Enjoy a Technicolor April at the Tulsa PAC
By NANCY HERMANN
AMAZING DUO: American Idol alums, Diana DeGarmo and Ace Young, now a married couple, star in Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Apr. 1-6 at the Tulsa PAC, presented by Celebrity Attractions.
Courtesy Tulsa PAC
Broadway is back in April with an Andrew Lloyd Webber/Tim Rice collaboration, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Apr. 1-6. This pop cantata predated Jesus Christ Superstar and morphed into a musical after Superstar became a mega-hit. Its themes and spirit are perfect for the month of Easter.
There are a couple of elements about this new production that have me interested. Diana DeGarmo and Ace Young, who appeared on American Idol, seasons three and five, respectively, and who are now married, have lead roles. Diana was the runner-up to Fantasia and the youngest competitor on Idol at age 16. During his Idol year, Ace competed against a strong field — Kellie Pickler, Chris Daughtry and Katharine McPhee among them. It was the season “soul patrol” fave Taylor Hicks won. Ace as in the title role and Diana as The Narrator will be a vocal powerhouse!
I’m also looking forward to seeing Joseph’s coat. The costume design was based on stained-glass windows from a synagogue in Jerusalem created by Marc Chagall. The production wizardry of the show incorporates the design of the coat in stage projections. I bet it will be amazing.
Along with events in our large Chapman Music Hall, we also have intimate gatherings for theatregoers and music lovers, and some of them are free! Be our guest for three Brown Bag It concerts this month in Westby Pavilion: Tallasi (clarinet, horn and piano, Apr. 2), Trio Aleszky (piano trio Apr. 9) and harpist Lorelei Barton and friends (Apr. 16).
I don’t know how you can follow Mia Farrow, but Tulsa Town Hall has another impressive speaker Apr. 11. Gentry Lee was the chief engineer for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and oversaw JPL’s engineering of the robotic planetary missions for . He and Carl Sagan teamed up to create the Cosmos series.
Certain Curtain is a relatively new theatre group that returns to the Apr. 10-13 with the intelligent drama Proof. This is an excellent play by David Auburn that I saw on Broadway in 2001, and it won both the Pulitzer Prize for drama and the Tony Award for best play that year. Proof’s story concerns a recently deceased math genius and his gifted daughter who grapples with her father’s legacy and the family’s mental instability — a beautifully written piece.
Tulsa Symphony wraps its season at the Apr. 12 with Joseph Haydn’s Symphony No. 88 in G Major; American composer Jennifer Higdon’s blue cathedral, which premiered in 2000; and Principal Cellist Kari Caldwell featured as soloist for Don Quixote, the 1897 tone poem by Richard Strauss.
We’re rolling with a very cool event Apr. 18! It’s Tulsa Unplugged — A Spoken Art Experience, blending poetry with theatre. Headlining the show is Georgia Me, who you may have seen on in Def Poetry Jam. Comedian GK Palmer will be the host.
Celebrity Attractions brings Men Are From Mars; Women Are From Venus — Live! to the PAC’s Williams Theatre for one show Apr. 23. This one-man performance, based on the 1992 book by John Gray, stars Peter Story in a series of vignettes that poke fun at aspects of dating, sex and marriage.
Several local theatre groups present outstanding work at the , and occasionally the center hosts theatrical presentations from around the country. On Apr. 25-27, you can see work from the Split Knuckle Theatre Company of Storrs, Conn., in the play Endurance. Four young actors tell two stories that connect on many levels — one of an insurance man struggling in the corporate world to save jobs, and one of the British explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton. His ship, Endurance, was crushed in the icy Antarctic, and he kept his crew alive for two years. The Trust brings this drama to the PAC’s Doenges Theatre.
Chamber Music Tulsa closes its 60th season with one of the most vaunted chamber music groups performing today. The American String Quartet, celebrating its 40th year, says that Beethoven, collectively and individually, is their soul mate. Over three-days of concertizing in Tulsa, will play much Beethoven, including the composer’s Quartet in C Sharp Minor, Op. 131, on Sunday, Apr. 27. The Sunday concert also will feature Bach’s Four Preludes and Fugues from The Well-Tempered Clavier and Alban Berg’s Lyric Suite. performs a free concert at the Guthrie Green on Saturday, Apr. 26, as part of Chamber Music Tulsa’s 60th Anniversary celebration.
Welcome to spring and another lively and inspiring month at your center for the arts!
Nancy Hermann is Director of Marketing at the Tulsa Performing Arts Center
Updated 03-25-2014
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