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Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Music Cafe features old and new faces, June 23
The Music Cafe, 7 p.m. Tuesday, June 23, Fitton Center for Creative Arts, 101 S. Monument Ave., Hamilton. Free. (513) 863-8873;
Jeremy Francis (above) has been playing the Music Cafe since the very beginning, and next week will make his 10th (or so) appearance in as many years.
“My father and I even went down and helped them set up the sound for the first Music Cafe,” Francis said. “Since then I’ve played by myself, with my father, with my father and my uncle and with multiple bands,” including short-lived ensembles like Radio Bloom and Imagination Station.
In fact, his very first solo public appearance was at the Music Cafe.
“I remember that they gave me a bottle of water and I had to turn my back on the audience to drink it because my hands were shaking so hard.”
Although he’s a full-time medical technician, pursuing music as a career is still his pipe dream, he said. He performs regularly at area clubs, including upcoming gigs at Pier 27 in Ross, and has been invited back to the Poppy Mountain Bluegrass Festival for the second year in a row, this time playing all three days at the Eastern Kentucky event.
Francis said that he plans to play a mix of original tunes and covers, and he’s always open to the obscure request.
Kevin Loving (below) will be making his first Music Cafe appearance next week after coming out of his self-imposed musical retirement.
“The last band job I had was in 1990, the Route 4 Band,” the Hamilton native said, “which was pretty much a flash in the pan.”
But lately he’s been getting back on the circuit, playing at Ryan’s Tavern last weekend for the Taft High School ’70s reunion and several appearances at the Riverbank Cafe.
He said he’ll being doing mostly cover songs, but songs that don’t get played a lot.
Also on Tuesday’s bill are some folk/rock/country tunes from Roy Bushman, solo cello music by Michael Ronstadt and one of Music Cafe’s popular regulars, the Circle of Rhiannon Belly Dance Troupe.
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TweetDo you look like Marilyn Monroe? Win prizes!
Argosy Casino is changing its name to Hollywood Casino at the end of June - and to celebrate, they’re hosting a Marilyn Monroe Look-Alike Contest on Fountain Square, noon, Friday, June 26.
Contestants will speak for 30 seconds and do a runway walk. After a final parade of all contestants, judges will choose the winners.
A grand prize of $500 will go to one Best Overall winner, with $250 each going to winners in Best Appearance and Best Acting categories.
To enter, send an e-mail to intern@3cdc.org with your full name and “Marilyn Monroe Contest” in the subject line. Deadline to enter is 5 p.m. on Wednesday, June 24.
Contestants will check in on Fountain Square at 11:30 a.m. on Friday, June 26, dressed and ready.
Contestants must bring photo ID and sign a liability and publicity release on site. Contest rules can be downloaded here. Entry is free and open to U.S. residents 18 years of age and older.
Hollywood Casino will be sending its own Marilyn Monroe look-alikes to mingle with the crowd and hand out coupons and gift items. Visitors can also get their picture taken with Marilyn in a photo booth on the Square.
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TweetShadowbox Cabaret revives its best for summer show
“Best of the Shadowbox,” 7:30 p.m. Thursday-Saturday; 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Shadowbox Cabaret, Newport on the Levee, Newport, Ky. $30 adults; $20 students/seniors/active military personnel. (859) 581-7625.
While Best of Shadowbox is full of material that has premiered over the past season, audiences will not see a simple “rerun” performance at The Sketch Comedy & Rock ‘n’ Roll Club.
Instead, the original sketches and rock music will be retooled with new ensemble members and fresh casting that will breathe new life into the show.
“Each production we create is an opportunity for our actors and singers to hone their skills and deliver a show that will amaze our fans,” said Stacie Boord, Shadowbox general manager and lead performer. “Best of not only gives us that opportunity again, but this time we can make what works even better.”
Among the repeat offenders this year are “Monster News,” “The God Pod,” “Date the Vote” and “Mr. Tazer.”
The resident rockers of BillWho? compliment the laughs with music from Aerosmith, Steely Dan, Living Colour, Linkin Park and many others.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment | Categories: Clubs & Bars, Shadowbox Cabaret, Theater
TweetGreater Hamilton Civic Theatre revives ‘Always…. Patsy Cline,’ June 26-28
Greater Hamilton Civic Theatre presents “Always … Patsy Cline” by Ted Swindley, 8 p.m. June 26-27 and 2 p.m. June 28, Garfield Junior High School, 250 N. Fair St., Hamilton. $20 advance, $22 at the door. (513) 737-7529.
As soon as Julie Joyce Smith stepped off the stage from the title role in “Always… Patsy Cline” for Greater Hamilton Civic Theatre in 2001, she was ready to do it again.
And in honor of GHCT’s 50th anniversary season, the group is producing it again with three performances the last weekend of June.
“I had no idea it would be so well-received,” she said. “Word of mouth really got out on this one, and by the end of the run, they were selling seats in the orchestra pit — although they didn’t bother to tell us until we walked out on the stage.”
There are several reasons that it proved so popular, said Smith and her co-star, Joan Kirsch, who plays Louise Segar, a fan who befriended Cline in a Texas honky-tonk in 1961 and corresponded with her until the singer’s tragic death in a plane crash in 1963.
“It’s a real show about real people,” Kirsch said. “And I’m not a big country music fan, but her music is something I like to listen to. She sang the same kinds of songs as Rosemary Clooney, Brenda Lee and Connie Francis. She would say that she had no range, but she had an extreme range.”
“When I was growing up, my dad had a record collection that was full of the Ink Spots and Nat ‘King’ Cole, but he also had Patsy Cline, so I didn’t really think of it as country music when I was growing up,” Smith added.”
“She was easy on the ears and there was nothing trite about it,” Kirsch said. “If she didn’t feel it, she didn’t sing it, and that’s the way she was with her friendships.
Although the show features 27 of Cline’s songs — including the its “Crazy,” “I Fall to Pieces,” “Sweet Dreams” and “Walking After Midnight,” the story of the friendship between the two women make it more than a musical revue.
“Patsy’s music made her feel good,” Kirsch said of Louise. “When she hears her sing for the first time, she says, ‘That’s the way I always wanted to sing.’ So when she goes to see her in a club, she just walks right up and says ‘Hi.’
“She was a relative unknown at the time and having fan meant a lot to her,” Kirsch said.
Louise was a single mother, divorced from an abusive marriage. And although Cline was still married, she may have seen a lot of herself in Louise and her situation. On one of her last recorded songs, “Faded Love,” Smith notes that you can Cline’s voice choking with tears, perhaps because she was thinking of her own troubled marriage.
The two wrote letters to each other for two years — with Cline signing each letter with the show’s title — until Cline’s death.
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TweetNeil Armstrong, Mormon Choir performs with Cincinnati Pops, June 18
Cincinnati Pops Orchestra with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, Neil Armstrong and Ben Utecht, 8 p.m. Thursday, June 18, Riverbend Music Center, 6295 Kellogg Ave., Cincinnati. Tickets start at $25; children 12 and under are half price in the pavilion and free to the lawn. (513) 381-3300.
Legendary aviator, engineer and astronaut Neil Armstrong and Bengals tight end Ben Utecht joins the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra for the orchestra’s first summer concert celebrating the 25th anniversary of Riverbend Music Center.
Armstrong appeared with the Cincinnati Pops at Riverbend’s inaugural concert on July 4, 1984 narrating Aaron Copland’s Lincoln Portrait, and appeared again in 1989 to celebrate the facility’s fifth anniversary. He returns to that stage for the first time in 20 years to narrate the Finale from Lincoln Portrait.
In addition to this being Riverbend’s 25th anniversary, 2009 also marks the 40th anniversary of Mr. Armstrong’s “giant leap for mankind” when he became the first person to walk on the Moon.
Cincinnati Bengals tight end Ben Utecht, who recently released a self-titled contemporary Christian album, will perform the National Anthem and “God Bless America.”
The world-renowned Mormon Tabernacle Choir will perform choral masterworks, American folk tunes, hymns, music from around the world and patriotic favorites.
“This is more than a choir — it’s an American icon,” said Kunzel in a press release. “I have had the pleasure of working with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir for several performances and every time it is so inspirational, revelatory and stirring.”
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