stage at (937) 228-3630 or visit www.ticketcenterstage.com.

Premier Health Partners Broadway Series

“Irvin Berlin’s White Christmas”
November 27-December 2, 2012 – Schuster Center

“Shrek The  Musical”

"Shrek The Musical" - January 15-27, 2013 – Victoria Theatre

“The Addams Family”
March 5-10, 2013 –  Schuster Center

“Mary Poppins”
April 16-21, 2013 – Schuster Center

“Next to Normal”
May 7-19, 2013 – Victoria Theatre

“Dreamgirls”
June 4-9, 2013 – Schuster Center

Star Attractions

An Evening with Branford Marsalis
September 23, 2012 – Schuster Center

“Menopause The Musical”
October 12-14, 2012 – Victoria Theatre

"An Evening with Branford Marsalis" - September 23, 2012 – Schuster Center

“American Idiot”
March 12-14, 2013 – Victoria Theatre

“Rock of Ages”
May 21-22, 2013 – Schuster Center

Projects Unlimited Variety Series

Over the Rhine
October 26, 2012 – Victoria Theatre

The Intergalactic Nemesis: Target Earth
February 1, 2013 – Victoria Theatre

PSY
April 12, 2013 – Victoria Theatre

PNC Family Series

“Fred Garbo’s Inflatable Theater Company”
November 3-4, 2012 – Victoria Theatre

“Frindle”
December 1-2, 2012 – Victoria Theatre

“The Number 14”
February 16-17, 2013 – Victoria Theatre

“Circus Incognitus”
March 9-10, 2013 – Victoria Theatre

FOR A CHANCE TO WIN A PAIR OF TICKETS – leave a comment below the article.  We’ll announce FOUR winners on Wednesday 2/15 for the 2/17 show.  GOOD LUCK!

It has been called a “timeless” motion picture. Because it is.

Produced in 1939 and televised at least once annually since 1956, the movie claims a truly rabid, multi-generational audience. Why? Because, as Steven Tyler of Aerosmith once observed, we’re all kids at heart. And we all love music…and fantasy.

On Friday, February 17 and Saturday, February 18 at 8pm in the Schuster Center, Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra Music Director Neal Gittleman will conduct the entire score to the MGM film The Wizard of Oz as it projects on a large screen above the orchestra, providing orchestral accompaniment to the film with the soundtrack stripped of all orchestral music; only the actors’ dialogue and vocals remain.

Many of us know the words to the movie’s songs by heart, the result of anywhere from one to 55 years’ worth of exposure. E.Y. Harburg’s lyrics set to Harold Arlen’s music with Herbert Stothart’s Academy Award winning (for Best Original Score) incidental music and instrumental underscore (some of it based on the songs, some borrowed from classical composers), are as familiar to us as our own family (hence, the derivation of the term).

With its use of Technicolor film, extraordinary characters, fantasy storytelling, and special effects, The Wizard of Oz won two Academy Awards and was nominated for Best Picture of the Year (Frankly, my dear, it lost to Gone with the Wind). And, believe it or not, it was a box office failure at first, failing to earn back the studio’s investment. In time, the trend reversed, and later re-releases compensated MGM for its initial poor showing.

It has become one of the most famous films ever made. The Library of Congress named it the most-watched motion picture in history. Viewer/critic polls often rank it as one of the Top 10 Best Movies of All-Time. And, of course, it is the source of many memorable quotes: I’ll get you, my pretty…and your little dog, too!; Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore; and There’s no place like home, to name a few..

This Kettering Health Network SuperPops Series concert reprises (always loved the sound of that word: re-pree-ses), or brings back, the event, originally performed before a sold-out Mead Theater in the Schuster Center in November, 2006. It was The Bomb. I know. I was fortunate to be there with my extended family, and we – along with the overwhelming majority of other attendees – sang our little hearts out. Most of us were even on key!

There’s an old axiom familiar to we Writers Guild members: “If it ain’t on the page, it ain’t on the stage,” meaning “you can’t damned well make a movie without a screenplay!” Strangely, it sometimes works the other way around: “It may be on the page, but that’s no guarantee it’s gonna’ make it to the film.” In short, the film winds up markedly different than the source text, in this case L. Frank Baum’s book.

Here’s what’s different. And, since we all know the movie so well, I’ll just cover what was in the book that got changed.

In the book, Oz was a real place. Glinda the Good Witch of the North had no name; she was actually two people, Glinda the Good Witch of the South and the Queen of the Field Mice. There were places called the China Country and people called the Hammerheads. The Wicked Witch of the West was only mentioned several times before she appeared one chapter towards the end. Dorothy rescued her friends, not the other way around. And she wore silver shoes, not ruby slippers.

Other than that….

Director Victor Fleming filmed the Oz sequences in three-strip Technicolor; the opening/ closing credits, the Kansas sequences, and Aunty Em’s appearance in the Wicked Witch’s crystal ball in black and white and colored them using sepia tone.

The Beverly Hillbillies pater familias Buddy Ebsen was originally cast as the Tin Man and joined the cast in recording the film’s songs in a studio before principal photography began. Then, problem of problems, Ebsen got sick…from the aluminum powder makeup of all things, and MGM dropped him from the cast and replaced him with Jack Haley.

But Ebsen’s singing voice stayed in the soundtrack.

The beauty of having watched a film like The Wizard of Oz sooooo many times as quite a few of us have is that, when we hear a song from the film, we can just about place it in its proper sequence in the story. Read the list of songs in sequence as they are heard in the film, and see if you remember where (i.e., which scene) each song was sung:

Over the Rainbow; Come Out, Come Out…; It Really Was No Miracle; We Thank You Very Sweetly; Ding Dong the Witch Is Dead; As Mayor of the Munchkin City;  As Coroner, I Must Aver; Ding Dong the Witch Is Dead (Reprise; don’t you just love that word?); The Lullaby League; The Lollipop Guild; We Welcome You to Munchkinland;  Follow the Yellow Brick Road/You’re Off to See the Wizard; If I Only Had a Brain; We’re Off to See the Wizard; If I Only Had a Heart; We’re Off to See the Wizard (Reprise); If I Only Had the Nerve; We’re Off to See the Wizard (Reprise); Optimistic Voices (background chorus);The Merry Old Land of Oz; If I Were King of the Forest.

A word about classical music in the film: an arranged version of Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky’s Night on Bald Mountain is heard during the scene in which the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, and the Cowardly Lion rescue Dorothy from the Wicked Witch of the West’s castle.

So, grab all your Janet Weiss and Brad Majors costume paraphernalia…no, no, that’s the other long-running film.

So, even though we‘re not in Kansas anymore, we can all get to downtown Dayton for Wizard of Oz with Orchestra.

And we won’t need to wear ruby slippers to get back home.

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It’s the perfect pairing: Shakespeare’s universal love story and February, the month of Cupid.

Dayton Opera is preparing to open Charles Gounod’s supreme opera Romeo and Juliet to be performed during the month of love on Friday, February 24 at 8 p.m. and Sunday, February 26 at 3 p.m. in the Schuster Center.  “Romeo and Juliet” has been adapted into countless films, plays and dance but no medium better expresses the love, longing and ultimate tragedy of this fated pair than Charles Gounod’s stunning opera,” said Thomas Bankston, Dayton Opera’s General and Artistic Opera. “This opera hasn’t been performed in more than 15 years and we are excited to assemble such a talented and beautiful group of singers.”

Acclaimed soprano Joanna Mongiardo, recognized for her effortless coloratura, makes her Dayton Opera debut singing the title role of Juliet. Her recent performance as Rosalina in Giordano’s rarely performed work Il Re with Teatro Gratticielo at the Lincoln Center was chosen in David Shengold’s selections for Das Opernwelt’s “Best of Year” 2011 issue.

Joanna Mongiardo

Singing the role of Romeo is tenor Ryan MacPherson, also making his Dayton Opera debut. He is one of the most in-demand young tenors of this generation, well-known for his captivating stage presence and expertise with modern and contemporary music. He performed along with Mongiardo in a recent production of The Rakes’ Progress with Toledo Opera.

Baritone William McGraw, most recently performing in last season’s Fidelio, returns as Count Capulet, and baritone Chad Sloan as Mercutio and bass Nathan Stark as Friar Lawrence make their Dayton Opera debuts. Members of the Gem City Ballet choreographed by Barbara Pontecorvo, and the Dayton Opera Chorus, under the direction of Jeffrey Powell, will also be featured.

Albert Sherman, stage director for New York City Opera, returns to direct his fifth production for Dayton Opera, the most recent being 2009’s The Merry Widow. At the podium will be Patrick Reynolds, Assistant Conductor for the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra, who conducted La Traviata in 2009.

Ryan MacPherson

“$15 Friday Nite Tweet Seats” returns thanks to the sponsorship of Dayton Power and Light. This initiative for young professionals, a first in U.S. opera, received regional and national press coverage and is being adopted by other arts organizations. The Tweet Seats are located in the balcony so the light from smart phones are not distracting to others.

“Yes we are tweeting and facebooking but not so much during – apparently it’s all too riviting. J At the pause between Act I and Act II, the lights of many devices came out like fireflies in the dark. It was great!” posted by Charity F., a Tweet Seat ticket holder at last October’s performance of Dayton Opera’s La Boheme.

Tickets are on sale now at Ticket Center Stage by calling 228-3630 or visiting www.daytonopera.org. Dayton Opera has teamed up with Veleta Wines on a special promotion. While supplies last, purchase two regular priced tickets to Romeo and Juliet and receive a complimentary bottle of Veleta Tempranillo wine at the performance. Use the code “Veleta” when ordering tickets.