Tag Archives: Harold Arlen

Go Off to see THE WIZARD OF OZ this afternoon at the CALS Ron Robinson Theater

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RRT Wizard_of_oz_movie_poster“Follow the Yellow Brick Road”

“There’s No Place Like Home”

“I’ll Get You, My Pretty”

“And Toto, too!”

Those are just a few of the famous lines from the iconic 1939 MGM Technicolor classic The Wizard of Oz.  The CALS Ron Robinson Theater will be screening it today (February 13) at 2pm for $5.  Concessions are available for purchase.

Based on the L. Frank Baum novel (which launched a series of books), this film was directed by Victor Fleming (who also received credit for directing another 1939 classic – Gone with the Wind – but that’s another story).  For Judy Garland, Ray Bolger, Bert Lahr, Jack Haley and Margaret Hamilton – this film was the source of their iconic roles.  Frank Morgan played the titular role, while Billie Burke essayed the role of Glinda.

The movie was nominated for six Oscars, and picked up two – Best Score (Herbert Stothart) and Best Song (E. Y. “Yip” Harburg and Harold Arlen for “Over the Rainbow”).  The year 1939 has largely been considered the best  year for movies during the Golden Age of Hollywood, so picking up two Oscars in the year of Gone with the Wind, Ninotchka, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Stage Coach, Wuthering Heights, Intermezzo, and The Hunchback of Notre Dame is quite an accomplishment.

While now viewed as a classic, it took 14 writers and five directors as well as several re-castings to get the movie finished.  This afternoon is the chance to see it again on the big screen.

WIZARD OF OZ with Ark Symphony this weekend

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ASO_revONE WEEKEND ONLY – FOLLOW THE YELLOW BRICK ROAD TO ROBINSON CENTER and experience THE WIZARD OF OZ like you never have before.

The Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, Philip Mann, Music Director and Conductor, presents the fourth concert in its 2013-2014 Acxiom Pops Live! Series: Wizard of Oz with Orchestra on March 8 at 8 p.m. and March 9 at 3 p.m. at the Robinson Center Music Hall.  Media sponsor for the Pops Live! Series is The Point 94.1.

The ASO will screen the entire classic film The Wizard of Oz while the lush score is performed by live symphonic orchestra. The ASO will perform the live score while the film itself is projected on the big screen. Audiences will hear and see Judy Garland, Ray Bolger, Frank Morgan, Bert Lahr, Jack Haley, Billie Burke and Margaret Hamilton as well as the rest of the cast from this classic film alongside Arkansas’ own Symphony Orchestra. The ASO will be playing Harold Arlen’s score live as the movie plays overhead.

Single tickets are $18, $34, $47 and $59; active military and student tickets are $10 and can be purchased online at www.ArkansasSymphony.org; at the Robinson Center box office 90 minutes prior to a concert; or by phone at 501-666-1761.  All Arkansas students grades K-12 are admitted to Sunday’s matinee free of charge with purchase of an adult ticket using Entergy Kids’ Ticket, downloadable at the ASO website.

When The Wizard of Oz was originally recorded in the late 1930s, it was a technical marvel for MGM. The orchestral score was recorded separately from the actors voices, giving Emmy-Award winning producer John Goberman (Live from Lincoln Center, A Symphonic Night at the Movies) the inspiration to create Oz with Orchestra, in which audiences will experience Harold Arlen’s lush, live orchestration backing the original 1939 studio recordings of Judy Garland, Roy Bolger and the rest of the characters singing the classic music from the film.

The Arkansas Symphony Orchestra celebrates its 48th season in 2013-2014 under the leadership of Music Director Philip Mann. ASO is the resident orchestra of Robinson Center Music Hall, and performs more than thirty concerts each year for more than 42,000 people through its Stella Boyle Smith Masterworks Series, ACXIOM Pops LIVE! Series and Parker Lexus River Rhapsodies Chamber Series, in addition to serving central Arkansas through numerous community outreach programs and bringing live symphonic music education to over 24,000 school children and over 200 schools.

Ark. Symphony welcomes WICKED Divas

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The Arkansas Symphony Orchestra closes out the 2011-2012 Pops season with a program entitled “Wicked Divas.”

Under the baton of Associate Conductor Geoffrey Robson, the ASO will be joined by Eden Espinosa and Emily Rozek for an evening of Broadway power songs.  Both actors have Broadway credits and have appeared in productions of Wicked.

Among  the numbers which will be performed are:

The Overture to Gypsy (Jule Styne); selections from Carmen (Bizet); selections from Chicago (John Kander), “I Could Have Danced All Night” from My Fair Lady (Alan Jay Lerner, Frederick Loewe); “Back to Before” from Ragtime (Stephen Flaherty, Lynn Ahrens); “Think of Me” from The Phantom of the Opera (Andrew Lloyd Webber); “Ring Them Bells” (John Kander and Fred Ebb); and “Over the Rainbow” from The Wizard of Oz (Harold Arlen, Yip Harburg);.

From Wicked, they will perform “Popular,” “Defying Gravity” and “For Good.”

The concert is being presented tonight at 8pm and tomorrow at 3pm at Robinson Center Music Hall.