Charity Dawson is starring in her favorite musical. The Tony and Academy Award-winning “Dreamgirls” will play at the Stranahan Theater from April 25-28. Dawson plays Effie in the role of her lifetime.

“I do not just say that,” Dawson said. “It is my favorite musical of all time. I didn’t care if I was just in the back; I just wanted to be in the show.”

The show follows the backstage drama of a 1960s girl groupand was inspired by the career of Diana Ross and The Supremes, according to a news release. The Broadway hit includes songs “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going” and “Listen,” with book and lyrics by Tom Eyen.

The local show is directed by Robert Longbottom and produced by Big League Productions.

Dawson heard the original cast recording of “Dreamgirls” as a child. She saw it on stage in 2006 at the Prince Music Theater in Philadelphia.

“I love it; I saw it nine times there,” she said.

She said she loves how “Dreamgirls” is written and the way it takes the audience “backstage.” She said it is different from anything she has seen or heard before.

“I love the fact that it’s a very cinematic show,” Dawson said. “I fell in love with the writing and how the story was told and the music.”

She said she has been preparing for this role for a long time, since being assigned songs to sing from “Dreamgirls” when she was in school. As a result, she didn’t feel intimidated by the part.

“I have an understanding of the character,” she said. “I’ve been studying this show before I was even in it. It’s just a big role to take on and big shoes to fill. I just took it as it’s my turn.”

Dawson said although she enjoys the film adaptation featuring Jennifer Hudson playing Effie, she hasn’t watched the movie since getting the part. She wanted to approach the role on her own, without outside bias.

“I think every actor should find their truth in [a role] and get their own understanding of the character,” she said.

Dawson graduated from the American Musical and Dramatic Academy in New York in 2005. She said she knows the area well because her brother, Trinity Dawson, played football for the University of Toledo.

Showtimes are 8 p.m. April 25-27, 2 p.m. April 27-28 and 7 p.m. April 28. Tickets can be purchased starting at $23 at the Stranahan Theater Box Office or by phone at (419) 381-8851.

Tags: Diana Ross, dreamgirls, Stranahan Theater, The Supremes

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 23rd, 2013 at 11:07 am and is filed under Star, Theater.
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During summer 2011, Matchbox Twenty had some work expenses: rent for a house that included a studio in Nashville, Tenn., and wine. Lots of wine.

“We would get up and we would all hang out for a little bit, do our thing, and then start working a little bit, and then we’d break for dinner, and then we’d start drinking some wine,” Paul Doucette said.

“And then we’d come back and the wine would start at night, and we’d work throughout the night, and then we’d wake up in the morning and listen to what we did. It was bad; it was pretty much junk. And then we’d do the same thing all over again.”

The Matchbox Twenty rhythm guitarist and drummer added, “We were drinking a lot of Francis Ford Coppola’s Director’s Cut.”

Seems fitting the multiplatinum rockers were downing the drink named for the innovative, influential filmmaker.

“North,” the group’s first full-length disc since 2002, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 Album Chart in September. “She’s So Mean” became Matchbox Twenty’s 13th Top 10 hit.

“‘She’s So Mean’ was — we had a chord progression and we were like, ‘We have to write this entire song within this chord progression; we can’t move it; it’s just these three chords,’” Doucette recalled. “It’s literally like Rob [Thomas, singer and pianist] sang the first verse, I sang the second part, Kyle [Cook, guitarist] sang the third part off the top of our heads, and that’s kind of what stayed.”

That catchy, comical single was followed by the beautiful “Overjoyed.”

“We wrote that at Rob’s house,” Doucette said. “The word overjoyed came with the melody. Sometimes that will happen, like you’re singing total gibberish, trying to find a melody, but sometimes a word will pop out. Overjoyed popped out. And we stayed with that.

“We debated whether or not to change it or stay with it and write an unapologetic love song, and we decided to do that.”

Since the 1996 release of “Yourself Or Someone Like You,” Matchbox Twenty has been making hits: “Push,” “3 AM,” “Real World,” “If You’re Gone,” “Unwell,” “Bright Lights,” “Bent,” “Disease,” “How Far We’ve Come.”

“We have a level of what we think a good song is. And if anything, I think that we think that’s gotten more, I don’t want to say better, but like more precise of what we think a good song is,” Doucette said during a call from his Los Angeles home.

“So we’ve been trying to get to that point, and I don’t think that we ever worried that we weren’t going to be able to get there. We were definitely worried about how long it would take and if we’d still be alive by the time we got there,” he joked.

En route, Doucette, Thomas, Cook and bassist Brian Yale have taken breaks to pursue side projects. Most notably, Thomas co-wrote and sang on Santana’s 1999 Grammy-winning “Smooth” and released a couple of solo discs that included “Lonely No More,” “This Is How a Heart Breaks” and “Her Diamonds.”

“[The breaks] might be the reason why we’re still together, too, because we take a lot of time off and we go and Rob does his solo thing, Kyle and I do a lot of writing, we all have our own things that we’re doing. We also all have families, and we all have our own lives,” Doucette said.

“So when we get back together, it’s just always fun,” he said. “The great thing about it, too, is every single time we get back together, because we’re all not sitting around not doing anything, we’re all working, when we come back together, we all kind of learned new tricks that we didn’t have the last time we worked together. So we can always kind of surprise each other, which is nice.”

Matchbox Twenty will play a sold-out show at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 15 at Stranahan Theater. Phillip Phillips will open.

Tags: In Concert, Matchbox Twenty, Paul Doucette, Stranahan Theater

This entry was posted on Friday, February 8th, 2013 at 12:45 pm and is filed under Arts and Life, In Concert, Music, Star.
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The first three Matchbox Twenty albums were all Rob Thomas when it came to songwriting.

But then the band took a break, and Thomas went on to establish himself as a solo artist in his own right with his 2005 solo debut, “… Something To Be.” That album reached the top of the Billboard magazine album chart and produced two hit singles, “Lonely No More” and “This Is How A Heart Breaks.” Both came after “Smooth,” the blockbuster single he co-wrote for Carlos Santana and sang on Santana’s “Supernatural” CD.

Meanwhile, Matchbox Twenty members Paul Doucette and Kyle Cook were developing their craft as well. Doucette formed a side band, The Break And Repair Method; Cook formed a band called the New Left and has been writing and producing several artists.

So when Matchbox Twenty regrouped to make the 2008 album “Exile On Mainstream,” a greatest hits collection supplemented with six new songs, Doucette and Cook essentially insisted on being part of the writing equation for that album — a trend that has carried through to the recently released Matchbox Twenty album, “North.”

Matchbox Twenty will play a sold-out show at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 15 at Stranahan Theater. Phillip Phillips will open.

Thomas, in a mid-January phone interview, said he was happy to open up the writing process to his bandmates. But there were some around the band who weren’t so sure Thomas should collaborate.

“A lot of people were shi***ng their pants when we started talking about this (collaborating), the label more than management,” Thomas said.

Such concerns were understandable. As primary songwriter on the first three Matchbox Twenty albums, Thomas had proven himself to be one of rock’s most reliable hitmakers.

The band’s 1996 debut CD, “Yourself Or Someone Like You,” produced five hit singles (including “Push,” “3 AM” and “Long Day”), while the next two albums, 2000’s “Mad Season” and 2002’s “More Than You Think You Are” added another half dozen hits to the list, including “Bent,” “If You’re Gone” and “Bright Lights.”

The worry, of course, was that involving Doucette, Cook (and for that matter, the other two band members, bassist Brian Yale and drummer Ryan MacMillan) in the songwriting would dilute the quality of the material Thomas might write on his own.

What Thomas soon discovered — and what people at Atlantic Records and the band’s management didn’t know — was that Doucette and Cook, in particular, showed how much they had grown as songwriters very quickly once the three started writing together.

“All that (concern about losing control of the songwriting) kind of stopped when we got together and started writing,” Thomas said. “Like a song like ‘Overjoyed’ that I wrote with Paul and Kyle, I like that as much as I like anything that I’ve ever written alone. So that’s really where the proof is. I’ll write a song with my dog if it’s a good song.”

In the end, Thomas shares writing credits with Doucette and Cook on three songs on “North,” including the bouncy first single, “She’s So Mean,” the aforementioned “Overjoyed” (a first-rate ballad that is the current single from “North”) and “I Will,” a sweet, largely acoustic ballad. Cook and Doucette, meanwhile, co-wrote the song “The Way,” Doucette and Cook each got sole writing credit for one song each, while Thomas wrote five songs on his own.

And yes, “North” sounds very much like a Matchbox Twenty album with its mix of hooky upbeat pop rockers like “She’s So Mean,” “English Town” and “Radio” (the album’s lone Thomas/Doucette collaboration), mid-tempo tunes (“Parade” and “Like Sugar”) and graceful ballads (“Overjoyed,” “I Will” and “The Way”).

The band had some 50 song ideas for “North,” and planned to narrow the list and begin recording when all five band members set up shop in a cabin/studio in Nashville, Tenn. Instead, it became more of a party/bonding session.

Fortunately, one thing happened to put the project on track. Matt Serletic, who produced the first three Matchbox Twenty albums, stopped in to see what Matchbox Twenty was cooking up for the album. A lengthy listening session to the songs in progress resulted in a realization.

“After like two bottles of wine and 3 in the morning and him looking at everything we’re doing, we just kind of looked at him and said ‘We think you should produce this record,’” Thomas said. “‘So let’s, next year January, we’ll hit LA and we’ll start recording.’ That was kind of how we went about it.”

Now, Matchbox is touring theaters and casino venues this winter on its first tour in support of “North.” Thomas said the band is trying to cover lots of ground in its show. The band, though, is making sure to play its hits, devoting about half of its set to songs many concert-goers come to hear.

“We’re still there to entertain and we’re still there to give somebody a great night,” Thomas said. “They came and invested their time and their money, so you want to make sure they get what they want. But then you have that whole other half of the set that kind of becomes on different nights different album tracks and new tracks, covers and things like that.”

Tags: In Concert, Matchbox Twenty, Rob Thomas, Stranahan Theater

This entry was posted on Friday, February 8th, 2013 at 10:05 am and is filed under Arts and Life, In Concert, Music.
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As Phillip Phillips rolls down the road, he can’t wait to strap on the guitar and walk onstage.

“It’s the only place where I feel peace,” he said. “You don’t have to worry about you have to go here, be here at a certain time, answer the phone at this time of the day, then do radio.

“It’s the only place where I can just not worry about anything, just kind of lose yourself however long you’ll be playing. You just feel real free.”

The latest winner of “American Idol” sounded laidback and happy during a call from Oklahoma on a recent day off while on tour, and why shouldn’t he? His hit “Home” is on the radio as well as small and big screens.

“It is everywhere and I hope people aren’t getting annoyed with it,” he said, then laughed. “I’m really proud of it, and I’m thankful it’s doing so well.”

That track that features Phillips’ fine fretwork has sold more than 3.4 million copies. His disc, “The World From the Side of the Moon,” debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard Top 200 Album chart and No. 1 on the Billboard Rock Album chart in November.

“Gone, Gone, Gone” is his new single.

“It’s a good love song, but it doesn’t have to be about a love relationship; it can be about a relationship with somebody else or something else,” Phillips said. Being on “American Idol” was his own “something else,” the 22-year-old said.

“It was tough. It’s not easy like it looks on television. You have to make a lot of decisions and you have to work long hours, and a lot of it is just hurry up and wait. You get drained out and sometimes you just have to take a break, kind of take a breather and relax,” he said. “It was fun; it was a great learning experience.”

His favorite part of the show: the mentors.

“Stevie Nicks was just a sweet woman, and Gwen Stefani and Tony [Kanal from No Doubt] were great,” he said.

Phillips and his four-piece acoustic band will open for Matchbox Twenty at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 15 at Stranahan Theater. The show is sold out.

“Rob Thomas is one of my heroes, and Matchbox Twenty is a band that has so many great songs,” Phillips said. “It’s an honor to share the stage with them.”

When he takes a break from the star-making machine of reality TV and the road, he likes to be — where else? — home in Leesburg, Ga.

“I just like to relax a little bit, hang out with friends and family, and eat some home-cooked meals and watch some movies.

“My mom makes homemade chicken potpie, and chicken and dumplings, and she does deer cube that’s really good. There’re so many good meals; I could just go on and on,” he said with a laugh.

Tags: American Idol, Gwen Stefani, Matchbox Twenty, No Doubt, Phillip Phillips, Stevie Nicks, Stranahan Theater

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 5th, 2013 at 10:43 am and is filed under In Concert, Music, Star.
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Few know what it’s like to be the madman, the rad man behind blue paint.

When Chris Smith puts on that customized hue, he feels freedom.

“When you have this sense of otherness about you, it’s kind of like you get permission to do things, especially as a Blue Man Group member,” he said.

“As we’re going through the audience, I’ll just pick someone and I’ll stare at them. I don’t do anything; I’ll just look at them. I’ve done it for 30 seconds where I don’t move and I’m just looking at someone and I’m getting fascinated by someone’s eyelash or ear lobe.

“If I were to do that anywhere, walking down the street, people would definitely call the police. I’m sure of it,” he said and laughed.

It was the interactive nature of the Blue Man Group show that spurred the actor to audition in 2011.

“We, as Blue Men, as performers, are given basically carte blanche to step out and get in your lap, which is an exciting element,” Smith said during a call from a tour stop in Memphis, Tenn. “This is very much audience-centric in the sense that we literally have a piece where we go out and hold a mini-casting session and pull an audience member up on stage and do a 10- to 15-minute piece where we don’t really know where it’s going to go.”

The trio loves it when something odd happens during a performance.

“There’s a part of the show where all the power goes out, and for whatever reason at that point an usher decided to show some people to their seats and we’re out there in the crowd,” Smith recalled. “The lights come back on and suddenly there’s this giant group  trying to get to their seats and we’re standing right in front of them.

“Without missing a beat, we just grabbed their tickets and helped them find their seats. In the middle of the show, we all of the sudden turned into Blue Men Ushers, which was fun.”

Fun is what the Blue Man Group brings to its all-ages show. There’s tossing and catching marshmallows.

“I can remember throwing I believe 30 [marshmallows] in one show and somehow got them all in [the catcher’s mouth],” Smith said.

Of course, there’s “Shake Your Euphemism,” a humorous song that features dozens of names for the derrière.

“I think ‘your growing personal following’ is my favorite,” Smith said with a laugh.

And there’ll be artful drumming.

“Paint drumming is all over the place,” he said. “I think what’s really cool about this tour is that we always call it alt-Broadway, because you get these giant spectacles that you’d find at a Vegas or Broadway show and yet you have these off-Broadway, kind of intimate, small-theater-feeling moments.”

The Blue Man Group will perform eight shows from Dec. 4 through Dec. 9 at Stranahan Theater. Ticket prices range from $28 to $73. Showtimes can be viewed at stranahantheater.org.

“I think the best mentality to approach Blue Man with is — it’s a hard thing to explain to people, it’s a hard thing to prime people to know what they’re getting themselves into because it is not like anything else out there,” Smith said. “Ideally, what people will walk away with is a sense of igniting the inner child again.”

Tags: Blue Man Group, Stranahan Theater

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 29th, 2012 at 2:27 pm and is filed under Arts and Life, Featured, In Concert.
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For those who know “Schlemiel! Schlimazel! Hasenpfeffer Incorporated,” Cindy Williams has been making her dreams come true in film, television and on stage for roughly 40 years

While the Hollywood actress had an award-winning role in George Lucas’s 1973 film “American Graffiti” and appeared in Francis Ford Coppola’s 1974 film “The Conversation,” it wasn’t until Williams landed an appearance as Shirley Feeney on the television ratings winner “Happy Days” in the mid-70s that her fate was sealed. This led to the incredibly popular series “Laverne & Shirley.”

“At first it was a whirlwind experience. We had no idea what was going on,” said Williams during a recent call from Michigan. “The first season, we knew the network had bought four shows they were going to air and take it from there. Then it just kept going. We didn’t understand the success of it or any of that. We were just doing our jobs, and then it became bigger than life. There were major adjustments I had to make in my life. One day you’re asking your mom to loan you rent money and the next day you can pay off the mortgage on your mother’s home. That’s kind of what it was like. A game changer.”

Unlike today where actors jump freely from the small to the big screen, the California native was typecast as Shirley Feeney. She still found work in pilots and television movies, but as one door shut another opened in the form of stage work.

This included appearing on Broadway in “The Drowsy Chaperone” and in numerous national tours such as “Grease,” “Deathtrap,” “Moon Over Buffalo” and “Nunset Boulevard.”

Now Williams is reprising her role as Reverend Mother in “Nunset Boulevard” with a tour that will visit Stranahan Theater, 4645 Heatherdowns Blvd., in Toledo at 3 p.m.  Nov. 14. Tickets are $30-45.

So what is it about playing a nun that continues to keep Williams engaged and challenged as an actress?

“Well, who doesn’t like a good nun comedy?” Williams said, laughing. “It’s just all based in innocence. You know, people who are trying to be godly getting into a jam. They have to have patience and that’s always funny to see a person in a terrible situation having to be forgiving and loving. Where do we see that today in this day?”

“Nunset Boulevard” is the seventh show in a nun-based series, which this time finds the singing nuns from Hoboken, N.J., on the road to Hollywood to sing in the Hollywood Bowl Cabaret. The problem is it turns out is the venue is actually the Hollywood Bowl-erama, a bowling alley with a cabaret lounge. Still, the ladies make the best of it, singing a mix of blues, ballads and rock ’n’ roll.

“It’s just a whole bunch of fun and a wonderful evening in the theater,” Williams said. “You’ll go away humming.”

While in some ways the 65-year-old actress remains a pop-culture figure based on the success of “Laverne & Shirley” — which earlier this year was honored with a TV Land Fan Favorite statuette — it turns out Williams was close to landing another high-profile role that could have made her Comic Con royalty.

“George [Lucas] always wanted to cast very young people in the role of Hans Solo, Princess Leia and Luke Skywalker,” Williams said. “I was doing ‘Laverne and Shirley’ at the time, but he still had me come in and audition for the role of Princess Leia.”

She quickly added, “I will say the right person got the part. You can’t think of anybody else to play Prince Leia than Carrie Fisher. But I was happy just to audition for it. That’s kind of great in its own way.”

For more information, visit www.stranahantheater.com or call the box office at (419) 381-8851.

Tags: Cindy Williams, Laverne & Shirley, Nunset Boulevard, Princess Leia, Star Wars, Stranahan Theater

This entry was posted on Friday, November 9th, 2012 at 5:36 pm and is filed under Arts and Life, Theater.
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Guitarist Joe Bonamassa might have a special connection to the lucky No. 13.

His 13th album “Driving Towards The Daylight,” released in May, is his most successful to date.

“I think over the years you just learn how to do things a little bit better,” Bonamassa said. “I’m really happy that it’s been so well-received. More so than me, it’s how the fans relate to it. I don’t make the records to listen to myself; I make the record for the fans to listen to it.”

Bonamassa will perform at the Stranahan Theater, 4645 Heatherdowns Blvd., on Nov. 13 (coincidently sticking with the lucky number). The show is at 8 p.m. with tickets starting at $62.

Although some consider Bonamassa a rock ‘n’ roll artist, his album is found in the blues section of iTunes. He said, “the truth lies somewhere in the middle.”

One thing that can be said for certain is his love of guitars. He is partial to his Gibson.

“I’ve played guitar 31 years of my life,” Bonamassa said, now 35 years old. “I’ve had it in my hand since I was four. Every day I get excited about picking it up and when the day comes that I don’t, then I need to quit.”

Growing up in upstate New York, Bonamassa said he fell into blues music due to circumstance.

“[Blues] is not big anywhere,” he said. “The climate dictates, you know? It’s a long winter and there’s lot of rain and I just love the guitar so I had an ample amount of time to practice.”

Bonamassa has pictures of himself with a guitar when he was 2 years old. He was inspired when he was younger by artists like Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck.

“I look up to all guitar players,” he said. “Anybody that can do it for a living has got my respect.”

Bonamassa is flattered by being called a “guitar icon,” but downplays it.

“Again, the truth lies somewhere in the middle,” Bonamassa said. “Some people think I’m an overrated loser.”

Originally part of the band Bloodline, Bonamassa’s solo career began in 2000. He still talks to his Bloodline band members, but they are scattered across the country.

As a solo artist, Bonamassa recently performed at London’s Royal Albert Hall. The performance was filmed and released as a live concert DVD. He said the event was a milestone.

“It would be for anybody,” Bonamassa said. “Even if you graduated high school and had your celebration there, that’s a milestone. Just to be in the building.”

Blues guitarist B.B. King serves as Bonamassa’s mentor.

“I think a lot of people in our genre does,” he said. “I’ve known him for 25 years. He’s helped my career immensely. He’s a one-of-a-kind individual. And supremely talented.”

King has given advice to Bonamassa, such as always be kind to people, appreciate what you have and strive to make the music better.

Bonamassa’s Toledo show is one stop of a seven-week tour. At the time of this interview, Bonamassa was preparing for a show at the Fox Theater in St. Louis, adding Chuck Berry cover songs to his set list for the rocker’s 60th birthday.

“Set lists change on a weekly basis,” Bonamassa said.

Bonamassa said he enjoys performing more than recording.

“If I suck tonight, there’s always tomorrow night to redeem myself,” he said.

A recent review in the Orange County Register predicted Bonamassa was “destined to be counted among the greatest of all-time.” To that, he again said “the truth lies somewhere in the middle.”

“I find myself pretty average on occasion,” he said.

Tags: B.B. King, Driving Towards The Daylight, Joe Bonamassa, Stranahan Theater

This entry was posted on Monday, November 5th, 2012 at 6:04 pm and is filed under Arts and Life, Music.
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When Martina McBride has a day off, she likes to stay home.

“I catch up on stuff around the house. I like to cook, so I like to cook dinner for my family,” she said. “I love to read — just the normal stuff. I’m really pretty boring when it comes right down to it, honestly. There’s no awesome hobby that I have — like skydiving or anything.”

But the Grammy Award winner has that awesomely powerful voice that soars and empowers on hits that include “I’m Gonna Love You Through It,” “Independence Day” and “A Broken Wing.” That soprano also is heard on romantic songs, including “I Love You,” “One Night,” “Valentine” with pianist Jim Brickman and “Marry Me” with Train lead singer Pat Monahan.

Her 2011 disc, “Eleven,” marked a renaissance for the music veteran. It’s McBride’s first release on a new record label, Republic Nashville, and she worked with a new co-producer, Byron Gallimore. And she signed with Morris Artists Management.

“It just seemed time to make some changes in my career as far as management and record label, and it just was inspiring, you know, anytime you get surrounded by fresh energy and passion. It inspired me to make a record that pushed the boundaries a little bit,” she said during a call from her tour bus, which was leaving Rochester, N.Y.

The four-time Country Music Association Female Vocalist of the Year and three-time Academy of Country Music Female Vocalist also helped write six of the songs on the new disc.

“It’s my most personal record,” the Sharon, Kan., native said. “I take ownership of songs like ‘Independence Day,’ songs that I’ve recorded before that I sang for so long, but there’s something different about writing your own words. And it’s kind of liberating to be able to write those words instead of waiting for someone else to come up with something you identify with, so I pulled from my own life.”

She co-wrote “Teenage Daughters.” The mother of three laughed when asked if the girls thought she was cool.

“I’m just their mom, the one who enforces the curfew and tells them to pick their clothes up off the floor, makes them be home for family dinner when they’d rather go out with their friends. What I do is so much a part of our lives that I don’t think they really think about it much unless they see me onstage or on TV.”

Her music inspires millions.

“When I heard ‘Independence Day,’ it made me more aware [of domestic violence] and I wanted to do something to help. And the same thing with ‘I’m Going to Love You Through It.’ This past year singing that song, I’ve met so many [breast cancer] survivors and their caretakers and people who have told me their story, and it just makes the songs come to life and you want to do something to extend that experience of the song.

“So we’re working with General Mills for Save Lids to Save Lives, which is a great, great thing that they’re doing; they’re donating $2.5 million to the Susan G. Komen Foundation,” she said. “It’s easy for me to do something like that and it makes a big difference.”

McBride will perform at 8 p.m. Oct. 27 at Stranahan Theater. Tickets range from  $40 to $78.

The singer, who released her debut in 1992, has sold 18 million records and is the most played female artist on country radio for the past 11 years, according to both Mediabase and Broadcast Data Systems.

“I’m most proud of the longevity that I’ve been able to have,” she said. “The fact that I’m still able to do this after 20 years is more than I ever expected, and it’s a long career in a really crazy business, and I’m proud that I’ve been able to endure and hopefully stick around a few more years.”

Tags: Martina McBride, Stranahan Theater

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 18th, 2012 at 1:25 pm and is filed under Arts and Life, In Concert.
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Related Story: Local ballet director is real-life ‘Billy Elliot’

When “Billy Elliot” comes to Toledo on Oct. 2-7, it will be a homecoming for one area man.

Actor Craig Bennett, who portrays Big Davey in the musical, was born and raised in Sandusky and will stay there with family while the tour is in Toledo.

“I do try to get back as much as possible,” Bennett told Toledo Free Press Star during an interview from a tour stop in Buffalo, N.Y. “It’s where I grew up. I still enjoy going back as much as I can.”

Bennett recently rejoined the “Billy Elliot” cast after spending some time “being a dad” in New Jersey with his actress wife and their 9-year-old son.

When visiting Sandusky, Bennett said he enjoys eating at several favorite local restaurants and taking his son to Cedar Point.

“Billy Elliot” is the story of an 11-year-old boy in a small English mining town. His father enrolls him in boxing, but Billy is drawn to ballet instead. He starts sneaking into ballet sessions when he is supposed to be at boxing.

Eventually his father finds out and forbids him to continue. Big Davey is one of the miners in the village.

Bennett said audience members will be impressed by the young dancers.

“You’re going to see an amazing group of kids,” Bennett said. “You’re gonna be blown away by the talent of these 10-, 11- and 12-year-olds. They are already triple-threats.”

The 52-year-old Bennett grew up singing in choir and acting in musicals at Sandusky High School, but never considered majoring in music or theater in college.

“As a boy growing up in Sandusky, it just wasn’t a very practical path, becoming an actor,” Bennett said.

At the University of Cincinnati, he changed his major several times before deciding on political science, thinking he might follow his brother into law school.

Then he tried out for a musical during his third year. The musical theater majors saw he had talent and encouraged him to change majors.

“I thought, ‘Here’s a chance to see if this is the path.’ I jumped at it and took it,” Bennett said. “But a year later, they asked me to leave the program. CCM (UC’s College-Conservatory of Music) is a pretty tough program and they just felt like I didn’t have much of a future. They looked at me and said, ‘Well, we don’t really see it. You should probably go do something else.’”

Instead, Bennett looked for another theater program and transferred to Otterbein University.

Bennett went on to perform on Broadway in “South Pacific,” “A Tale of Two Cities” and “Miss Saigon.” He’s also been part of national tours of “The Light in the Piazza,” “Mamma Mia!” “Ragtime” and “Les Misérables.”

Bennett said his experience being turned down by UC’s performing arts program is nowhere near the level of setback Billy experiences, but he can relate to the frustration of being told he can’t do something he loves.

“Billy had a much bigger hill to climb than I did,” Bennett said. “I just said, ‘Oh I’ll go somewhere else,’ where Billy is fighting against his father and brother, people who think ballet is something a young man shouldn’t be doing. So on a much smaller scale, yes, I do identify, but I certainly wouldn’t put myself into the category of what Billy goes through.”

Bennett said even people who don’t like dancing will enjoy the show, which won a Tony Award for Best Musical in 2009.

“I just want to stress to people not to judge it on its cover. Don’t be scared off or discouraged thinking it’s a dance show or a kids’ show,” Bennett said. “It’s actually a universal story of struggling against all odds and coming out on top. It’s about how if you really love something, you can achieve it against a lot of odds if you just keep at it and don’t let anybody tell you you can’t do it. It’s a story that resonates with everybody.”

Although it has a serious theme, the show is also humorous, Bennett said.

“The show is a lot funnier than people anticipate it to be,” Bennett said. “There is a lot of humor in it and I think that helps tell the story.”

Bennett said performing for an audience makes him happy.

“Just the fact that eight times a week, you get to tell a story to people and, at least for three hours, get to take them away from whatever might be troubling them in their lives,” Bennett said. “It makes me happy and it makes them a little happier, even if just for a brief time, and their troubles fade away for a little bit.”

Performances are 8 p.m. Oct. 2-6 and 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Oct. 7 at the Stranahan Theater, 4645 Heatherdowns Blvd.

For more information, call the box office at (419) 381-8851  or visit www.billyelliottour.com.

Tags: Billy Elliot, Elton John, Sarah Ottney, Stranahan Theater, Theater League

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 3rd, 2012 at 2:11 pm and is filed under Arts and Life, Featured, Theater.
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Nobody has more fun writing songs than Michael Franks. Listen to any track and you’ll hear his witty wordplay.

From “Now That the Summer’s Here”: “I can spare some wherewithal/ Listening to Ahmad Jamal/ ‘Poinciana’ says it all/ Now that the summer’s here.”

Or “Island Christmas”: “While others plod through ‘Jingle Bells’/ We’ll roam the beach collecting shells/ I understand flannel pajamas/ Are not allowed in the Bahamas.”

And, of course, “Popsicle Toes”: “You got the nicest North America/ This sailor ever saw/ I’d like to feel your warm Brazil/ And touch your Panama/ But your Tierra del Fuegos/ Are nearly always froze.”

“I like to spend a lot of time with a composition; it’s a very enjoyable part of my career,” Franks said. “I’ve always tried to emulate the great era of American song, the people that I considered to be the greatest — like Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, Gershwin-type writers, Harold Arlen.”

The mustachioed musician has been creating quintessentially cool songs for nearly four decades — and performing them with distinctive delivery.

“I just sing the best way I can. It’s not so much an affectation, that’s just the voice,” he said during a call from his home in Woodstock, N.Y. “I love Peggy Lee and Mose Allison and people who I guess in the past I’ve been sort of grouped with, which is a pleasure.”

In 1975, the singer-songwriter’s relaxed style flowed into the music world with his second album, “The Art of Tea,” which combined jazz, pop, soul and R&B.

Producer Tommy LiPuma tracked down Franks’ wish list of musicians for the record.

“I’ll never forget this — [LiPuma called and] said, ‘OK, we’re all set.’ And I said, ‘Well, who did we get?’ And he said, ‘We got The Crusaders (guitarist Larry Carlton, keyboardist Joe Sample and bassist Wilton Felder) and (drummer) John Guerin,” Franks said and laughed. “I was afraid as well as being happy and excited because, wow, I’ve got to work hard to play with these guys and practice all these tunes.”

That 35-minute vinyl classic went smoothly.

“We recorded that album in 12 hours, which is just amazing to me now,” the jazz superstar said. “Now it seems I spend 12 hours on two vocals.”

His 2011 disc, “Together Again,” also features an array of guest artists, including guitarist Chuck Loeb, pianist Gil Goldstein, saxophonist Eric Marienthal and trumpeter Till Brönner.

“I end up writing in the first person and it’s probably 90 percent originating from my personal feelings or observations,” Franks said. “On this record, the title song was about our dog, Flora, and then ‘Charlie Chan in Egypt’ was about the experience of being in airports and seeing these poor kids come home from the Middle East sort of broken, if not physically broken, kind of spiritually broken, and I guess their families financially broken too, and trying to make a comment about that.

“I seldom make any social comments; the only other time in fact was the title song for [1987’s] ‘The Camera Never Lies,’ which was about apartheid, which was still existent in South Africa.”

On the lighter side, “Mice” chronicles his adventures of finding freeloaders in the 1791 farmhouse he lived in at the time.

“Three times I thought the same ones were just reappearing after I’d taken them far away and released them, but I couldn’t figure out how to tag them, so I don’t know if that was true or not,” he mused.

Franks will perform at 8 p.m. July 21 at Stranahan Theater; the concert will also spotlight Brian McKnight. Tickets range from $49.50 to $69.50.

Tags: Brian McKnight, Michael Franks, Stranahan Theater

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 12th, 2012 at 3:02 pm and is filed under Arts and Life, In Concert.
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