The cast of the Arkansas Repertory Theatre’s production of MEMPHIS is extremely talented. In addition to displaying their talents on stage at the Rep, the performers will be showcasing their talent tonight in another downtown venue.
The Lobby Bar will host a cabaret performance tonight featuring members of the cast. Mark Binns, music director for MEMPHIS will be the accompanist. The evening will features showtunes as well as standards.
There is not cover charge or admission charge.
A regional theatre premiere at Arkansas Rep, Memphis is a new musical with music and lyrics by David Bryan of Bon Jovi fame and lyrics and book by Joe DiPietro loosely based on Memphis disc jockey Dewey Phillips, one of the first white DJs to play black music in the 1950s.
Appearing on Broadway from October 19, 2009 to August 5, 2012, Memphis garnered eight 2010 Tony Award nominations, and won four 2010 Tony Awards, including Best Book of a Musical, Best Original Score, Best Orchestrations and Best Musical.
Set in the 1950s in the musically-rich Tennessee city, Memphis tells the story of a local DJ with a passion for R&B music and an up-and-coming singer that he meets one fateful night on Beale Street. As their careers rise, their relationship is challenged by personal ambition and the pressures and prejudice of the outside world.
From the first notes of its opening number “Underground” right up to a rousing finale called “Steal Your Rock ‘n’ Roll,” Memphis delivers one energetic song after the next, with electrifying singing and dancing along the way.
The production is directed and choreographed by Lynne Kurdziel-Formato. Other members of the creative team include Mark Binns (music director), Mike Nichols (scenic designer), Rafael Colon Castanera and Mark Nagle (costume designers), Bill Webb (lighting designer), Allan Branson (sound designer), Lynda J. Kwallek (properties designer) and Rob Pickens (wig designer).
The cast is led by Brent DiRoma and Jasmin Richardson. Others in the cast include Ann-Ngaire Martin, Bill Newhall, Tony Perry, Arthur L. Ross and Gregory L. Williams. The cast also includes Katie Emerson, Ryan Farnsworth, Maris Kirby, Daniel McDonald, J. Nycole Ralph, Courtney Blackmun, Michele May Clark, Tatiana H. Green, DeCarl Jones, Chris McNiff, Gregory Omar Osborne, Shuan Repetto, James Roberts, Kyron Turner and Laura Leigh Turner.
Performances are at 7pm on Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday evenings, 8pm on Friday and Saturday evenings and matinees on Sunday at 2pm. The production runs through Sunday, September 28.
The Arkansas Repertory Theatre works in partnership with the Clinton School of Public Service to participate in the UACS’s Distinguished Speaker Series, hosting educational panel discussions on various Rep productions.
The latest in these takes place today, Thursday, September 4 at 12 noon at Sturgis Hall in Clinton Presidential Park.
Join Producing Artistic Director Bob Hupp, Memphis Director Lynne Kurdziel-Formato, cast members Brent DiRoma and Jasmin Richardson, and author Marvin Schwartz for a panel discussion on this Tony Award-winning musical.
Memphis opens officially on Friday evening and runs through Sunday, September 28.
As the Arkansas Rep kicks off 2014-2015 with Memphis, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette presents The Rep’s “Pay What You Can Night.”
Patrons can pay any amount they wish for their ticket. Tickets must be purchased in person at the Box Office located at 601 Main Street the day of the performance. The Box Office will be open from 9 a.m. until curtain. Tickets are limited to (2) two per person. Offer is based on seating availability.
Kicking off Arkansas Repertory Theatre’s 2014-2015 MainStage Season is Memphis, an electrifying musical that bursts off the stage with explosive dancing, roof-raising rock ‘n’ roll and a thrilling tale of fame and forbidden love. With high-energy music by David Bryan of Bon Jovi fame, this hard-hitting story of love is loosely based on Memphis disc jockey Dewey Phillips, one of the first white DJs to play black music on the radio in the 1950s.
Winner of four Tony Awards, including Best Musical, the New York Times says Memphis “evokes the powerhouse funk of James Brown, the hot guitar riffs of Chuck Berry, the smooth harmonies of The Temptations, [and] the silken, bouncy pop of the great girl groups of the period.”
In the Beale Street nightclubs of 1950s Memphis simmers a new sound, born of the blues, gospel and rock ‘n’ roll and birthed in the Delta. It takes a young white DJ, a white man in a black world, to catapult this new sound to the airwaves of Memphis radio and into the living rooms of white Memphis. What follows is a love story that pushes the racial boundaries of the times and ignites a musical revolution that grips the entire country.
While most people know Ballet Arkansas for its long tradition of The Nutcracker, the organization is so much more and this season’s line up truly demonstrates that.” Artistic Director Michael Bearden, a former Principal Dancer with Ballet West in Salt Lake City, is delighted to announce that, for the first time, an Arkansas dance company has been authorized by the George Balanchine Trust to perform a piece from his extensive, world renown collection of works. “By authorizing Ballet Arkansas to perform one of its works, the George Balanchine Trust has put a stamp of approval on the growth our company has made. This is a huge honor and accomplishment!”
Ballet Arkansas will present three productions this season, starting off with their first annual Visions Choreographic Competition to be held in the CALS Ron Robinson Theater in the River Market on August 23rd at 7:00 pm. Thirty-six emerging choreographers from around the country competed for five spots in this competition. The winner will receive a commission to create a complete new work on Ballet Arkansas’s company dancers for their 2015 spring show. The five choreographers selected for the competition are: Sayoko Knode, former principal dancer with Idaho Dance Theatre; Jerry Opdenaker, former principal dancer for ballet companies such as Milwaukee Ballet, Pennsylvania Ballet, Kansas City Ballet and Ballet Florida; Brandon Ragland, dancer with the Louisville Ballet; Christopher Stuart dancer with Nashville Ballet; and Hilary Fullmer Wolfley who graduated in 2013 from Brigham Young University with a bachelor’s degree in Ballet. The five pieces will be judged by Adam Sklute, Artistic Director of Ballet West, Rhythm McCarthy with UALR’s Theatre and Dance Program, former Ballet Arkansas Principal Dancer Michael Tidwell with the Tidwell Project and the audience will be the fourth judge.
“I am very pleased with the talent level of our five guest choreographers” said Artistic Director, Michael Bearden “Their abilities in collaboration with our beautiful dancers will make for an evening you won’t want to miss.”
In December, Ballet Arkansas joins forces with the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra to present the annual holiday ballet, Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker at the Maumelle Performing Arts Center. With music provided by the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, a cast of 200+ youth and adult dancers from the central Arkansas area, professional guest artists, Ballet Arkansas company members and Youth Division, The Nutcracker will continue its tradition as a holiday must-see. The Nutcracker performance week includes student matinees for statewide school groups on December 11 & 12, along with the four public performances on December 12, 13 and 14th. The Nutcracker Tea at the Capital Hotel provides a wonderful complement to the performances.
In April, Ballet Arkansas will present its mixed rep show titled Who Cares? after the production’s finale piece. Dancers will be performing the concert version of Balanchine’s Who Cares? set to music by George Gershwin on the stage of the Arkansas Repertory Theatre in downtown Little Rock April 17-19, 2015, with student matinees scheduled for April 16 and 17 for statewide school groups. The concert will also feature the expanded winning choreography from the Visions competition, an excerpt from Val Caniparoli’s Lady of the Camellias, Raymonda, and a new piece by former Hubbard Street dancer Greg Sample, who will be expanding one of his existing works.
Ballet Arkansas’ performances in the 2014-2015 Season will also include an appearance at the ACANSA Arts Festival on September 28th at Wildwood Performing Arts Center, a joint collaboration with the Arkansas Symphony Youth Orchestra and Ballet Arkansas’s Youth Division at the Albert Pike Scottish Rite Temple November 14 & 15, a Master Class Series featuring Ballet Arkansas’ guest artists offering classes which can be attended by the general public, a gala in the spring of 2015, a state-wide touring program and a Student Matinee program, including student matinees at tour sites around the state.
The Arkansas Repertory Theatre is thrilled to announce that more than 75 lawyers and law professionals will once again take The Rep stage with their production of Gridiron. After a four-year hiatus, the lawyers bring back their biennial musical production spoofing Arkansas people and politics. Its played Wednesday and Thursday. It continues tonight (7 p.m. and 9 p.m.) and Saturday (8 p.m.).
Gridiron traces its origins back to 1916 when a few theatrically inclined lawyers banded together to write and perform a vaudevillian-style dinner vshow. The show was an immediate success and became an annual event. It’s now close to celebrating its 100th anniversary. Some believe it is the longest-running production of its kind in the nation.
In the 1963, the late Griffin Smith took up the mantel of Gridiron and began an extended and mutually beneficial association with the Pulaski County Bar Association, which saw the production grow in production quality and popularity.
This year’s show will be produced by the Gridironers themselves, some of whom have been in Gridiron for more than 30 years. The cast is all volunteer, but the show is professionally produced at The Rep.
“Gridiron is a special thing,” said Dent Gitchell, a 40-year veteran of the show and the show’s historical archivist. “It’s not just a hoot to watch, it’s an opportunity for lawyers, young and not-so-young – judges, paralegals, and other legal professionals – to get to know each other outside the courtroom, share a common experience, and have a lot of fun.”
It’s also something else: a way for the lawyers to give back to the community. Funds raised through ticket sales support some deserving local non-profits. This year, the lawyers intend to donate the net proceeds to The Rep and the Pulaski County Bar Foundation in appreciation for the support both institutions have given to Gridiron over the years.
Actor-director-playwright-author Ben Piazza was born on July 30, 1933, in Little Rock. Piazza graduated from Little Rock High School in 1951 as valedictorian. He also had starred in the senior play that year (The Man Who Came to Dinner) and edited the literary magazine.
Keeping the Tiger as his mascot, Piazza attended college at Princeton University. While there he continued acting, including an appearance in a Theatre Intime production of Othello. Following his 1955 graduation, he moved to New York City and studied at the Actor’s Studio.
Piazza was an understudy in the 1956 play, Too Late the Phalarope at the Belasco Theatre. In February 1958, he starred in Winesburg, Ohio sharing the National (now Nederlander) Theatre stage with James Whitmore, Dorothy McGuire, and Leon Ames. Other cast members included Claudia McNeil (who originated the part of Lena in A Raisin in the Sun) and Sandra Church (who originated the part of Gypsy Rose Lee in Gypsy).
In April 1959, Piazza starred in Kataki at the Ambassador Theatre. This two actor play also featured Sessue Hayakawa, who played a Japanese soldier who spoke only his native language. Therefore, Piazza’s part was largely a very lengthy monologue. For his performance, Piazza received one of the 1959 Theatre World Awards.
As the 1960s dawned, Piazza joined a small cadre of actors who had achieved status on Broadway who then also returned to acting Off Broadway. Colleen Dewhurst, George C. Scott, and James Earl Jones were others in this select group who helped establish Off Broadway as an entity in itself, instead of being just a farm team for Broadway.
Piazza started the 1960s on Broadway starring at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre in A Second Stringwith Shirley Booth, Jean-Pierre Aumont, Nina Foch, Cathleen Nesbitt, and Carrie Nye. Following that, he started his association with Edward Albee by appearing as the title character inThe American Dream. That play opened at the York Playhouse in January 1961. Later that year, he appeared in Albee’s The Zoo Story opposite original cast member William Daniels at the East End Theatre.
Also in 1961 Piazza starred in several plays during a South American tour sponsored by the American Repertory Company. He played Christopher Isherwood in I Am a Cameraand Chance Wayne in Sweet Bird of Youth. In 1962, he starred in a series of plays at the Cherry Lane Theatre. Piazza returned to Broadway to star along with Jane Fonda and Dyan Cannon in The Fun Couple at the Lyceum Theatre. This play had a troubled rehearsal period, which was documented in a short film about Jane Fonda.
Ben Piazza stayed on Broadway and returned to Albee in February 1963. He took over the role of Nick in the original run of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? when original actor George Grizzard left to play Hamlet at the Guthrie Theatre. (He had participated in earlier readings of the play prior to it being mounted on Broadway.)
This play was at the Billy Rose Theatre, which marked a return for Piazza. He had acted at this theatre when it was the National while doing Winseburg. Piazza played Nick for the remainder of the run and acted with Uta Hagen, Arthur Hill, fellow Arkansan Melinda Dillon, Eileen Fulton, Nancy Kelly, Mercedes McCambridge, Rochelle Oliver and Sheppard Strudwick.
During the run of this show, Piazza’s novel The Exact and Very Strange Truth was published. It is a fictionalized account of his growing up in Little Rock during the 1930s and 1940s. The book is filled with references to Centennial Elementary, Westside Junior High, Central High School, Immanuel Baptist Church and various stores and shops in Little Rock during that era. The Piazza Shoe Store, located on Main Street, was called Gallanti’s.
Following Virginia Woolf, he starred in The Zoo Story at the Cherry Lane Theatre in 1965. In August of 1967, his play The Sunday Agreement premiered at LaMaMa. This was Piazza’s first playwright output to be professionally staged.
As Sunday Agreement was opening, Piazza was in rehearsal for his next Broadway opening. He appeared with Alfred Drake in The Song of the Grasshopper in September 1967. In 1968, he returned to Albee and starred in The Death of Bessie Smith and The Zoo Story in repertory on Broadway at the Billy Rose Theatre.
Later that season, in March 1969, a double bill of his one-acts: Lime Green/Khaki Blue opened at the Provincetown Playhouse. It was directed by future Tony nominee Peter Masterson and starred Louise Lasser, Robert Walden (who starred in the 2013 production of Death of a Salesman at Arkansas Repertory Theatre), Clinton Allmon and Dolores Dorn-Heft, to whom Piazza was married at the time.
Throughout the 1960s and early 1970s, Piazza toured in many plays nationally and internationally. He also appeared in major regional theatres as an actor and a director. During this time period he was in productions of Bus Stop, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, You Know I Can’t Hear You when the Water’s Running and Savages. In 1970, he starred as Stanley Kowalski in a production of A Streetcar Named Desire in New Orleans. As the 1970s progressed, he turned his focus to television and movies.
Piazza’s film debut was in a 1959 Canadian film called The Dangerous Age. That same year, his Hollywood film debut came opposite Gary Cooper, Karl Malden, Maria Schell and George C. Scott in The Hanging Tree. Though he received positive reviews for his performances, Piazza chose to return to New York and perform in stage and TV productions.
Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, he appeared in a number of TV shows including Studio One, Kraft Theatre, Zane Grey Theatre, The Naked City and Dick Powell Theatre. He had a recurring role during one season of Ben Casey and appeared on the soap opera Love of Life.
In the 1970s, he starred in the films Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon; The Candy Snatchers and I Never Promised You a Rose Garden. He also starred as the City Councilman who recruits Walter Matthau to coach a baseball team in The Bad News Bears.
Among his numerous TV appearances in the 1970s were The Waltons, Mannix, Switch, Barnaby Jones, Gunsmoke, Mod Squad and Lou Grant (where he was reunited with Walden).
In the 1980s, he appeared in The Blues Brothers, The Rockford Files, Barney Miller, Hart to Hart, Family Ties, The Winds of War, Dallas, Dynasty, Too Close for Comfort, The A Team, Saint Elsewhere, Santa Barbara, The Facts of Life, Mr. Belvedere, Moonlighting and Matlock.
Piazza’s final big screen appearance was in the 1991 film Guilty by Suspicion. He played studio head Darryl Zanuck in this Robert DeNiro-Annette Bening tale of Hollywood during the Red scare.
Ben Piazza died on September 7, 1991.
Little Rock Culture Vulture 