Riverside Theatre’s in full swing again with “Swinging on a Star” opening the season on Tuesday night.
DJ Salisbury directs and choreographs the revue staged on Allen Cornell’s set, with a cast of four women and three men singing the songs of lyricist Johnny Burke, the man who gave Bing Crosby some of his biggest hits.
Along with the title song, the show includes “Pennies from Heaven,” “Going My Way,” and “Moonlight Becomes You.” Burke also put words to pianist Erroll Garner’s 1954 hit, “Misty,” and that became Johnny Mathis’ signature song.
While this show is officially the first of the season, in September patrons got a taste of Salisbury’s remarkable talent with the premier of the children’s musical he and Riverside music director Ken Clifton created together. “Poodleful,” based on the first in a series of children’s books by Windsor resident Cynthia Bardes, was as adorable as it was well-acted, with a squirm-squelching pace easily maintained by a cast of exuberant apprentice actors recruited for Riverside Children’s Theatre this year.
What really shone were Clifton’s songs, aimed at an audience that was probably missing naptime but that also needed to appeal to the grown-ups in tow. They did – I overheard a mom singing the title song “Poo-poo-poo poodleful!” on the way out, though her little boy’s response was more like a pit bull’s: “I’m never coming near this place again!” Oh well. There’s always karate.
The Vero Beach Museum of Art is hosting an exhibit of folk art from Augusta, GA’s Morris Museum of Art. The Morris, known for its focus on the art of the American South (and the former workplace of Vero’s museum curator, Jay Williams,) has lent 60 works, including those of Howard Finster and Mose Tolliver. The show, which opened last weekend, continues through mid-January.
Heads up on a museum collaboration that, based on the success of last year’s event, will likely sell out: The forces behind Ballet Vero Beach are giving us another evening of art-inspired dance. The Nov. 11 program called “Moving Images 3 X 3” includes performances by ballet master Camilo Rodriguez, artistic director Adam Schnell, and Matthew Carter, ballet master of Ballet Nebraska, whose dancers form the core (and corps) of Ballet Vero Beach. Last year’s performance was absolutely stunning.
This year as last, the choreography will reflect influences of the museum’s current exhibits. The Lego sculptures of Nathan Sawaya prompted a work of jazz technique by Carter; Rodriguez has choreographed a pas de trois inspired by the new folk art exhibit and will be joined by Ballet Nebraska dancers Katherine Boatright and Jake Godek; Adam Schnell’s work was influenced by the display of Civil War photographs collected by Washington attorney Julia Norrell.
Next month’s ballet will be the first of two at the museum, and it may not be too early to buy tickets to the February performance, “Timed Entry.” This time, the collaboration with the art museum honors the museum visitors’ experience as opposed to the art itself. Pop-up performances will take place throughout the galleries, with guests scheduled at staggered intervals but without designated seats. That performance takes place Feb. 10.
If you were hoping to snag a front-row VIP seat to “So You Think You Can Dance” on tour Friday night at Kravis Center, sorry to disappoint: even at $750 a pop, they’re all gone, though there were still a few seats at $350 available at press time. And a couple dozen at $30 to $50 in the nosebleed section. Ah, the power of television.
A very different performance at Kravis – more affordable and more affecting – takes place Nov. 7 when Ballet Austin, billed as the 12th largest classical ballet company in the U.S., presents “Light/The Holocaust and Humanity Project.” The full-length contemporary ballet that debuted in 2005 is performed in tandem with a community education effort about the Holocaust. It was created by Ballet Austin’s artistic director Stephen Mills. Tickets start at $15.
If flute is your passion, Gary Arbuthnot is playing Stuart’s Lyric Theatre Nov. 7. Born in Northern Ireland and educated at the Royal Academy of Music in London and later at Montreal’s McGill University, Arbuthnot once studied with James Galway and has since toured the world, most recently on cruise lines. His Stuart concert will feature classical music, standards and Celtic tunes. The concert starts at 7 p.m.; tickets are $37.
