An update on art and entertainment options across the region
Before they were a team, Rodgers and Hammerstein had their own successful writing partnerships. Rodgers and Lorenz Hart collaborated on over 30 productions filled with classic songs like “My Funny Valentine,” “Bewitched Bothered and Bewildered,” “ Mimi,” “This Can’t Be Love” and “Little Boy Blue,” performed by legendary singers such as Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, Maurice Chevalier, Nat King Cole, Janice Joplin and Johnny Mathis. Meanwhile Hammerstein partnered with popular musical theatre composer Jerome Kern on numerous productions, including their most popular, “Show Boat.” Guest vocalists will join the Northwest Indiana Symphony and Chorus in selections of hits from the show including “Ol’ Man River,” “Make Believe” and “Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man.” 219/836-0525 or www.nisorchestra.org
Four Valparaiso Community School events comprise this year’s Spring into the Arts festival, kicking off on April 21 with the Art-chitecture Walk, “where art meets Valpo,” a showcase of student artwork, grades K-12, at seven downtown landmark locations. Valparaiso University art students and community artists will also be on display at participating business locations. The artwork remains on display through May 20. On April 28, this year‘s STEAM Show will allow the public to view, interact with, and even make inventions. If you’ve ever wondered how to program a robot, design circuitry or create scratch code, this event is for you. STEAM stands for science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics. This year’s celebration of digital production and film includes a contest for Valpo students of any age. Students will be invited to submit a one-minute digital video in one of five online categories. Selected winners will be announced and featured at a red carpet event, The Valpo Film Festival. The closing event will feature a scavenger hunt throughout downtown Valparaiso in search of none other than Vincent Van Gogh. Attendees will receive clues to be found at participating downtown businesses. www.springintothearts.com/
One of the most popular and successful musicals in recent memory, this deliciously fun revue is chock-full of classic barbershop quartet harmonies and pitch-perfect melodies. Once upon a time, there were four guys (Sparky, Smudge, Jinx and Frankie) who discovered that they shared a love for music and got together to become their idols, The Four Freshman, The Hi-Lo’s and The Crew Cuts. Rehearsing in the basement of Smudge’s family’s plumbing supply company, they became “Forever Plaid.” On the way to their first big gig, the Plaids are broadsided by a school bus and killed instantly. It is at the moment when their careers and lives end that this story begins. Singing in close harmony, squabbling boyishly over the smallest intonations and executing their charmingly outlandish choreography with overzealous precision, the Plaids are a guaranteed smash, with a program of beloved songs and delightful patter that keeps audiences rolling in the aisles when they’re not humming along to some of the great nostalgic pop hits of the 1950s. At Theatre at the Center, Munster, May 3 through June 3. 219/836-3255 or www.theatreatthecenter.com
The Lubeznik Center for the Arts in Michigan City is pleased to present original works by Andy Warhol on loan from the Drew and Wendy Levenfeld Collection and the Brauer Museum of Art at Valparaiso University. Over fifty original screen prints, watercolors, photographs and Polaroids will be on display, June 9 through October 13. The exhibit will also include a group of emerging and mid-career artists whose work has been influenced by Warhol. Here’s a great opportunity to engage with the work of one of the most influential and iconic Pop artists of our time. 219/874-4900 or www.lubeznikcenter.org
Click to read more from the Apr-May 2018 issue of Northwest Indiana Business Magazine.
