ENTERTAINMENT NOTES

NW orchestra season start includes ‘Emperor’ concerto

British pianist Simon Mulligan will solo in Ludwig van Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat major, op.73, “Emperor,” with the Symphony of Northwest Arkansas and Music Director Paul Haas as the orchestra kicks off its 2013-14 season at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Walton ArtsCenter, 495 W. Dickson St., Fayetteville.

The program will also include Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings and the “Great” Symphony No. 9 in C major by Franz Schubert.

Sponsor is the Willard & Pat Walker Charitable Foundation. Haas will offer a “Creative Conversation” at 6:45 p.m. in the center’s Starr Theater. Tickets are $28-$48, $10 for students, $5 for children 7-17 with the purchase of an adult ticket. Call (479) 443-5600 or visit the website, sonamusic.org.

White Christmas

The Fort Smith Little Theatre, 401 N. Sixth St., Fort Smith, will stage White Christmas: The Musical (music and lyrics by Irving Berlin, book by David Ives and Paul Blake) with a gala opening at 8 p.m. Thursday and “regular” performances at 8 p.m. Friday-Saturday and Nov. 19-23 and 2:30 p.m. Nov. 17. Gala tickets are $30; for all other shows, $15. Call (479) 783-2966 or visit the website, fslt.org.

The theater’s 2014 season will kick off Feb. 13-16 and 19-23 with The Dixie Swim Club by Jessie Jones, Nicholas Hope and Jamie Wooten.

The rest of the lineup:

April 3-6, 9-13: Boeing, Boeing by Marc Camoletti.

June 5-8 and 11-15: Leading Ladies by Ken Ludwig.

July 31-Aug 3, Aug. 6-10: 9 to 5: The Musical, music and lyrics by Dolly Parton, book by Patricia Resnick.

Sept. 18-21, 24-28: Splendor in the Grass, adapted by F. Andrew Leslie from the screenplay by William Inge.

Nov. 13-16, 19-23: A Talent for Murder by Jerome Chodorov and Norman Panama.

Season tickets are $100 for opening-night galas (includes pre-show hors d’oeuvres and champagne, and intermission dessert); $55 all other performances.

There will also be three “off-season” productions (not part of the season ticket package):

April 24-26: Make Believe by Kristin Froberg.

Oct. 2-4: Nightfall With Edgar Allan Poe by Eric Coble.

Dec. 11-13: The Gift of the Magi, adapted by Jon Jory from the story by O. Henry.

Echols at UCA

Damien Echols, one of the so-called “West Memphis Three,” imprisoned for 18 years on death row after his conviction for the murder of three children in West Memphis and released under an “Alford plea” in August 2011, and his wife, Lorri Davis, will offer a public reading from Echols’ 2012 book, Life After Death, at 7:30 p.m. Monday. The event will be held in the Donald W. Reynolds Performance Hall, University of Central Arkansas, 201 Donaghey Ave., Conway.

All audience members will be scanned with a metal-detecting wand and may not carry any bags, purses, backpacks, cameras or video recorders of any type into the hall.

A book-signing will follow. Admission is free but tickets are required; there is a two-ticket maximum. Call (501) 450-3265 or (866) 810-0012.

Chamber cellist

Cellist Inbal Segev, the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra’s 2013-14 “Richard Sheppard Arnold Artist of Distinction,” joins members of the orchestra for a River Rhapsodies Chamber Series concert at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the Great Hall of the Clinton Presidential Center, 1200 President Clinton Ave., Little Rock.

Inbal and seven members of the orchestra’s cello section will play the Bachianas Brasileiras No. 1 by Heitor Villa-Lobos, and he will be the first cellist (with four orchestra violinists, two orchestra violists and a cellist) in the Octet in C major, op.7, by George Enescu.

Sponsor is Parker Lexus. Tickets are $23, $10 for students. Call (501) 666-1761 or visit ArkansasSymphony.org. It’s awfully bigamy

A cab driver’s (Michael Klucher) careful balancing of two wives and two households threatens to unravel when a helpful policeman takes him home after he’s been mugged - and it’s not the right house - in Run for Your Wife by Ray Cooney, onstage Tuesday-Dec. 31 at Murry’s Dinner Playhouse, 6323 Colonel Glenn Road, Little Rock.

Sharon Combs and Courtney Bennett play the wives, Mary and Barbara Smith, respectively; Dustin Alford and Don Bolinger play nosy cops. Chad Bradford, Roger M. Eaves and Devin Robertson round out the cast of Murry’s traditional Thanksgiving-Christmas season farce.

Dinner starts at 6 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday, 11 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. Sunday. Curtain time is 7:45 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday, 12:45 and 6:45 p.m. Sunday, and 12:45 for matinees (no evening shows) Wednesday and Nov. 20 and 27. Tickets are $31-$35, $23 for children 15 and under; show only, $25 and $15 for children. Call (501) 562-3131 or visit the website, murrysdinnerplayhouse.com.Architecture lecture

Eric Howeler, assistant professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Design and a principal at Howeler + Yoon Architecture/MY Studio in Boston, will give a lecture titled “Fail Fast” at 6 p.m. Tuesday (with a 5:30 p.m. reception) in the lecture hall at the Arkansas Arts Center, 10th and Commerce streets.

Admission is free. The lecture is part of the Art of Architecture series, sponsored by the Architecture and Design Network, with support from the central Arkansas chapter of the American Institute of Architects, the Arts Center and the Fay Jones School of Architecture at theUniversity of Arkansas. Email [email protected].

Craft school gala

Arkansas Craft School in Mountain View will hold a fundraising gala at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at Angler’s White River Resort in Allison, outside of Mountain View, five miles north of the junction of Arkansas 5, 9 and 14. The event will include dinner with cash bar, music by John Burnette Band and silent and live auctions of hand-crafted items. Tickets are $25; proceeds benefit the school’s scholarship fund. Call (870) 269-8397.

Gershwin tunes

Pianist Richard Glazier, whom singer Michael Feinstein has described as having “Gershwin in his soul,” will put on an all-George Gershwin program at 6 p.m. today at Trinity United Methodist Church, 1101 Mississippi St., Little Rock.

The concert is part of the church’s “Trinity Presents …” series. Admission is free. Call (501) 666-1813.

Style, Pages 45 on 11/10/2013

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