In making recommendations for this fall’s slate of performing arts offerings, we thought that the various decision makers—having chosen from among scores of possible musicians, troupes, performers, and pieces—would have much more meaningful things to say than we ever could. So here they are: thirteen reasons to grab a friend, call the sitter, and enjoy an evening at the theatre.
Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony No. 2
September 17—19
From the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, New Orleans • lpomusic.com
During the ten years since Hurricane Katrina scattered the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra’s members to the four winds and destroyed its home stage at the Orpheum Theater, Music Director Carlos Miguel Prieto has focused all of his charismatic creative energy not only on resurrecting the LPO as a world-class orchestra, but on using it as a powerful tool for cultural renewal. This season—the LPO’s twenty-fifth anniversary and Prieto’s tenth as its music director—brings the orchestra’s long-awaited return to a newly restored Orpheum.With performances taking place literally every week, September through May, Prieto was reticent to recommend just one, but he allowed that the opening night concerts featuring Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony No. 2 would be special. “It’s a great symphonic masterwork that also has great musical meaning,” he remarked. “The piece talks about resiliency, resurrection. If you look around you won’t find many orchestras in the world that have had the experience that the Louisiana Philharmonic has had since Katrina. Having come back with such great strength, playing better than ever, it’s incredible. This season celebrates the virtuosity of the orchestra and its heroic effort to endure and excel.” Photo by Zack Smith
Spamalot
September 18—October 4
From Theatre Baton Rouge, Baton Rouge • theatrebr.org
For comedic relief, Theatre Baton Rouge’s Executive Artistic Director Jenny Ballard recommends Spamalot, the musical comedy adapted from the magnificently irreverent film Monty Python and the Holy Grail. “I’m directing it and I’ve been a Monty Python fan since I was eleven years old,” she enthused. “I don’t think everyone understands the enormous role [Python] played in laying the groundwork for the comedy we know and love.”
Ballard said that a local Spamalot had brought the theatre community’s maniacal, die-hard Python fans out of the woodwork. “It’s a fantastic cast, and it’s going to be a great show because older audience members will remember the film and the sketches, while younger ones will love the fact that it’s a big, sweeping musical theatre show … that satirizes big musical theatre shows,” she said. “I’ve been laughing out loud while blocking the show. I’ve certainly never laughed this much while doing prep work before.”
Pianist Jonathan Biss
September 25
From the Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra, Baton Rouge • brso.org
This September, pianist Jonathan Biss will join the Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra to perform Beethoven’s famous Piano Concerto No. 5, the Emperor Concerto. According to Music Director Timothy Muffitt, Biss “has become a very hot property on the concert scene lately. He’s young; but he’s an established artist. We’ve got him playing Beethoven, and he’s developed a wonderful reputation for his Beethoven performances. Biss is reaching people in a very meaningful way and presenting a fresh approach.”
The second piece of the evening will be Tchaikovsky’s famous Symphony No. 4 in F minor, Op. 36. “I think one of the reasons people love Tchaikovsky’s symphonies so much is that they are a real dramatic journey,” Muffitt said. “The listener can sense that there is perhaps something of a storyline underlying these pieces of music, even though they are unspoken.” Photo by Benjamin Ealovega
Sean Jones Quartet
September 30
From the Arts Council of Greater Baton Rouge’s River City Jazz Masters series (Manship Theatre), Baton Rouge • manshiptheatre.org
According to Renée Chatelain, incoming CEO of the Arts Council of Greater Baton Rouge, the River City Jazz Masters concert series has a reputation that precedes it. “When we attend presenters’ conferences, people know about River City Jazz Masters,” she said. “It has a national footprint.”
The legacy of former Arts Council CEO Derek Gordon, who died in 2012, River City Jazz Masters was born out of the Jazz at Lincoln Center series, which Gordon led during his years in New York City. “Music, and particularly vocal music, was Derek’s point of passion,” said Chatelain. Jazz Masters concerts are presented by the Arts Council in collaboration with the River City Jazz Coalition—a group of local aficionados who identify exceptional national performers. The first concert presents the Sean Jones Quartet. “Sean got his beginnings in gospel music,” said Chatelain, “and he uses those influences in combos with his quartet. This will be a great season opener because it has ties to the incredibly rich gospel tradition that we have in Baton Rouge.” Photo by Jimmy Katz
Disgraced
September 30—October 11
From Swine Palace, Baton Rouge • swinepalace.org
Written by novelist and screenwriter Ayad Akhtar, a first-generation Pakistani-American, the Pulitzer Prize-winning drama Disgraced was born from the rubble of 9/11, launched in Chicago just four months after the terrorist attack on New York.
The play takes place during a dinner party among four educated New Yorkers: a Pakistani-American lawyer, his white wife, a female African American colleague, and her Jewish-American husband. As these four characters unveil the intricacies of their relationships, the conflicts of American society begin to play out among them.
As Femi Euba, LSU professor and director of the play, explained, the interactions among the characters reflect the nation’s general ills. “So we go from observing basic family life that has its own conflicts—conflicts that are engineered by circumstances—to the bigger picture of America and then the bigger picture of the world.”
United States Marine Band
September 30
From the LSU College of Music & Dramatic Arts, Baton Rouge • wp.music.lsu.edu
Established in 1798, the United States Marine Band, the first of the four military bands, is nicknamed “The President’s Own” because it serves the functions and ceremonies attended by POTUS. From inaugurations to state dinners, this band has provided the score for the highest seat in the land since its inception. Under the leadership of one of America’s most famous composers, John Philip Sousa, the Marine Band reached new heights of fame and began to tour the country.
Now The President’s Own will be coming to Baton Rouge to give a free performance. Damon S. Talley, LSU director of bands, explained, “They contacted me saying, ‘Hey, we’re coming through the area. Any chance that we could stop by and do a concert?’ to which I said, ‘Absolutely!’ It’s kind of rare that they come to your town, so it was a no-brainer.”
Broadway First-Runs
September—Decemeber
From the Saenger Theatre, New Orleans • saengernola.com
General Manager David Skinner explained that half of the shows presented this season as part of the Saenger’s Broadway series are first-run shows, including fall’s lineup: The Little Mermaid, Cinderella, and the Newsies. To have so many first-runs is “absolutely amazing,” Skinner said. “Things have changed a great deal in New Orleans since Katrina. Our demographics have changed, and because of that, we are the number-one city for subscriptions in the nation with our Broadway producing partner. We now have nearly two and a half times more subscribers than we had before Katrina.”The opportunity to see award-winning shows close to home has not been lost on theatre-lovers; Skinner said that the shows routinely sell out. So, to be a part of the action, you might need to consider subscribing yourself since subscribers have the first option to buy additional tickets before they go on sale to the public.
BalletX
October 1
From Baton Rouge Ballet Theatre, Baton Rouge • batonrougeballet.org
Baton Rouge Ballet Theatre presents one professional dance company each year in the Baton Rouge community. This year, they have invited BalletX, a company that Co-Artistic Director Molly Buchmann described as a “combination of really cutting-edge contemporary movement on beautifully trained ballet dancers.”
Buchmann has personal connections to two of the members of BalletX, both of whom are exceptional dancers. But that wasn’t enough to convince her of the company’s caliber. “It was when I went online and looked at their repertoire. Their rep is amazing,” said Buchmann. “Last year we brought Dance Theater of Harlem—a beautiful company, very much a ballet company. And the year before that, we brought Ririe-Woodbury, a company with a very modern aesthetic. But what I love about BalletX is the combination of the two.” Photo by Alexander Iziliaev
Romeo + Juliet Returns
October 23
From Of Moving Colors, Baton Rouge • ofmovingcolors.org
“I’ve always been fascinated with taking a story that’s old and adding something new,” said Garland Goodwin Wilson, artistic director for the contemporary dance troupe Of Moving Colors. Add collaborations with choreographers Pavel Zustiak, of New York City, and John Allen, of New Orleans, and a heaping tablespoon of Shakespeare fandom, and you’ve got the age-old story of Romeo and Juliet reinterpreted through dance.
Wilson first started to dream of the production in 1999, during her second year with Of Moving Colors. The show finally came to fruition in 2014; its immediate popularity with both the dancers and the audience warranted an encore, which will open Of Moving Colors’ 2015—2016 season at the Manship Theatre.The troupe hopes to continue these reworkings, interpreting the Bard through the body with performances planned for every other year. “It’s an interesting investigation for me to find Shakespeare’s voice through movement,” said Wilson. Photo by David Humphreys
Twyla Tharp 50th Anniversary Tour
October 24
From the New Orleans Ballet Association, New Orleans • nobadance.com
This fall, American dancer and choreographer Twyla Tharp celebrates fifty years of choreographic work with a nationwide anniversary tour. “Twyla is, of course, a living legend,” said Jenny Hamilton, director of the New Orleans Ballet Association. NOBA has the honor of hosting Tharp and her hand-picked cast of dancers for an October 24 stop at the Mahalia Jackson Theater—the Main Stage season opener for NOBA—but the way Hamilton tells it, the choice was an easy one.New Orleans pianist Henry Butler’s music will be used in the show’s new works, alongside music by Bach, Steven Bernstein, and John Zorn. “Butler is this terrific New Orleans blues and piano player,” said Hamilton. “Twyla wanted New Orleans to be a part of the show, and obviously we wanted her here.” Photo by Ruven Alfanador
Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill
November 11—13
From New Venture Theatre, Baton Rouge • newventuretheatre.org
“This is a performance with Billie Holiday, a drink, her microphone, and you,” said director Greg Williams. “This play recreates one of Billie Holiday’s last performances,” Williams explained. “The playwright used transcripts from her last shows, and the play contains scenes that are verbatim from those transcripts.” Towards the end of her life, Holiday struggled with alcoholism and drug addiction and had problems staying on-script during concerts. Although that sounds like it might make for heavy-going, Williams said that Lady Day is at once poignant, tender, and very funny indeed. “Billie sings glorious songs, talks with her band, makes friends with the audience, gets completely drunk, and tells amazing stories that would be heartbreaking if she didn’t tell them so hilariously.” Williams explained that staging Lady Day in downtown Baton Rouge’s Lyceum Ballroom would enable New Venture to recreate the intimate, South Philadelphia dive bar atmosphere that was Emerson’s, down to the lounge tables with drinks service for the audience during the production.
St. Paul and the Broken Bones
November 14
From Acadiana Center for the Arts, Lafayette • acadianacenterforthearts.org
When Birmingham-based St. Paul and The Broken Bones comes to Lafayette this fall, the Acadiana Center for the Arts has a parlor trick up its sleeve. “Our venue is built in a modular way,” said Gerd Wuestemann, executive director for AcA. “Events like this bring in a younger crowd. We can remove seats and make a flat floor.” With seating reserved for the balcony and standing-room only on the ground floor, fans of the critically acclaimed seven-piece soul band should be able to crowd close.
“We’re hopeful that some of our own local all-stars, like Marc Broussard and Curley Taylor, will do a song on a stage. They all know each other!” said Wuestemann.
Darlingside
December 7
From the Manship Theatre, Baton Rouge • manshiptheatre.org
Darlingside is a pop ensemble that looks back for inspiration, back to the Beatles … even back to Bach. “They have a great folky/retro feel to them,” said John Kaufman, the Manship Theatre’s director of programming.
The Boston-based group consists of four vocalists, all multi-instrumentalists, who craft classical arrangements with a slant of wit. The Boston Herald hailed the group as “something new in pop music.” Its sophomore recording effort, Birds Say, arrives in stores on September 18, less than two months before the group comes to Baton Rouge. “It’s always nice when we can get a young band that is on the verge of something great to play at Manship Theatre on their way up,” said Kaufman.
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