ENTERTAINMENT NOTES

‘Re-imagined’ Wizard lands for seven-performance stop

Andrew Lloyd Webber’s stage “re-imagining” of the 1939 film version of The Wizard of Oz, enhanced by computer-generated imagery and including all the songs from the movie plus numbers with lyrics by Tim Rice for characters who only had dialogue in the film, will be onstage at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, 7 p.m. Wednesday-Thursday, 8 p.m. Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. April 6 at Fayetteville’s Walton Arts Center, 495 W. Dickson St.

Among the principal cast members is a native Arkansan: Nigel, a 6-year-old Cairn terrier playing Dorothy’s dog, Toto, was rescued in 2008 from the Northeast Arkansas Human Society in Jonesboro by guardian/trainer William Berloni. Canadian television viewers chose Danielle Wade to play Dorothy through a “reality” show called Over the Rainbow.

The show is part of the center’s 2013-14 Procter & Gamble Broadway series, with support from Ghirardelli Chocolate Co. and Billie Jo Starr. Tickets are $39-$83. Call (479) 443-5600 or visit waltonartscenter.org.

Spirited comedy

A fussy, cantankerous, recently remarried novelist, with the “help” of a visiting medium, is haunted (literally) by the ghost of his first wife in Blithe Spirit by Noel Coward, which the Arts Center of the Ozarks, 214 S. Main St., Springdale, will stage at 7:30 p.m. Friday-Saturday and April 11-12 and 3 p.m. April 6. Tickets are $20, $10 for students and children, with discounts for center members. Call (479) 751-5441 or visit artscenteroftheozarks.org.

‘Airborne’ farce

Fort Smith Little Theatre, 401 N. Sixth St., Fort Smith, will stage Boeing Boeing by Marc Camoletti (translated from French by Beverly Cross and Francis Evans), at 7:30 p.m. Thursday-Friday and April 9-12 and 2 p.m. April 6 and 13. Tickets for Thursday’s gala opening are $25; for all other shows, $10. Call (479) 783-2966 or visit fslt.org.

Delta Symposium

The 20th annual DeltaSymposium will bring scholars, students, musicians and artists from across the country Wednesday-Saturday April 2-5 to Arkansas State University at Jonesboro.

The climax of the four-day symposium, sponsored by the university’s department of English and philosophy, with a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, will be Saturday’s Roots Music Festival at Jonesboro’s City Water and Light Park, Culberhouse and Cherry streets.

This year’s theme is “Diversities in the Delta.” Most sessions will be in the Mockingbird Room, third floor, Carl R. Reng Student Union, 101 N. Caraway Road. Admission to all events is free.

The lineup:

Wednesday: The symposium gets underway at noon with a forum called “Conversations From the Delta,” followed by a presentation on Arkansas musical history titled “Arkansas Roots Music and Its Diverse Branches” and, at 4:30 p.m., “Diverse Legends and the Contributions to Arkansas State University.” Area musicians will perform a Blues and Roots Music Showcase at 7:30 p.m. at The Arts@311, 311 S. Church St., Jonesboro.

Thursday: Starting at 8 a.m., sessions on music, architecture and food in Arkansas; on diversity within Southern writing; and on representations of diversity in Arkansas. At 4 p.m., Adam Gussow of the University of Mississippi, author of several books and articles on the blues and ablues harmonica player, will speak on the history and culture of blues music.

Friday: Starting at 9:15 a.m., regional writers will participate in panel sessions on Delta memoirs and “Diversities in Blues Music.” At noon, author/musician Stephen Wade will offer a lecture-performance linked to his latest book, The Beautiful Music AllAround Us. At 3:45 p.m., Judy Peiser, director of the Center for Southern Folklore, will screen her film All Day and All Night: Memories of Beale Street Musicians.

Saturday: The symposium moves to Jonesboro’s West End neighborhood, where at 10 a.m., local architects and design professionals will lead an architectural walking tour, starting at the Craighead County Courthouse.

The Roots Music Festival starts at noon with another Blues and Roots Music Showcase. At 4 p.m., Justin Heskett Band will perform rockabilly, country and rock ’n’ roll, opening for bluesman John Hammond, who comes onstage at 5; the concert is also part of the university’s Lecture-Concert Series. In caseof rain, the festival moves to the Reng Student Union Auditorium at ASU.

Call (870) 972-3043 or visit altweb.astate.edu/blues or the Delta Symposium’s Facebook page.

Opera premiere

Opera Memphis will close its 2013-14 season with the world premiere of Ghosts of Crosstown, a cycle of four complete short operas by Zach Redler of New York, Jack Perla and Nathaniel Stookey of San Francisco and Kamran Ince of Memphis, and one work in progress by Anthony Davis of New York, at 7 p.m. Friday on the loading dock of the Sears Crosstown building, 1427 N. Watkins St., Memphis.

Between each opera, actors from Voices of the South will perform monologues that Memphis playwright Jerre Dye wrote for the premiere. Inspiration for the operas came from the historic building, which fell into disuse in the early 1990s, and the people on whose lives it had an impact, according to a news release.

Tickets are $25. A limited number of tickets will be available for a special performance of select pieces inside the building at 9:30, following the premiere; lit only by flashlight, audience members will move through the building, finding the “ghosts.”

The premiere kicks off the Midtown Opera Festival, Friday-April 13, which will include:

Performances of Gian Carlo Menotti’s The Medium, 7:30 p.m. April 9 and 11, 2 p.m. April 13 at Playhouse on the Square, 66 Cooper St., Memphis.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s The Impresario and Richard Wargo’s The Music Shop, double bill, 7:30 p.m. Saturday and April 10 and 2 p.m. April 12, also at Playhouse on the Square.

A special performance of Opera Memphis’ children’s opera, Little Red’s Most Unusual Day, 2 p.m. April 6 on the Tower Courtyard stage, 2082 Trimble Place, in Memphis’ Overton Square.

A second performance of the full Ghosts of Crosstown cycle at 7:30 p.m. April 12 at Playhouse on the Square.

The 10-day festival will also include pre-show meals and discussions, panels, cabaret performances and parties. Individual tickets are $22-$55. An all-access festival pass is $175. Call (901) 257-3100 or visit the website, operamemphis.org.

Style, Pages 45 on 03/30/2014

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