Indiana University

News Release

Sunday, April 25, 2010

Last modified: Sunday, April 25, 2010

New IU Auditorium season features Blue Man Group, The Chieftains, David Sedaris, top Broadway shows

  1. Print this page

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 25, 2010

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Indiana University Auditorium's 2010-2011 season features a mixture of contemporary music, Tony Award-winning Broadway shows, beautifully crafted classical music and ballet performances, and holiday traditions. The season is scheduled to run from October through April.

From the comedic styling of David Sedaris to the Broadway classic A Chorus Line and performances by The Cleveland Orchestra and Blue Man Group, this season provides a variety of diverse events for a broad audience.

"This year's carefully chosen selections will elevate, inspire, uplift and entertain," said Doug Booher, director of IU Auditorium. "We spend time throughout the year asking our audience what they'd like to see, so we feel confident the community will be excited to see debuts like Blue Man Group, Legally Blonde and Monty Python's Spamalot. With Kodo and The Chieftains back by popular demand, it's going to be a very exciting season."

Patrons can subscribe to an IU Auditorium season by choosing five shows and either deferring part of the payment through the "50-50 Payment Plan" or, for IU employees, paying through payroll deduction. Also at this time, patrons can pre-order up to four shows to get better seats than those that will become available when single tickets go on sale to the general public in September. For more on subscriber and pre-order benefits, see IUauditorium.com or call 812-855-1103.

2010-2011 IU Auditorium Season

David Sedaris
October 6
8 p.m.
General Public: $35-$45
IU Bloomington Students: $25-$39

The king of self-deprecating comedy, David Sedaris uses his words to paint pictures of situations both familiar and ridiculous, mining everything from his upbringing in an eccentric Greek family to his odd jobs in the years before he started getting paid to write. He was Time magazine's "Humorist of the Year" in 2001 and has been nominated for three Grammy Awards for Best Spoken Word and Best Comedy Album.

Among his best-selling books are Barrel Fever and Holidays on Ice and the personal essay collections Naked, Me Talk Pretty One Day, Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, and When You Are Engulfed in Flames. He is a frequent contributor to The New Yorker and can be heard reading his original radio pieces on NPR's This American Life.

'Legally Blonde'
October 19-20
8 p.m.
General Public: $38-$60
IU Bloomington Students: $20-$41

Sorority princess Elle Woods follows her man to Harvard Law School after college graduation to prove she's serious enough for him. In the Broadway version of Legally Blonde, which is based upon the 2001 Reese Witherspoon film by the same name, Elle fights her way to the top of Harvard Law with musical dance numbers and a Greek chorus of her sorority sisters.

Dennis James Hosts Halloween
October 27
7:30 p.m. (Family-Friendly)
General Public: $14-$19
IU Bloomington Students: $8-$16

Dennis James honed his craft at IU's Jacobs School of Music in the 1960s and will return in October for his annual Halloween performance. When James and the IU Auditorium's 4,500-pipe organ are reunited, it's a spooky Halloween treat like no other. This year, James will play a new solo organ score he composed specifically for The Bat (1926) by Roland West, then considered Hollywood's finest director of mystery movies. West converted the Broadway stage melodrama The Bat into a classic of cinematic intrigue that later inspired the Batman comic books, which in turn inspired Batman TV shows and films.

DRUMLine Live
November 13
7:30 p.m. (Family-Friendly)
General Public: $30-$45
IU Bloomington Students and Children: $15-$39

There's so much to see and hear at a DRUMLine Live show -- athletic step dancing, funky choreography, resounding trumpets, pulsating drum riffs -- its easy to forget that the group is, at its core, a marching band. Founded and directed by Don Roberts, DRUMLine Live is rooted in the marching band traditions of Historically Black Colleges and Universities, a tradition that began more than 50 years ago at Florida A&M University. The cast is composed of one drum major, five dancers, more than 30 wind and percussion players and a host, all of whom are current students or alumni from Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Roberts creates original arrangements using sounds from the great brass past, current hip-hop and R&B in addition to original compositions.

'A Chorus Line'
November 16-17
8 p.m.
General Public: $38-$60
IU Bloomington Students and Children: $20-$41

Before the days of reality shows such as "American Idol" and "So You Think You Can Dance," thousands of young hopefuls flocked to a singular city -- New York -- praying for a big break in a Broadway show. A Chorus Line shares the journeys of 17 would-be "triple threats." These actor-singer-dancers have worked their entire careers to get to this point -- not a shot at superstardom, but a chance to get a paying job in a professional show that just might lead to something else. Before making his final cut, the director asks each dancer to talk about themselves. One by one, each of the 17 comes forward, ultimately revealing far more than can be conveyed through a resume through desperate, funny, powerful and poignant songs that include "I Hope I Get It," "Sing," "I Felt Nothing" and "Every Little Step."

'Chimes of Christmas'
December 8
7:30 p.m. (Family-Friendly)
General Public: $14-$20
IU Bloomington Students: $11-$15

Chimes of Christmas has been an IU tradition since the late 1950s and continues to attract a larger-and-larger audience each year. The directors of the Jacobs School's IU Wind Ensemble, the Grammy Award-nominated Singing Hoosiers, and the Trombone Choir collaborate on the concert program, creating a set list that incorporates both contemporary and classic holiday favorites, along with a dash of humor and a visit from Old Saint Nick himself.

With up to 30 musical numbers on the program each year, past Chimes shows have featured "Silent Night," "Jingle Bells," and "First Noel," as well as "Bashan Haba'an," a Hebrew plea for peace, "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" and "Hallelujah" from Handel's Messiah.

The Cleveland Orchestra
January 25
8 p.m.
General Public: $43-$59
IU Bloomington Students: $20-$43

In January, IU Auditorium will host The Cleveland Orchestra, the highly anticipated visit that will include a residency program, bringing world-class musicians to work side-by-side with students.

Founded in 1918 under the direction of the revered Russian-American conductor Nikolai Sokoloff, the group today is thriving under the baton of Austrian conductor Franz Welser-Möst, entering its 93nd year with polished, passionate, ever-innovative music. The IU Auditorium performance features pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard with a program that will include the Wagner Overture to Tannhäuser, Bartók's Piano Concerto No. 2, and Ein Heldenleben by Richard Strauss.

'Fiddler on the Roof'
February 8-9
8 p.m.
General Public: $38-$60
IU Bloomington Students: $20-$41

A timeless classic with a book by Joseph Stein, music by Jerry Bock, and lyrics by Sheldon Hamick, Fiddler on the Roof is based on the short story "Tevye and His Daughters" by Sholom Aleichem, with a title inspired by the painting The Fiddler by Marc Chagall. Tevye, a harried Jewish milk man, tries to protect his five blossoming daughters from outside influences and preserve his family's religious traditions in the face of ever-encroaching modernity. Meanwhile, the Jewish families living in Anatevka face evacuation from the only home they've ever known. This Broadway musical has spoken to generations and the score includes the enduring songs "To Life," "Matchmaker," "If I Were a Rich Man," "Miracles of Miracles" and "Sunrise, Sunset."

'Spring Awakening'
February 22
8 p.m.
General Public: $38-$60
IU Bloomington Students: $20-$41

The pains and joys of adolescence are addressed in Spring Awakening, a contemporary Broadway musical that draws inspiration from a controversial, 19th-century coming-of-age play by Frank Wedekind. Since it opened on Broadway in 2006, this musical, with a score composed by alt-rocker Duncan Sheik and the moving book and lyrics by Steven Sater, has won eight Tony Awards, including Best Musical in 2007. Angst-ridden, hormonal teens deal with gut-wrenching topics -- teen suicide, sexual urges, unplanned pregnancy, and physical abuse—while the adults who surround them are controlling without providing help or support. Wrote The New York Times of Spring Awakening, "This brave new musical, haunting and electrifying by turns, restores the mystery, the thrill, and quite a bit of the terror to that shattering transformation that stirs in all our souls sometime around the age of 13, well before most of us have the intellectual apparatus in place to analyze its impact."

Kodo
February 25
7:30 p.m. (Family-Friendly)
General Public: $35-$45
IU Bloomington Students and Children: $17-$39

Since 1981, the founders of the Japanese drum group Kodo have made their home on or near Sado Island, Japan, with a spiritual focus on "living, learning and creating" that is enhanced and inspired by the nature that surrounds them. Kodo's nearly 25 performers, men and women ranging in age from early 20s to late 50s, will visit IU Auditorium to present their traditional taiko Japanese drumming. Traveling with the performers will be up to 50 apprentices, staff members and junior Kodo members, all of whom are working toward a more permanent role in the group. Writes the group of its mission, "We want to create a self-supporting and unique culture -- a place where people of all cultures can interact surrounded by natures' beauty and bounty. A public square where something is always being born."

The Chieftains
March 1
8 p.m.
General Public: $40-$55
IU Bloomington Students: $19-$40

Since its debut album in 1962, the Irish band The Chieftains has brought Irish music to the masses, seamlessly melding traditional Celtic music with the modern. Throughout the band's nearly 50 years together, The Chieftains has been involved in events both intimate and historic. It was the first musical group to perform on the Great Wall; took part in Roger Waters' "The Wall" performance in Berlin in 1990; and was the first band to give a concert in the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C., at the invitation of former Speaker of the House "Tip" O'Neill. The Chieftains has also performed for the Pope and at a memorial service honoring the victims of the September 11th attacks. The group has collaborated with symphonies, folk singers, bluegrass musicians, rockers, pop singers, and of course, traditional Irish musicians, resulting in six Grammy Award-winning albums, 18 Grammy nominations, and an Emmy Award, among other honors.

Blue Man Group
February 1-2
8 p.m.
General Public: $38-$60
IU Bloomington Students: $20-$41

From spraying scads of crazy confetti to turning tubes and vacuum cleaners into musical instruments or consuming mass quantities of Cap'n Crunch cereal, Blue Man Group's wild on-stage antics combine music, comedy, art and multimedia. The group that has made multiple appearances on "The Tonight Show" and performed in New York, Chicago, Boston, Los Angeles, Berlin and Tokyo. Blue Man founders Chris Wink, Matt Goldman and Phil Stanton have met with the Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama and shot hoops with the Harlem Globetrotters. They started a creative expression-based school in New York in 2008 and even developed a line of musical toys. But they remain passionate about touring to share their collective creative gifts through the magic that can only happen during live performance.

The Joffrey Ballet
April 5
8 p.m.
General Public: $20-$35
IU Bloomington Students: $10-$30

The Joffrey Ballet is known as "America's Ballet Company of Firsts" for a good reason: It was the first dance company to perform at the White House (at the invitation of Jacqueline Kennedy), the first to appear on television, the first American ballet company to visit Russia, the first classical dance company to incorporate multimedia into its performances, and the first -- and only -- dance company to be featured on the cover of Time magazine. The Joffrey Ballet has "set a standard in ballet" for more than a half-century, writes the Chicago Tribune. In addition to performing and touring, it is now the focus for a new unscripted TV series, "First Position," where dancers ages 17-22 will compete for a spot with the renowned ballet company. The IU Auditorium performance will include Reflections, with choreography by Gerald Arpino and music by Peter Tchaikovsky; ". . . smile with my heart," featuring choreography by Lar Lubovitch and music by Marvin Laird; and a world premiere by choreographer James Kudelka with music by Bohuslav Martinu.

'Spamalot'
April 27-28
8 p.m.
General Public: $38-$60
IU Bloomington Students: $20-$41

The quest for the Holy Grail is on in Monty Python's Spamalot, the hit Broadway musical that lovingly spoofs the 1975 film Monty Python and the Holy Grail. This King Arthur tale includes the Knights of the Round Table and plenty of men in tights, but with some notable additions: up-to-the-minute pop culture references, Laker Girls cheerleaders, and a Killer Rabbit. The musical's book and lyrics were written by Eric Idle, a member of the original Monty Python team, who co-wrote the music with John Du Prez. In the song "His Name Is Lancelot," viewers are treated to the lyrics "His name is Lancelot! / And in tight pants a lot / He likes to dance a lot." While Monty Python fans will be lining up for Spamalot, the show's broad appeal was evidenced by its three Tony Awards in its 2004-2005 debut season, grossing more than $175 million over an initial 1,500-run performance.

For more information about IU Auditorium, see www.IUAuditorium.com.


Web Version

https://newsinfo.iu.edu/news/page/normal/14195.html

IU News Room
530 E. Kirkwood Ave., Suite 201
Bloomington, IN 47408-4003
Email: iuinfo@indiana.edu
Web: https://newsinfo.iu.edu