Due to the University’s ongoing efforts to stem the spread of COVID-19 (coronavirus), this event has been canceled.
Curtain Call, the University of Lynchburg’s musical theatre ensemble, will perform its annual Curtain Call Cabaret at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, March 27 and 28, in the Dillard Fine Arts Center Theatre. Tickets, available via Etix, are $5 and the show is family friendly.
The show includes musical numbers from some of the hottest Broadway plays and films, performed in cabaret or revue style. “Each song becomes its own little play, with a beginning, middle, and end to it and they have to create characters for each number they’re part of,” Loretta Wittman, Curtain Call’s director, explained.
This year’s Cabaret will include music from “Bandstand,” a Broadway musical that tells the story of veterans returning from WWII who form a band and enter a contest to win national radio and movie contracts.
“It deals with thorny issues of PTSD and mental health, which were not often discussed in that era,” Dana Ballard, Curtain Call’s musical director, said. “It’s best known for its infectious, energetic big-band score and super-fun choreography.”
There will be songs from “Bright Star,” a Broadway musical about love, class struggle, heartache, and reconciliation in 1940s North Carolina. The music for “Bright Star” was written by comedian and bluegrass musician Steve Martin and Edie Brickell, lead singer of the band Edie Brickell & New Bohemians.
A bluegrass band will join Curtain Call on stage for that portion of the show.
Curtain Call also will take on “Memphis,” a Broadway show loosely based on the story of Memphis disc jockey Dewey Phillips. Phillips was one of the first white DJs to play what was thought of as “black music” in the 1950s.
Rounding out the lineup will be music from Disney’s “Frozen” and “Frozen II.”
“The main, cool features of this year’s show will be the live bluegrass band on stage with the singers, and lots of new faces in the group,” Ballard said. “It will be exciting!”
For more information, contact Wittman at 434.544.8356 or wittman_l@lynchburg.edu.
