Davy Jones and The Monkees jam at Applebees Parks first concert on May 27, 2001 in Lexington Kentucky. Jones, the British Invasion-era singer who became a household heartthrob as a member of the Monkees, has died in Florida. He was 66. (Mark Cornelison/Lexington Herald-Leader/MCT)

My adolescent fantasy has become reality. I saw Davy Jones live — so close I could almost touch him.

While that was the dream of a 10-year-old, nearly 30 years later, it was Peter Tork I couldn’t keep my eyes off of. When The Monkees swung through Cedar Rapids to kick off the Taste of Iowa festival Friday night, it was the goofy one who captured my attention.

Tork grinned like a little kid at Christmas, clowned around with the audience and his fellow simians, and looked like there was nothing he’d rather do than perform. Michael Nesmith, on the other hand, reportedly hates touring, and stayed in L.A. to finish the group’s latest album.

So it was Tork, Jones and Micky Dolenz who rocked the night away, under a backdrop of perfect weather and with a standing-room-only crowd grooving on May’s Island.

What was touted as two concerts, at 7 and 9 p.m., was really one long event, from 7:30 to 9:50 p.m., with one 20-minute intermission.

So if you left at the 8:30 break, you missed “Daydream Believer,” my favorite, and if you came at 9, you missed “Last Train To Clarksville,” my other favorite.

“That Was Then, This Is Now” could have been the theme for the evening, as the music was vintage ’60s, but the look was ’90s hip. Time has been kind to the trio – they look and sound just as great as I remember.

They still do the cornball quips typical of their campy TV show, like Dolenz telling the crowd, “We have another oldie but goodie for you, and he’s going to sing,” then turning the mike over to Tork.

All three took turns on lead vocals, backed by a terrific array of instrumentals, from synth and cymbals to saxes and hot electric guitar.

Dolenz showed off his jazz roots, with a soulful, wailing solo turn on “Since I Fell For You.” Jones took the “pretty little ditties” like “It’s Nice To Be With You,” but he really shined belting out “Valleri.”

Tork romped through the novelty songs, and even strummed the banjo on “(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher.” That wasn’t his best moment vocally, but the banjo lent a kicky, unexpected edge to this cover tune.

Critics have blasted this made-for-TV band for turning out bubble gum hits. But the group proves its genuine musicianship and diversity with raw, raucous garage blues on “Mary, Mary,” jazz scat from Dolenz, gutsy screaming on “I’m Not Your Stepping Stone” and mesmerizing waves of lyrics and flute on “I Wanna Be Free.”

I’m a believer.

NOTE: This review by Diana Nollen was originally published in The Gazette Aug. 31, 1996.

See also — Monkees reminiscing: Cedar Rapids appearance

Brian Baron of Iowa City hands a speaker cover down to Douglas Cannon of Iowa City while the two, both I.A.T.S.E. Local 690 members, set up speakers for a show by comedian John Oliver at the Iowa Memorial Union Main Ballroom on Saturday, Jan. 28, 2012, in Iowa City. (Liz Martin/The Gazette)

IOWA CITY — After 36 years of dominating the state’s cultural scene, Hancher Auditorium’s world turned upside down in June 2008.

Fighting back from the floods that hit the University of Iowa campus that year has forced the staff to find new ways to keep the UI’s premier fine arts center and its offerings vibrant and vital.

But with a new building on the horizon, another new normal is unfolding.

“It’s not business as usual,” Executive Director Chuck Swanson said, for Hancher’s staff, students and volunteers.

“We’ve weathered the situation without a building,” Swanson, 58, of Coralville, said. “We’re still presenting top-tier artists. We’re still a major presenter in the country. We’re still presenting nothing but the world’s finest. Artists all around the world are waiting to come to Hancher — we hear that from artists all the time.”

Many of those artists, from national Broadway touring shows to major dance companies, simply need a bigger space than area venues hosting Hancher shows in the interim can provide.

“We’ve not stopped doing the business that we do,” Swanson said.

They’re just doing it new ways, discovering that some of the changes forced upon them are reaping rewards.

“We’ve become so much more creative in what we’re doing. In a lot of ways, we’re thinking a lot like artists now — how do we do this in a different way that will have a great impact on the audience,” Swanson said.

Preliminary design sketches went public Feb. 7 for a gleaming new $161 million Hancher complex on higher ground near the former site. The announcement ushers in “a great time” that’s “like a dream,” Swanson said.

Ground may be broken by fall for all three University of Iowa arts buildings ruined by flooding — Hancher, the $78 million Studio Arts building and the $148 million School of Music complex — UI President Sally Mason said.

Swanson said work has been under way for 16 months on the new Hancher building, but visible progress in the coming months will be a welcomed sight for area business leaders, patrons and staff eager to embrace Hancher’s new era.

“Once the structure starts going up, people will breathe a sigh of relief. We’ve been patient up to this point — we’ll have to be patient a few more years,” said Mark Ginsberg, 54, of Iowa City, a Hancher patron, donor and owner of M.C. Ginsberg Objects of Art in downtown Iowa City since 1984.

“For those of us who are regular theatergoers, in the blink of an eye it’s going to be back. For those of us (business owners) going through it right now, it seems painstakingly slow,” he said.

Ginsberg longs for the foot traffic and air of electricity once generated by events in the 2,533-seat auditorium ruined in 2008.

“To have lost that for several years, we’ve all felt that — those of us with businesses on the ground floors, people going to restaurants or buying clothing or soap or buying a new book — all of that was done as a tiny holiday,” Ginsberg said. “That dynamic has been lost at least temporarily. We look forward to it coming back, with open arms and big smiles.”

New stages

Hancher has been on the road since fall 2008, building temporary stages in ballrooms, arenas and parks, filling church sanctuaries, high school stages and venues seating anywhere from 482 at the new Coralville Center for the Performing Arts to 1,200 at the Riverside Casino Event Center. Many events have landed in the 725-seat Englert Theatre in downtown Iowa City.

The Boston Pops’ recent holiday concert is an exception, as 3,500 people flocked to Carver-Hawkeye Arena to hear America’s orchestra on Nov. 27.

More design specifics will be presented to the Board of Regents in March, but Swanson said plans call for downsizing the new auditorium to about 1,800 seats, which will improve the experience for audiences and performers alike.

That’s the going trend in arts construction, he said, unlike the larger houses built when Hancher opened in 1972.

Chuck Swanson, Hancher Auditorium executive director

“You don’t see facilities built at that size now,” Swanson said. “We’re after the best experience we can bring to our audience. Acoustically it’s going to be amazing, the sightlines will be terrific. It’s all about the experience. The architects are thrilled to be working with a capacity of this size. I do think we’ll end up being so pleased with the final product.”

Dramatic drops

With scaled-back seasons and seating capacities at host venues, Hancher attendance totals have fallen from 55,103 over 53 events in the 2006-07 season to 12,274 over 23 events in the 2010-11 season.

Programming revenues have fallen from nearly $2.5 million in 2006-07 to $874,169 in 2010-11.

Programming expenses have fallen accordingly, but rental income from receptions, meetings and other public uses have washed away. (see chart)

Since Hancher is not a stand-alone entity like Theatre Cedar Rapids, Orchestra Iowa or other area presenters displaced by the floods, the UI can cover Hancher shortfalls until it moves into its new home and ramps up programming and other campus and community offerings.

Local impact

Despite having fewer events and audience numbers, Hancher-on-the-go continues to make a major local impact on communities where performances are given.

Josh Schamberger, president, Iowa City-Coralville Convention & Visitors Bureau

“It’s one of the more signature attractions for our community,” said Josh Schamberger, 38, of Coralville, president of the Iowa City/Coralville Convention and Visitors Bureau.

“I refer to it as one of our ‘attracters’ — an attraction that in and of itself, has the ability to bring people to our community,” he said.

Even so, “the quicker they can get that (building) back up, the better for our community,” Schamberger said.

Exact economic impact figures aren’t tracked, Swanson and Schamberger said, but Swanson noted that in addition to audience dollars filtering through area businesses, the artists spend money locally.

He said the Boston Pops reserved 100 hotel rooms for its personnel while in Iowa City.

“Ballet West and Hubbard Street (dancers) were here for three weeks,” he added. “These artists get out. They love to shop, they love to eat and they spend money. There’s still stuff out there happening.”

Mark Ginsberg, Iowa City businessman and Hancher patron

Ginsberg said: “Hancher provides an alter-ego in the state that’s irreplaceable, a cultural and economic attraction where people linger. Hancher is a big reason people come here, outside of athletics and academics. Culture is a big attraction. They wouldn’t have branded us the ‘Creative Corridor’ for no reason. Hancher is part of the denominator of that brand.”

Ginsberg, who makes a six-figure investment in area arts programming, including Hancher, calls it “an easy decision to make as part of my marketing budget,” one that makes good business sense.

“Every city has a simple grocery store, but not every city has a world-class theater,” he said.

Missed experiences

Part of the Hancher challenge is meeting students’ academic needs, as well as providing cultural opportunities that foster continuing interest and support of the arts.

By 2015, an entire generation of students will not have experienced the aura of the former Hancher building and its grand lobby.

“Great artists are not just about the venue,” Swanson said. “We’ve continued to create those experiences that we talk about as the ‘true Hancher experience.’”

Social media is helping Hancher connect with students and adults. Swanson said Hancher has more than 2,000 Facebook friends and is sending emails to more patrons than ever before.

Hancher also has stepped up its interdisciplinary reach, creating and co-sponsoring events and forums that unite arts and academics in tangible ways, from the February 2010 world premiere of Rinde Eckert’s “Eye Piece” play exploring vision loss to the recent “Iowa and Invisible Man” series looking at the black experience at the UI.

Video: Rinde Eckert talks in January 2010 with retired Hancher Auditorium artistic director Judith Hurtig about Eye Piece, a play commissioned by Hancher

Lessons learned

“When I talked with peers around the country in 2008, everybody was so concerned with the economic meltdown, but we also had the flood — a double sort of whammy,” Swanson said. “Right away we started thinking in different ways about how to go about our business.

“We’ve learned a lot,” he said. “It hasn’t been all bad.”

Quick to praise his staff, he said, “There’s a lot to deal with when you’re kind of nomads, going from place to place. The box office has had to search for and get online access, the production staff has to load things up to take to a show, so we’ve added a load-up to the load-in and load-out.

“For the front of house staff, every time they want students to be part of that, they have to go to the new place and teach them where the restrooms are and the seating chart,” Swanson said.

“Every time is a new experience.”

Some shows have not gone smoothly, with mishaps ranging from a piece of Styrofoam smacking against an air vent during a string quartet concert to rain drenching several outdoor dance performances. “At the Boston Pops, we found out 10 minutes before the show that about 50 seats people had tickets for didn’t exist,” he said. “We had to scramble at the last minute, but the patrons were so understanding.”

Patrick Dolphin-Leahy of Mount Vernon, a University of Iowa Memorial Union facilities mechanic works on a power tap to increase the power allowance to run lights and sound for a show by comedian John Oliver at the IMU Main Ballroom on Saturday, Jan. 28, 2012, in Iowa City. The show was a Hancher production. (Liz Martin/The Gazette)

Backstage, life is “about as different as it can be,” Ken Schumacher, Hancher’s production manager, said as stagehands and technicians were creating a stage, lighting and sound Jan. 28 for John Oliver’s standup comedy show that night in the Iowa Memorial Union’s Main Lounge.

“What you’re watching us do today is, for all practical purposes, building a theater where there isn’t one,” said Schumacher, 62, of Tiffin. “Some of the places we do shows are theaters, like the Englert, which is extraordinarily well-equipped, so the preparation isn’t so onerous. But here, there’s the process of building the infrastructure that’s required before you can prepare” for the show.”

Looking ahead

A mountain of planning and decisions await before Hancher’s new doors open in December 2015. Not the least of which is keeping ahead of the rapidly evolving state-of-the-art technology necessary to bring audiences an awe-inspiring experience.

Production manager Schumacher is well aware of the challenge. “I’m looking forward to the people with whom I work being able to have the tools that will allow them to be as good as they are, rather than whatever they can throw into the back of a truck,” he said.

The learning curve will be monstrous, he said. “It’s one of the things we wonder about and worry about. Nobody has told us a day when it’s going to be ready … we have a year (set for the reopening). So when do you start preparing for that? When do you start booking your acts? What if you start booking an act and something grievous happens and you’re the room isn’t ready? That’s the fear.”

Evaluating and choosing technical equipment is daunting, he said.

“You have to have time to learn a new set of tools. … We want something that is good quality, that is current, that’s not going to get obsolete on us in a year and that visiting artists will use. …

“This is a rare opportunity for us, but scary, too.”

Sidebar: Patrons’ Hancher habits started in college

“I think our huge contribution was $25, which allowed you to buy tickets ahead of the general public,” Abernathy, 64, of Cedar Rapids, said about their first donation to Hancher. “We (donated) because we wanted to buy tickets.”

“They’ve always brought such quality entertainment to the area, and I think the best quality entertainment,” Abernathy said.

He and his wife brought their two daughters to Hancher shows over the years, and the couple continue to attend not only the shows that pique their interest, but some by artists they don’t know.

John Oliver’s comedy show was a perfect example, Abernathy said. “We bought tickets to that when the tickets came out. We didn’t know who John Oliver was. We had a fabulous time, a lot of fun. That kind of exposure that Hancher provides — that’s what we’ve always enjoyed.”

They also attended shows for the first time at the Riverside Casino Event Center and The Mill restaurant in downtown Iowa City.

“We had no idea that space existed,” he said of The Mill.

David Janssen is the new executive director at Brucemore in Cedar Rapids. (SourceMedia Group News/Jim Slosiarek)

CEDAR RAPIDS — Time doesn’t stand still, even for an estate like Brucemore that gives modern visitors a snapshot of the past.

“Brucemore is always evolving. One of the strengths of Brucemore is that it has always adapted to the needs of Cedar Rapids and to the community, whether that means changing programs” or making physical modifications, says Tiffin native David Janssen, 44, who stepped into the historic mansion’s executive director role on Jan. 1.

“Preservation is ongoing,” he says, at the 26-acre estate at 2160 Linden Dr. SE.

The stunning visual centerpiece of the estate is the 21-room Queen Anne-style mansion, once home to local captains of industry and society, the Sinclair, Douglas and Hall families. Guided tours are offered March through December.

The parklike estate also houses a Visitors Center with changing exhibits, staff offices, a flower shop, formal gardens, Duck Pond stage for the annual Classics at Brucemore play and a children’s show, as well as a sweeping front lawn that’s home to such popular summer entertainment events as the Freedom Festival Balloon Glow, Bluesmore blues concert and Brucemorchestra, Orchestra Iowa’s season-opening concert.

Driveway, lighting, parking and tiling projects over the years have made the estate more user-friendly for event audiences and tourists.

“When Brucemore Inc. took responsibility for the site in 1981, from that point forward there’s always been maintenance and preservation and major projects to restore and conserve and preserve,” Janssen says. “So in that way, it’s always physically changing — the landscape as well, which is an artifact in and of itself.

“But then also, the way we’re used and the way we address the needs of the community always evolves because the community changes and the needs change, and the programming needs to adapt to that,” he says.

Janssen, who was vice president of collections and interpretation at the Detroit Historical Society before accepting this position, saw plenty of changes at Brucemore during his stint as assistant director from 1993 to 2001, including the new Visitors Center, created in 1999 inside the 1911 carriage house. One of the latest projects, the rehabilitation this past year of the estate’s 1915 greenhouse, is new to him.

“It’s going to be an exciting year for me,” he says. “I get to experience the program mix again and go to some things I’ve loved going to and go to some new things I’ve heard so much about,” like Brucemorchestra.

His new tasks include overseeing the $1.2 million operating budget, managing the staff, planning the programming and preserving the historical resources, landscaping and architecture at Iowa’s only National Trust Historic Site. That all fits his interests, education and experience at other museums, including a past position as the vice president for internal operations at the 87-acre Edsel and Eleanor Ford House in Grosse Pointe Shores, Mich.

His wife of 18 years, Cedar Rapids native Kristin Sullivan, and their three sons, Michael, 14, Nic, 13, and Benjamin, 10, are staying in Grosse Pointe through the end of the school year. Janssen makes the eight-hour drive home when time allows and keeps in touch with modern technology and chess matches via good, old-fashioned letters.

“This is my chosen career, this is what I’ve been trained to do,” says Janssen, who has a bachelor’s degree in history from Dartmouth, where he played football, a master’s in history from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh and a master of business administration (MBA) from the University of Iowa.

“The reason I like history is the same reason I chose this career. The reason I like history is that it incorporates so many other topics. To be a good historian you have to understand sociology and economics and psychology and business. The reason I like historic leadership is that it requires all that, as well.”

He plans to build on the legacy of former Brucemore directors Peggy Boyle Whitworth and Jim Kern. He’s stepping into a season and a budget already in action.

“My goal is to go through a whole year of programming and get a feel for the site again and deliver this wonderful slate of programming that’s already scheduled and work with staff to add value to that going forward, which is exactly what Peggy did. That’s exactly what Jim did. You assess, try to make some decisions and try to adapt.”

Kern, 62, of Cedar Rapids, hasn’t been resting on his laurels. He’s getting back in touch with his theatrical side by rehearsing the role of Reverend Canon Chasuble in “The Importance of Being Earnest,” running Friday through Feb. 18 at Theatre Cedar Rapids. He also hopes to do more traveling and sit in the audiences at local arts events, including those at Brucemore, all on his own timetable.

Jim Kern

During his Brucemore tenure — six years as assistant director and four years as executive director — he’s proud of four

major accomplishments: “Bringing home the concept of it being the community’s home; how well we responded to our cultural partners in the aftermath of the flood; the way we managed to finagle our way through the recession; and that we rescued the Lord & Burnham Greenhouse that was in imminent danger of falling down.”

But the man who also has been a high schoolteacher, waiter, restaurant owner, professional actor, theatrical director and fundraiser isn’t shutting the door on future employment opportunities.

“I’m leaving all options open,” Kern says. “I’ve had a few interesting offers. I’m not agreeing to anything yet. I want to officially sit down and take a breath and do some of the things I want to do. But I’m quite sure there’s yet another opportunity out there somewhere.”

Iowa City instrumental soul band the Diplomats of Solid Sound.

Options abound for ringing in the new year. And if 2012 is really going to bring the end of the world, as the Mayan calendar and the disaster movie say, we might as well go out with a bang, a band and a pop of the cork or balloon.

You don’t have to go to New York to have a rockin’ eve, although we’re sure plenty of Iowa State fans will flock to Times Square, since they’ll be in town anyway for the Pinstripe Bowl.

Closer to home, you can put on your pinstripe suits and fancy dresses for a free glam dance at the Riverside Casino Event Center, dancing like a star to Orchestra 33.

Blue Band groupies can follow Bob Dorr and the gang to Des Moines for the annual Happy Blue Year bash. What better cure for the holiday blahs than some soul, rockabilly, reggae, Creole and rhythm band blues?

Hypnotist Jim Wand gives you two chances to legally go under the influence or watch your friends fall under his spell, in a Penguins special event at the Clarion Hotel in Cedar Rapids. Shows start at 7:30 and 10 p.m.

Not all the fun happens in the evening, however.

Kids of all ages can revel in several Noon Year’s Eve celebrations, featuring lots of noisemakers, crafts and other fun to burn off those holiday sugar highs.

Check out our lists of events and live music, grab your hat and party like it’s 2012. Because it will be very, very soon.

FESTIVE RINGS

EL KAHIR SHRINE

1400 Blairs Ferry Rd. NE, Cedar Rapids, elkahir.org

The Do’s & The Don’ts: 8 p.m. to 12:30 a.m., oldies rock ’n’ roll, $20 per person or $160 tables of eight, party favors, champagne at midnight, breakfast; doors open at 7 p.m., public welcome. Reservations by Dec. 27: (319) 395-0109.

ELKS LODGE 251

801 33rd Ave. SW, Cedar Rapids, elks.org/lodges/home.cfm?lodge=251

New Year’s Eve Party: Open to public, $19.95 per person, 6 p.m. drinks, 7 p.m. dinner, 8 p.m. dance to the Past Masters, ’60s and ’70s hits. Reservations by Dec. 26: (319) 363-0291.

HAPPY BLUE YEAR

Hilton Garden Hotel, 8600 Northpark Dr., Johnston, theblueband.com/newyear.htm

Bob Dorr & The Blue Band’s annual bash: 7 p.m., $50, seven bands on two stages. Tickets and hotel reservations: (515) 270-8890.

THE MILL

120 E. Burlington St., Iowa City, icmill.com

Celtic New Year’s Celebration: Wylde Nept, 4 p.m., $10, all ages.

The Diplomats of Solid Sound and Ben Driscoll of The East Side Motors: 8 p.m., jazz, funk, soul, $10, all ages until 10 p.m., then just 21 and older.

MISSISSIPPI MOON BAR

Diamond Jo Casino, 301 Bell St., Dubuque, diamondjo.com

Dueling Pianos: 8 p.m., featuring a guitarist and drummer, $10 advance, $15 day of show, ages 21 and over; party favors, champagne toast at midnight.

PENGUINS COMEDY CLUB

Special event at the Clarion Hotel and Convention Center, 525 33rd Ave. SW, Cedar Rapids

Hypnotist Jim Wand: 7:30 p.m., $20; 10 p.m., $25; ages 21 and over. Tickets: (319) 366-8671 or penguinscomedyclub.com

PONDEROSA BALLROOM

195 First St. S., Walford, ponderosaballroom.com

Dale Thomas Band: 8 p.m. to 12:15 a.m., western swing and dance music, $25 per person, balloon drop at midnight, horns and hats, breakfast buffet at 12:15 a.m. Reservations: (319) 396-4347.

RIVERSIDE CASINO

3184 Highway 22, Riverside, riversidecasinoandresort.com

Event Center: The Orchestra 33, 9 p.m. to midnight, swing and funk to Motown and rock, free admission, midnight champagne toast.

Show Lounge Stage: Morning After, 5:30 p.m., ’60s, ’70s and ’80s dance music; Hold On, 9:30 p.m., ’70s and ’80s dance music, free admission

Robert’s New Year’s Eve Buffet: 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., $20.11.

SQUARE DANCE

First Baptist Church, 1260 29th St., Marion

New Year’s Dance: 9 p.m. to midnight. Rapid Eights Square and Round Dance Club event, open to public.

Kids/family

DUBUQUE YMCA

35 N. Booth St., Dubuque, dubuquey.org

New Year’s Eve Family Celebration: 5:30 to 9:30 p.m., $20 per family in advance or $25 at the door, includes inflatables, swimming, carnival games, Laser Tag, toddler play land, shuttles to Reflections in the Park, raffle, balloon drop, concessions and more. Registration: (563) 556-3371.

IOWA CHILDREN’S MUSEUM

Inside Coral Ridge Mall, Coralville, theicm.org

Noon Year’s Eve Celebration: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., included with museum admission, $7 ages 1 to 59, $6 ages 60 and older; activities all day, countdown and balloon drop at noon, share your stories of the best thing that happened in 2011 and what you dream for in 2012, make hats and noisemakers.

THE PLAYSTATION

200 Collins Rd. NE, Cedar Rapids

KDAT’s Annual Noon Year’s Eve Party: 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. (facility open 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.), $6.50 children, adults free; party favors, DJ dance, crafts, games and contests, door prizes, $1.04 pizza and hot dog special, balloon drop at noon; www.kdat.com

SCIENCE STATION

Lindale Mall, Lower Level Education Center, Cedar Rapids, sciencestation.org

Noon Year’s Eve: 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., $8 per family, make noisemakers, masks, party hats; also coloring pages, word finds, trivia, demonstrations, face painting, snacks, noon celebration and “Take Flight” traveling exhibit. Reservations required: (319) 363-4629 or sciencestation.org

Rockin’ the year away

Your New Year’s Eve guide to live music

McPhisto, Scooters, Highway 151, Anamosa

Slap ’n’ Tickle, Bushwood, 350 Edgewood Rd. NW, CR

Super Size 7, Cedar River Landing, 301 F. Ave. NW, CR

Well Lit, Chrome Horse Saloon, 1202 Third St. SE, CR

Lipstick Slick, Gilligan’s, 912 First Ave. NW, CR

Caustic Vision, Just Jules Pub & Cafe, 835 Center Point Rd. NE, CR

Maas & Faurot, The Londoner, 3225 Center Point Rd. NE, CR

Dogs on Skis, Longbranch, 90 Twixt Town Rd. NE, CR

KantiRocks, Longbranch, 90 Twixt Town Rd. NE, CR

Pat Smith & Richard Wagor Duo, Marriott, 1200 Collins Rd. NE, CR

Black the Sun, Otis’ Tailgators, 3969 Center Point Rd. NE, CR

DJ Rich Rok, Von Marxen, Blue Moose, 211 Iowa Ave., IC

The Fez and OSG, Gabe’s, 330 E. Washington St., IC

Eben, Gilbert Street Piano Lounge, 347 S. Gilbert. St., IC

Wylde Nept, The Mill, 120 E. Burlington St., IC

Ben Driscoll, The Mill, 120 E. Burlington St., IC

Diplomats of Solid Sound, The Mill, 120 E. Burlington St., IC

Rumley Brothers, Wildwood, 4919 Walleye Dr. SE, IC

Dead Larry, Yacht Club, 13 S. Linn St., IC

5 In A Hand, Yacht Club, 13 S. Linn St., IC

Item 9, Yacht Club, 13 S. Linn St., IC

Crazy Delicious, Cocktails & Co., 1625 Blairs Ferry Rd., Marion

Flamin’ Cameros, Shuey’s, 1158 Club RD. NE, Shueyville

Terry McCauley, Shooters on Second, 72 Second St. SE, Swisher

Kodiak Flats, General Store Pub, 12612 Stone City Rd., Stone City

The Quarrymen, General Store Pub, 12612 Stone City Rd., Stone City

For more New Year’s Eve entertainment options: Hooplanow.com 

Jim Wand, performing Dec. 31, 2008, at Penguins Comedy Club in Cedar Rapids...Credit: Wand Enterprises.

Parents and children reach up for balloons at the noon balloon drop at the Noon Year

5140992 - SAX - 12_24_2009 - 03.20.21

That training provided the springboard the trick-skateboarder needed to jump from cruise ship clown to Hollywood stunt maniac.

He’s built a career around outrageous feats of derring-do in the “Jackass” television, film franchises and live shows, including one with his cohorts in Cedar Rapids in December 2002 at the Crowne Plaza Five Seasons Hotel ballroom.

For the past 13 months, however, he’s been turning his fascination with stand-up comedy into “The Entirely Too Much Information Tour.”

That’s an entirely appropriate title, judging from YouTube tour clips. None of the material can be printed in this publication, so you get the idea of what fans ages 21 and over will see and hear tonight at Penguins Comedy Club in Cedar Rapids and Friday night at the Mississippi Moon Bar in Dubuque’s Diamond Jo Casino.

Read more at HooplaNow.com

Orchestra Iowa has expanded into the former Bruegger's space.

With Saturday night’s opening of the Opus Concert Cafe, Orchestra Iowa has taken a paramount step in its ongoing flood recovery.

The new street-level facility at 119 Third Ave. SE also will provide a doorway to the Paramount Theatre’s Hall of Mirrors when that historic facility reopens in the fall of 2012.

The Opus jewel is the new concert cafe, a multiuse performance space where patrons can hear chamber music, recitals, jazz and other small combos in a cabaret setting, or socialize during Paramount performances or hold meetings in an acoustically sound, beautifully appointed setting.

The 6,100-square-foot space also features a beverage bar, catering kitchen, reception area, future Paramount/Orchestra Iowa ticket office, coat check and restrooms.

The $3 million expansion unites the Fawcett and Naibert buildings, encompassing the former Bruegger’s Bagels shop and Dieman-Bennett Dance Studio upstairs. That acquisition brings an added attraction: the longtime studio’s wooden dance floor where in the near future, budding ballerinas can again explore the lyrical art of dance.

A new generation of musicians already is being shaped in the second-floor Orchestra Iowa School, which moved back downtown in September 2009, but is gaining new rehearsal and recital spaces through the current renovations. The third floor has housed the 90-year-old orchestra’s administrative offices since June 2009, high above the line where 8 feet of fetid floodwaters decimated the first-floor offices and Symphony Center one year earlier.

The project “is probably the most tangible indication that the crisis we’ve had to endure since the flood is coming to an end,” Timothy Hankewich, the orchestra’s music director, said. “It’s as much about closing the chapter on the flood as it is the orchestra’s rebirth, that we can come back stronger and better.”

The facility was the brainchild of Robert Massey, the orchestra’s CEO.

“I had the idea to do this right after the flood, especially when rumor hit the street that Bruegger’s Bagels wasn’t gonna return, the little light went in my head —  ooh, we can get that building, connect to it and really enhance our footprint and increase programming,” Massey said. “What we had before was all of the administrative offices on the first floor and in half that corner was the recital hall, which was very limiting in what we could do.”

So now the orchestra’s roving chamber series has found a new home in the Opus Concert Cafe, more akin to the way chamber music was presented in the 1800s, but with uptown twists. Two audiences were treated to that experience at Saturday night’s inaugural concerts, featuring Orchestra Iowa strings, clarinet and percussion players performing the music of Beethoven, Mozart and Cedar Rapids native Michael Daugherty.

The chamber series was on the move long before the flood, performing regularly in area churches, as well as the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art.

“Culturally, chamber music gravitated to churches nationwide, usually because of better acoustics,” Hankewich said. “That divorced itself from its original intent to feature music in people’s homes in intimate settings. Those events also included socialization. The fact that we can now enjoy a lovely hors d’oeuvre and cocktail during a performance is in line with a chamber music experience in the 1800s.”

Hankewich and Massey realize that sitting at cabaret tables and chairs will be a departure for patrons used to a more formal church setting.

“We’ve changed the atmosphere a little here. We’re making classical chamber music a little more cool than it’s probably perceived to have been,” Massey said. “As an art form, we’re about growing audiences and giving them the amenities they’re looking for.”

“People might initially scratch their head about coming to a chamber orchestra concert and having it formatted somewhat like a nightclub,” Hankewich said. “What’s so attractive about this is it fits the way we need to revolutionize our concerts so people can have a great time.”

The facility offers a new world of opportunity Hankewich can’t wait to explore.

“I’m so looking forward to the variety of music and performances that are going to be featured in this space,” he said. “It’s so important that orchestras throughout the country are not just pigeonholed into one type of music. This is our opportunity to diversify our audience.

“It’s for people comfortable listening to classical, Brubeck or cabaret. It’s a music space. No style has a monopoly, and that is perfectly in line with the orchestra’s mission to broaden our audiences.”

Kalil Ajram of Ajram Upholstery in Cedar Rapids completed the new covering for a Barton Pipe Organ at Theatre Cedar Rapids in Cedar Rapids. (Cliff Jette/SourceMedia Group)

CEDAR RAPIDS — The Rhinestone Barton is dazzling anew.

The historic organ’s black velvet coating had lost much of its luster long before floodwaters swept through its home at Theatre Cedar Rapids in June 2008. While the pipes and percussion pieces were largely out of harm’s way in chambers high above the stage, the majestic console that rose out of the orchestra pit was nearly submerged and completely ruined.

On Monday morning, a multifaceted re-creation of that 1928 gem moved from Ajram Fabrics & Upholstery, 722 Sixth St. SW, to Theatre Cedar Rapids, 102 Third St. SE. Rainbow shimmers of light began dancing from the organ’s rhinestone ribbons as the crew from Maher Brothers Transfer & Storage in Cedar Rapids rolled it onto the stage.

The console will be connected to the pipes over the winter. Then everything will be tuned and toned for a gala debut next spring.

“The key to preserving this type of entertainment is to get it in front of people. Once you get it in front of people, ‘Wow!’ If they never hear it, out of sight, out of mind,” said Ralph McDowell, 66, of Cedar Rapids, a member of Cedar Rapids Barton Inc., which owns and maintains the instrument.

The instrument’s odyssey began in the fall of 2009, when the damaged console was sent to Crome Organ Co. in Reno, Nev. Ken Crome re-created the piece that audience members see, complete with keyboards, bench and pedals. Pipes and pieces that sustained some moisture damage in the theater’s upper left chamber went to Jeff Weiler’s shop in Chicago for restoration.

The new console was painted black and shipped to the Ajram building in April, where Kalil Ajram, 73, of Cedar Rapids, began the painstaking task of covering the instrument with its splendid new fabric, an exact duplicate of the original fabric covering. He gave a key to Barton Inc. volunteers so they could work on the console’s electrical components during that time, too.

Ajram found the fabric, sent it to a company that spent four months re-creating the glass glitter design, then added his artistry cutting and gluing 22 yards of fabric to the shell.

“I cut it out in the pattern pieces (and) could match the design all the way through, both ways, up and down, sideways, the front, by the key, on the front, down the side. Places that should be painted, I put all the fabric back on, by the keys,” said Ajram, who did nearly all the work himself.

“I didn’t let anybody touch it. It’s not something easy, like that chair,” he said.

Longtime employee Marjorie Edmunds, 79, of Cedar Rapids, did help attach some rhinestone trim and sewed a cover to protect the console when it’s not in use.

Ajram said he was happy to be involved, paying forward the community’s kindness after his business, several vehicles and two houses were damaged in the flood. He slashed his price tag from $20,000 to $2,000 for the project.

“They bought the fabric from here. I donated almost all my time, work, supply, everything. I got hurt in the flood and the people were nice and kind to come and help us. … We are living in the most blessed country on earth,” said Ajram, a native of Lebanon.

The total cost of the console and pipe repair is estimated at $240,000, funded through the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Ajram and his wife, Allea, hope to be in the audience when the pipe organ again fills the theater with sound. Kalil has never heard it in action, but in her youth, Allea, 64, attended concerts at the former Iowa Theatre Building, now home to Theatre Cedar Rapids.

“It’s kind of neat just to be part of this,” she said. “It’s history.”

[View with PicLens]

Silhouettes dancers strike a pose in Chautauqua Park near Boulder, Colo., not far from their Denver-area base. (Jack Patton photo).

CEDAR RAPIDS – Lynne Waggoner-Patton wants to bring her Silhouettes dancers home to Cedar Rapids, but first they have to film a video for her to take to London, then head to Caesars Palace in Las Vegas where they’ll perform Friday through Sunday.

Then they’ll head back to Arvada, Colo., to prepare a new 90-minute show to launch in Denver in January and possibly take on the road.

Offers and inquiries are pouring in after the troupe — featuring 40 dancers ages 4 to 19 — soared to a second-place finish Sept. 14 on NBC-TV’s “America’s Got Talent” competition.

“The opportunities are endless,” Waggoner-Patton, 46, says by phone from her home in Erie, Colo., as she’s putting finishing touches on the video and Vegas shows. “We’re getting hits from all over the world for the kids to perform. They’re going to have exciting lives and I want to bring them to Cedar Rapids.”

Now she just has to find financial sponsors and a venue large enough to accommodate the troupe that shot to fame dancing behind a screen, creating fluid shapes in silhouette to inspirational music. Spot colors, like a red balloon, and pictures are projected onto the front of the screen.

Celebrity judge Sharon Osbourne deemed their work “exquisite” after seeing them dance to Blessid Union of Souls’ “I Believe” on Sept. 6. Before that, Piers Morgan said their July 19 patriotic homage set to “God Bless America” was “just complete genius.”

Always known as being the tough judge, Morgan declared during a June qualifying round:

“That is one of the most brilliant things I’ve seen in a long time. I think I’ve seen everything, and then this kind of act comes out of nowhere. We all just sat back and I could hear us go ‘Wow.’”

The odyssey began in 2009, when Waggoner-Patton, a 1983 Cedar Rapids Kennedy High School graduate, formed the troupe at her studio, A Rocky Mountain School of Dance & Performing Arts in the Denver suburb of Arvada. She had been asked to create something to showcase the Mile High City in an opening ceremony for the 2009 SportAccord, which drew 1,500 people from the Olympic Committee and international sports federations and event presenters.

“They wanted the Olympic Committee to see Denver sites through pictures and dance, so I said, ‘What if we form our bodies into a picture and have that picture come up on the screen?’ It was really, really difficult, but the kids pulled it off,” she says. “We did a cityscape, a skier, the big blue bear (an iconic city sculpture), Red Rocks Amphitheatre — really great monuments for Colorado.”

“America’s Got Talent” personnel saw a video of that March 24, 2009, performance online and wanted to see more. Two years to the day later, the troupe auditioned for the popular television talent search in Minneapolis. Osbourne, Morgan and Howie Mandel were there, despite “a monster snowstorm” that delayed things a day.

“They told us they loved us, gave us a standing ovation and said, ‘We’ll definitely see you in Vegas.’ That’s not a given, though,” Waggoner-Patton says. “Over 100,000 people auditioned, so we were very lucky to get the call.”

The next step launched an emotional roller coaster.

“They tricked us,” she says. “They called us and said, ‘We’re not sure you can be a headlining act. Bring six dancers out of the 40 and do a corporate presentation to the judges.’ ”

After a hectic week developing a product and marketing strategy, she says all the acts summoned to Vegas for the same reason were brought into an auditorium.

“They made the children stand there and said, ‘You’re all going home.’ I was just devastated. I thought, ‘What have I put these children through,’ but we had prepared them for that. Then they said, ‘The reason you’re going home is because we’re pushing you through to the live shows.’”

And they were off, on a whirlwind that took an entourage of 40 dancers, 23 chaperones and their leader to Hollywood and Las Vegas, where they charmed the stage crews, judges and the viewers who determined the winners. The kids kept up with their studies through a virtual academy school online. The TV show picked up their travel and hotel tabs.

About 100 family members also followed the troupe through the studio audience, including Waggoner-Patton’s father, Larry, of Cedar Rapids. Her sister Lisa, also of Cedar Rapids, attended the finals, but sister Lori Hart of Hutchinson, Kan., had to stay home. “She runs the Kansas State Fair, which was happening during that time,” Waggoner-Patton says.

Lynne Waggoner-Patton

Finishing in the runner-up spot to the smooth sounds of crooner Landau Eugene Murphy Jr. wasn’t disappointing in the least.

“Someone on the red carpet asked me if it was bittersweet. There is no bitter in this process — it is all sweet,” Waggoner-Patton says.

“Second place works much better for these children. They still get to do the Caesars Palace show, they’re in the running to go back to ‘America’s Got Talent’ next year, and we can control how much the kids are going to be performing. We can take pieces of the shows out and still have the excitement.”

What about missing out on the million dollars that went to the winner?

“Second place doesn’t get money, but if we had won it, we planned to give it to homeless children in Colorado. We took the money factor out a long time ago,” she says. “We were never in it for that. …

“It was never about winning money or being famous,” she says. “It was about the journey and learning from the journey.”

For Waggoner-Patton, the journey began in her hometown.

“Growing up in Cedar Rapids gave me the strength, courage, abilities, determination and work ethic needed to take 40 children through the ‘America’s Got Talent’ journey,” she says. “Everyone from the school teachers at Pierce Elementary to Richard Barker at (Theatre Cedar Rapids) gave me knowledge, guidance and opportunity.

“Being a Cedar Rapids native truly made a difference in the outcome of this adventure. My dad brought me up with the understanding that if you work hard toward a positive goal, your life will be blessed. The Silhouettes have been truly blessed and we thank everyone for their support.”

On the Net

Online: www.rmsdance.com

Facebook: A Rocky Mountain School of Dance & Performing Arts, Rocky Mountain Silhouettes and SilhouettesAGT

Twitter:@RMSilhouettes

Silhouettes are jumping for joy these days, riding high on their recent second-place win on the television competition “America’s Got Talent” in September. (Jack Patton photo)

"Scotty McIntyre," 2008, by Jean-Paul Tibbles, will be on display Sept. 24, 2011, to Jan. 15, 2012, at the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art. McIntyre, who died in 2009, was president and CEO of United Fire & Casualty Co., and lived in Cedar Rapids. “In the history of portraiture, they’re usually not smiling because it changes your face. It pushes the cheeks up and loses your eyes. It’s technically difficult,” Dee Ann McIntyre says. But that’s how she wanted to see and remember her husband.

CEDAR RAPIDS — Even in this digital age, where snapshots go from smartphone to Facebook in an instant, the 5,000-year-old art of portraiture remains relevant.

“The painting, to me, has the power to show much more of the personality — the way that person was, they way they held themselves and the way they lived in their own world,” says Dee Ann McIntyre of Santa Fe, N.M., an artist and founding member of the Portrait Society of America.

She finds comfort in an oil portrait of her late husband, Cedar Rapids businessman Scotty McIntyre, that was painted in 2008, the year before he died of cancer at age 76.

“After Scotty died, that painting became so much of a treasure,” she says. “It captured him — his smile, his sense of humor. The way he faced life is in that painting. I don’t think you can have that quality with a photograph.”

Time is one of the critical factors between the two forms, she says.

“You snap a photo, it’s done, it’s over,” she says. “In the time that it takes for you to sit (for a portrait), you’re very meditative but your expression changes.” The resulting composite of layers and details are among the many stories a portrait can tell.

Thousands of years of portraiture is on display every day at the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, but the focus will zoom in on about 78 pieces when “Seeing and Remembering: Portraits and Their Stories” opens in the first floor galleries Saturday (9/24/2011) and runs through Jan. 15. In tandem is the special exhibition of William Charles Peale’s 1776 portrait of George Washington, on loan from the Brooklyn Museum through Dec. 31, 2011.

Cedar Rapids Museum of Art Curator Sean Ulmer (left) and Registrar Teri Van Dorston (right) unpack a portrait of George Washington by Charles Willson Peale on Aug. 31. The work is on loan from the Brooklyn Museum and is on display in tandem with a 78-piece portraiture exhibition opening Saturday at the museum in downtown Cedar Rapids. (Brian Ray/ SourceMedia Group News)

The larger exhibition was scheduled for February, but when museum officials realized the Washington portrait was going to be at the museum in the fall, curator Sean Ulmer says it made more sense to pair it with the broader portraiture show tracing works from the 1500s to today.

A public reception, lectures, demonstrations and children’s activities are planned around both exhibits.

The initial idea for the portraiture exhibition came from McIntyre, who studied art in college and is a member of the Cedar Rapids art museum’s board of trustees. She makes frequent trips back to the Cedar Rapids home she shared with her husband, longtime president, CEO and chairman of United Fire & Casualty Co.

The couple’s portraits, as well as one of Scotty’s daughter, Kaye Drahozal, will be included in the exhibition, jointly sponsored by United Fire Group, The McIntyre Foundation, Dee Ann McIntyre and the Momentum Fund of the Greater Cedar Rapids Community Foundation.

“Portraiture is very near and dear to her heart,” Ulmer says of McIntyre. “We had done a couple of small shows that looked at portraiture, but nothing big. We wanted something that made it more interesting than just a whole bunch of portraits on the wall.

“We’re fortunate in that our collection is very rich in portraiture, when you look at prints, drawing, photographs, paintings and sculpture,” he says. “We have great portraits by Marvin Cone and Grant Wood and Joan Liffring-Zug Bourret and Malvina Hoffman. We thought how nice it would be to have an opportunity to mix all of that up.

“But we still needed some overarching premise to guide the exhibition,” he says. “What we came up with was to look at portraiture more through the eyes of the artist rather than the sitter.”

The portraiture exhibit includes “An Elderly Woman” (Rembrandt’s Mother Seated at a Table), Rembrandt van Rijn, about 1631.

Those views are arranged in six sections: artists’ portraits of family members, self

portraits, artists’ portraits of other artists, commissioned portraits, portraits of celebrity and portraits of community. Most are culled from the museum’s collection, but others represent key loans from collectors and artists.

“Self portraits as well as portraits of family have a level of intimacy that you don’t often find,” Ulmer says. “Artists portraying other artists oftentimes have a certain level of reverence that bespeaks of an admiration on the part of the artist making the portrait. It could be one of their mentors or an artist whose work they admire.”

The celebrity collection includes portraits of American Indian chiefs, Martin Luther King Jr. and an Andy Warhol print of Jackie Kennedy. The community section features paintings from Rose Frantzen’s “Portrait of Maquoketa,” which was shown at the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery in Washington in 2010, a photograph from Peter Feldstein’s celebrated “Oxford Project” and a Norman Rockwell watercolor.

The exhibit’s dedicated galleries aren’t the only places visitors will find portraits.

“Portraiture is such an important part of the big picture of art, that you will probably find a portrait in every gallery in the museum, because it’s part of the story,” Ulmer says. “Our Roman gallery is filled with portraits.”

The second-floor Lasansky Gallery next to the Washington room also will be changed to portraits in October.

Museum visitors will see Grant Wood’s “Study for Self Portrait,” 1932.

Contemporary pieces are included to show that “portraiture is still alive and well,” Ulmer says. “It stretches back from Rome and even before, up to the present day.”

To underscore that, he says the museum will host the Portrait Society of America’s Portrait Academy on Oct. 15 and 16, where participants can learn from nationally known artists through demonstrations, a panel discussion and a slide presentation. It is free to museum members and area high school and college students and is expected to draw participants from throughout the Midwest.

Why does this ancient art form continue to intrigue us?

“We still live with portraiture, we still see portraiture — everything from high school yearbooks to our pictures on Facebook,” Ulmer says. “Portraits are still very much part of our daily life. Portraiture still exists on our currency. We see it everywhere we go. …

“Also, portraiture is really hard to do — it takes a lot of skill. I think we continue to be fascinated by individuals who possess that ability to capture not just the surface appearance but the inner life of an individual. Portraits from history have the ability to open up places and times that we don’t think about all the time, like with the Washington. What was Grant Wood thinking when he drew that self portrait? What’s the premise behind the ‘Portrait of Maquoketa.’ These individuals are caught frozen in time for our contemplation forever,” he says.

“When you think about some of the greatest works of art ever created, or the most famous, portraiture tends to dominate. The ‘Mona Lisa.’ ‘American Gothic.’ ‘Whistler’s Mother.’ It’s really amazing how often portraiture is featured in the most famous works of art.”

ARTS EXTRA

• What: “Seeing and Remembering: Portraits and Their Stories”
• Where: Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, 410 Third Ave. SE, Cedar Rapids
• When: Saturday, Sept. 24, 2011, through Jan. 15, 2012; open noon to 4 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Sunday; noon to 8 p.m. Thursday; 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday
• Admission: Free for all ages this Saturday for Family Fun Day; otherwise $5 adults; $4 ages 62 and older and college students; free ages 18 and under and Museum Members; free for all ages 4 to 8 p.m. Thursdays
• Opening reception: 4 to 6 p.m. Friday (9/23); free admission; celebrates portraiture exhibit and George Washington portrait exhibit
• Extras: Full slate of events planned in conjunction with portraiture and Washington exhibits, www.crma.org/Events/Default.aspx
• Information: www.crma.org

Portrait Academy

• What: Educational series presented by Portrait Society of America
• When: Oct. 15 and 16, 2011
• Where: Cedar Rapids Museum of Art
• Cost: $25; free for museum members, area high school and college students
• Registration: Required by Oct. 7; call 1-(877) 772-4321 or email carolyn@portraitsociety.org
• Sessions: Demonstration by Judith Carducci, “Body Parts: Ears, Eyes, and Hands,” 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Oct. 15; “Portraiture is Alive and Well,” artist panel discussion with Judith Carducci, Rose Frantzen, Chuck Morris, Jean-Paul Tibbles and Gwenneth Barth-White, moderated by Priscilla Steele, 2 to 4 p.m. Oct. 15; slide presentation by Jean-Paul Tibbles, 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. Oct. 16; “A Look Into Portrait Painting,” demonstration by Rose Frantzen, 1 to 5 p.m. Oct. 16
• Information: www.portraitsociety.org and www.crma.org

America's Got Talent - Episode 632. Pictured: LeAnn Rimes, Silhouettes. (Photo by: Trae Patton/NBC)

On Wednesday night, the Silhouettes – made up of 42 young shadow dancers – and led by Cedar Rapids native Lynne Waggoner-Patton, placed second on “America’s Got Talent.”

Even though the troupe didn’t win the million dollar prize, the Denver-area dancers ages 3 to 19 will get to perform in Las Vegas with winner Landau Eugene Murphy Jr., as well as other top 10 finishers.

The Vegas shows begin Oct. 28 at Caesar’s Palace, host Jerry Springer told viewers during the finale, which was broadcast live from Hollywood on NBC-TV.

The Silhouettes made their mark performing inspirational story dances, capturing the hearts and votes of television viewers. On Wednesday’s finale show, the troupe performed with LeAnn Rimes, who sang an acoustic version of ”Give” off her new CD.

Waggoner-Patton, a 1983 graduate of Cedar Rapids Kennedy High School, moved to the Denver area in 1987 and runs A Rocky Mountain School of Dance and Performing Arts in Arvada, Colo.

America's Got Talent - Episode 632. Pictured: Silhouettes, Nick Cannon, Landau Eugene Murphy, Jr. (Photo by: Trae Patton/NBC)

The Denver-area dance troupe will perform Tuesday, Sept. 13, 2011, in the Final Four on “America’s Got Talent.”

The 42 dancers, ages 9 to 18, will join crooner Eugene Landau Murphy Jr., young rock band Poplyfe and glow-in-the-dark dancers Team iLuminate competing for viewer votes on the  popular NBC-TV talent show, where contestants vie for a million-dollar Las Vegas performing contract.

Waggoner-Patton, a 1983 graduate of Cedar Rapids Kennedy High School, moved to the Denver area in 1987 and runs A Rocky Mountain School of Dance and Performing Arts in Arvada, Colo.

Celebrity judge Sharon Osbourne called Silhouettes “exquisite” after they performed a story-dance to the Blessid Union of Souls’ anthem ”I Believe” during the qualifying round Tuesday, Sept. 6. After viewer votes were announced Wednesday, Howie Mandel told the jubilant dancers, “I can’t tell you how excited I am for you.”

The Final Four competition begins at 8 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 13, on NBC and the winner will be announced Wednesday, Sept. 14 , in a two-hour extravaganza beginning at 7 p.m.

WATCH the Silhouettes’ Sept. 6 performance here:

Naomi Spence (center) of Cedar Rapids portrays Cindy as she dances with Edna Turnblad aka Chuck Bogh of Coralville and Tracy Turnblad (right) aka Elizabeth Breed of Iowa City during a rehearsal for the City Circle Acting Company's production of "Hairspray" at the new Coralville Center for the Performing Arts on Thursday, Sept. 8, 2011, in Coralville, Iowa. (SourceMedia Group News/Jim Slosiarek)

CORALVILLE — City Circle Acting Company is homeless no more.
Orchestra Iowa, Hancher, the Cedar Rapids Opera Theatre, West Music and renowned Iowa City jazz pianist Dan Knight also have a new state-of-the-art home in which to display the state of their arts.
The new $11.2 million Coralville Center for the Performing Arts, 1301 Fifth Ave., is ready to strut the full extent of its stuff when City Circle’s production of “Hairspray” hits the stage tonight. The musical explores ’60s sounds and race relations, which producer Chris Okiishi of Iowa City said mirrors issues the Corridor is facing today.
“It talks about moving forward, changing times,” he said. “Iowa City and the Corridor are facing a changing racial demographic as well. It speaks very much to the ways our communities are changing.”
Originally slated for six performances through Sept. 19, an extra show has already been added for Sept. 15.
Orchestra Iowa will perform at the venue twice in the 2011-2012 season, with its “A Baroque Christmas” concert Dec. 4 and an April 12 Chamber concert.
“This is just an incredible facility that really meets a niche we haven’t had, both from a sense of stage size and space to audience space and audience amenities,” said Robert Massey, Orchestra Iowa’s CEO. “You can get there, you can park there. Coralville has done a wonderful job with the area.
“From the moment you walk in, it’s very professional. Everything you want is there,” he added. “It’s another venue for audiences, but more so for artists who haven’t had quite the facilities this facility has.”
Hancher also is headed there in the spring, for a Los Angeles Guitar Quartet concert March 6.
“From what I understand, (the center) is serving local organizations and I think it’s great. It’s terrific,” said Chuck Swanson, Hancher’s executive director. “With Iowa City and Coralville, it’s an arts world here. To have another opportunity for a venue — especially a world-class venue like this — it’s a great addition to the community.
“Especially now for us, being without a home, it’s a first-class facility,” Swanson said.
Orchestra Iowa and Hancher officials plan to continue using the facility even after their much-larger flood-damaged homes are rebuilt in the coming years.
“There are particular events it’s going to be perfect for us — maybe some chamber music or a classical concert or the right dance event or theater event,” Swanson said. “We do a broad range and some of our performances we do for an intimate-size space.”
“Hancher is going to be pleased to be a tenant of the hall. … We feel very confident we can make this as much of a Hancher experience as we can without our building.”
The members of the vagabond City Circle community theater troupe are over the moon to have landed a permanent spot after performing in 14 other venues since 1997.
Above all the amenities, the volunteer troupe is most looking forward to “getting to know the theater really well,” Okiishi said, “and knowing that our members and our audience can find us at the same place every time. We’re really curious to see what that feels like, because it’s never happened before.”

A dance troupe led by Cedar Rapids native Lynne Waggoner-Patton has made the finals of NBC-TV's "America's Got Talent."

Television viewers have voted The Silhouettes into the finals for “America’s Got Talent.”

The troupe was the first to advance during Wednesday night’s results episode for the popular NBC-TV talent show, where contestants vie for a million-dollar Las Vegas performing contract.

The 42 Denver-area dancers, ages 9 to 18, are led by former Cedar Rapids resident Lynne Waggoner-Patton, a 1983 graduate of Cedar Rapids Kennedy High School. She moved to the Denver area in 1987 and runs A Rocky Mountain School of Dance and Performing Arts in Arvada, Colo.

Celebrity judge Piers Morgan told the group that he didn’t think Tuesday night’s semifinal routine was as strong as the previous two performances, but Howie Mandel gave it his stamp of approval and Sharon Osbourne called what the young dancers do “a thing of beauty.”

Twelve acts appeared in Tuesday’s round and viewers voted five into the final 10. Those competitions begin next week.

A sample toilet (not the exact toilet that's been installed at CSPS/Legion Arts).

The new elevator tower entrance will be the star attraction when CSPS reopens its door Friday night. The number two attraction will be the new toilets.

CSPS, 1103 Third St. SE, has six shiny new urinals and 15 sparkling new toilets.

But these heads have no names.

Do you know a John, Lou, Lew or Loo? Here’s your chance to jump in feet-first and buy the naming rights to one of the thrones for $1,000. You can connect yourself to this conspicuous improvement in a tangible way, while helping Legion Arts raise some much-needed everyday operating dollars.

Executive Director F. John Herbert is keenly aware that past patrons may feel a nostalgic tug at the loss of some of the building’s charm – even in the restroom realm.

“Because people have a high degree of affection for the building the way it was, it may take time for them to get accustomed to the new,” he said. “We think of the old bathrooms as being so inadequate, but people developed an affection for them. There’s something ritualistic about standing in line so long.

“As somebody who’s worked in the building a couple of decades, I understand the affection for something that feels very grassroots and homemade, and I understand the limitations. If people want to stand in line, we’ll let them stand in line,” he said with a laugh.

“(The renovations) have done a great job in retaining much of the character and charm of the building, while making it much more accessible, much more comfortable and much safer for audiences and artists alike,” Herbert said.

So here’s your chance to honor a loved one, a colleague, a favorite artist or yourself with the toilet naming rights. The Legion Arts folks encourage you to use your imagination. You could join with your neighbors to salute a beloved legislator or council representative. Express your respect for a teacher or mentor. Or go in together with a couple of co-workers to surprise your boss. The possibilities are endless, Herbert and his colleagues say.

Every donation (which is tax-deductible) will be recognized with an engraved name plate. Committed donors will be taken, by appointment, on a private tour of all facilities and invited to choose from among the available fixtures. Call (319) 364-1580 and schedule your tour today, before the best fixtures are claimed.

From a Legion Arts/CSPS newsletter, with additional reporting by Diana Nollen

Renovations continue in the galleries and stage at CSPS on Friday in Cedar Rapids. A gala is set next Friday to celebrate the Czech social hall's reopening. (Liz Martin/The Gazette)

The world will grow a little smaller as CSPS grows larger.

The historic building at 1103 Third St. SE is ready to fling open its doors on a whole new world of possibilities, fueled by a $7 million rehab of the 120-year-old Czech social hall after it was damaged in the floods of 2008.

The three-story building opened in 1891 and has been home to Legion Arts since 1991.

When it reopens Friday, cutting-edge performers from all corners of the globe will find new audiences in Cedar Rapids. Local artists will get a hand up in presenting, marketing and managing their work, through additional performance and gallery spaces, as well as an arts incubator where they can build their knowledge base. Three small businesses can set up retail shops on the ground floor, too.

Audiences will enter through a new tower with stairs and an elevator leading — for the first time — to an air-conditioned interior.

The neighboring 1916 firehouse will provide visiting artists with upstairs living quarters and main floor studio space.

That’s a huge leap from Legion Arts’ beginnings, co-founder Mel Andringa, 68, of Cedar Rapids, said during a recent building tour.

“When we started in this place 20 years ago, we thought we would do performance art three nights a week, and then it turned out that people were ready for that about six nights a year,” Andringa said with a laugh, “so then we started presenting other types of activities.”

The not-for-profit group has brought to area stages such huge artists as Joan Baez, Ani DiFranco, Richie Havens, Janis Ian and Duncan Sheik, as well as artwork by Yoko Ono, Tuvan throat singers, a Czech bluegrass band, a punk-rock gypsy band, Irish jig bands and performance artists who express themselves through music, theater and dance.

Now Legion Arts owns the building, cementing its presence for years to come.

Support from city

Among the grants making the rehabilitation possible is $150,000 from the city of Cedar Rapids, along with rights to adjoining lots to improve parking and ambience in the burgeoning New Bohemia neighborhood.

The project merits city support for two reasons, according to Mayor Ron Corbett.

“You have a historic building being restored, which is a win for the community, and you also have Legion Arts, which is just a great organization in our community,” Corbett, 50, of Cedar Rapids, said.

“The two coupled together is a big win. It sends a message for the rest of Third Street and the New Bo area. … It already has a few restaurants, and with CSPS and the year-round market around the corner, it will become a gathering place for the community,” he said

Corbett and his wife, who serves on the Legion Arts board of directors, will be at Friday evening’s gala reopening, where ticket holders can tour the buildings, see a new art exhibit and hear Manchester native Susan Werner in concert.

Mix of old, new, reused

Andringa is still getting used to all the changes, but is eager to point out what’s old, what’s new and what’s reused, from tin ceilings and retooled timber to the new entrance tower at the back of the building.

“You feel like you’re in a familiar place, but every time you turn around, there’s something new,” he said.

The venue is a testament to tenacity.

Twelve feet of raging waters from the Cedar River tore through the hall’s lower levels in June 2008, but didn’t reach the second floor, where most of Legion Arts’ exhibits and concerts were held.

The fetid waters did force Andringa and Legion Arts co-founder F. John Herbert from their home in the former Osada apartments up the street and ruined decades of artwork in Andringa’s studio in the historic firehouse next to CSPS.

The determined partners rose above the waters. They rolled up their sleeves, donned their boots and reopened the second-floor auditorium Sept. 26, 2008.

Legion Arts bought the building in June 2010 for $500,000 and closed the doors shortly thereafter for the renovation. Purchase price for the firehouse was $50,000.

Herbert said he and Andringa were looking to buy CSPS before the floods came, and even more determined afterward.

New challenges

With that has come new challenges, not only in discovering that the entire roof would have to be replaced, but in how to grow the grass roots operation to fit its expanded services. That’s been the hardest aspect of the undertaking, said Herbert, 59, of Cedar Rapids.

“A huge question for an organization that has a $200,000 (operating) budget remains the huge transition,” Herbert said. “We’re going from being a very, very improvisational, very imaginative and creative, but somewhat unencumbered organization with an artistic responsibility but not a lot of property responsibility” to an entity with increased artistic duties, financial duties and property duties.

The building is debt-free, so they won’t have mortgage payments to contend with, Herbert said, but they will need to grow the budget to $500,000 over the next year or so. The organization has three full-time, one part-time and several contract staff workers and hope to add several more positions. About 100 people are on the volunteer rosters.

As gleaming as the new surroundings are — tasteful but not ostentatious — it’s what happens inside those walls that remains most impressive and will feel the most familiar to past patrons and performers.

The renovation of CSPS in southeast Cedar Rapids is nearly complete. (Liz Martin/The Gazette)

“One thing that CSPS really does is bring the world closer to Eastern Iowa,” singer/songwriter Werner said. The forty-something artist who now lives in Chicago is quick to sing the praises of Legion Arts and its “wow power.”

“It makes the world small because Mel and John are so committed to bringing in first-tier performers from all over the globe — and it’s just down the street,” she said.

“It’s a real community treasure.”

And yet it remains one of the city’s best-kept secrets.

“What’s interesting to me is that it’s better known nationally than it is in Cedar Rapids,” said Peggy Whitworth, longtime arts advocate who helped raise corporate funds for the renovation.

“The idea is that we have an international arts presenter now in a place people are going to go to. That some people don’t know what’s going on is because they’re not paying attention,” said Whitworth, who has lived in Cedar Rapids since studying at Mount Mercy in the 1960s.

Others plugged into the national arts scene share in the excitement and praise for this overhaul, especially in light of the economic recession gripping the country.

“It is a bold move, but a very important move,” said MK Wegmann, 62, president and CEO of the National Performance Network based in New Orleans.

She said the work, in turn, bolsters the economic climate on all levels, from construction jobs to the creative sector and retailers.

Springboard for the Arts is another national organization whose relationship with Legion Arts is growing with the renovations. The group provides professional development and support services to artists, and will work locally through the new CSPS arts incubator and related training sessions.

“Art comes from artists, and so I think that especially recently, we’re really seeing cities and communities and businesses recognize the value of having a strong creative community and all the vibrancy and vitality that brings to a community,” said Laura Zabel, 36, executive director of Springboard’s regional office in St. Paul, Minn.

[View with PicLens]

Brucemore tour guide Cliff Haverkamp, 90, of Cedar Rapids, laughs as he tells the history of the Cedar Rapids mansion last Friday. “I like to be part of the heritage of Cedar Rapids,” he says. “By taking people through the house, they can see what Cedar Rapids was like in the past. It gives them a glimpse of a family that was well-to-do and part of the power structure of the city.” (David Scrivner/SourceMedia Group)

CEDAR RAPIDS — It’s quiet at Cliff Haverkamp’s house.

All the family members who gathered to throw him a 90th birthday party last week have gone back to their homes in Minnesota, Colorado, Indiana, California and Jordan.

But Haverkamp is far from lonely.

This mover and shaker is a familiar face to folks who have toured Brucemore mansion, searched for their seats at Orchestra Iowa concerts or listened to the New Covenant Bible Church choir or Chorale Midwest and New Horizons Band concerts.

Before the flood, the retired electrical engineer also shared his wisdom at the Science Station, and at one time, volunteered at the Granger House Museum in Marion, too.

“If you don’t keep active, you aren’t living,” he says. “You have to keep active to keep your mind active and keep your health up.

“I was never one to not do anything,” he says from his southeast-side home, just blocks from the Brucemore estate he loves so well. He’s been volunteering there 17 years, since about the time his wife, Leona, died in July 1995, two months shy of their 50th wedding anniversary.

“We were apprehensive about how Dad would go on without Mom, because they did so many things together,” Robin Hart of Amman, Jordan, the oldest of Haverkamp’s four daughters, told family and friends gathered for his birthday party July 31 at Bever Park.

“But we underestimated Dad’s love for life. If anything, he became more of a committed volunteer.”

“Cliff’s amazing,” says Kandi Allison, volunteer coordinator at Brucemore. “He’ll do anything, not just as a tour guide, but he’ll help with parking, too.”

At age 80, he learned how to play baritone horn — which his wife played in high school — so he could join the New Horizons Band.

“Cliff was and is the only member of our group who had no experience whatsoever at playing an instrument when he joined the New Horizons Band,” says Alan Lawrence, director of the band for people ages 55 and older. “He showed a lot of pluck and determination to take on this activity at an advanced age.”

That same spirit has served Haverkamp all his life.

Born and raised in Orange City, he graduated from high school in 1938 and joined the war effort in 1941. A navigator on a B-17 bomber, his plane was shot down over Germany in 1943 and Haverkamp spent

16 months as a prisoner of war, before being liberated by American forces in 1945.

He came back, married his hometown sweetheart, finished his degree in electrical engineering on the G.I. bill at Iowa State University in Ames, then landed a job at Firestone in Akron, Ohio. His career brought him to Cedar Rapids in 1961, working first for Collins Radio, then Square D and Quaker Oats, before retiring in 1986.

A lover of the outdoors who gave up cross-country skiing a couple of years ago, Haverkamp and his wife took their daughters on tent camping trips across the country. He also has traveled extensively overseas, including two Chorale Midwest trips, first to Europe, then to Russia in 2000. In 2010, he and three of his daughters traveled to Jordan and the Holy Land to visit Hart, who has built on her father’s spiritual example by being a missionary.

“Can you imagine seeing him trek through the narrow streets of Old Jerusalem or climb around Kerak Castle in Jordan at age 89,” she said during her dad’s birthday party.

With all this behind him, the man with an email account and a new Facebook profile still has plenty on his “to do” list:

“Keep living, keep doing things, keep singing, keep playing.”

Violin decorated by Luther College student Bailey Cahlander and auctioned to benefit the Minnesota Orchestra.

DECORAH, Iowa – Where words fail, music speaks.

Those words are depicted on the mosaic violin created for the Minnesota Orchestra by Bailey Cahlander, a Luther College student from Chanhassen, Minn.  Her artwork recently sold for $1,000 at a silent auction fundraiser for the orchestra.

Her mosaic violin was purchased at the Orchestra Symphony Ball’s silent auction by Osmo Vänskä, the music director of the Minnesota Orchestra.

Cahlander was one of five artists commissioned by the Minnesota Orchestra to create artworks based on a violin provided by WAMSO-Minnesota Orchestra Volunteer Association, the primary fund-raising organization for the orchestra.

Each of the five artists used their distinctive talent to transform a simple violin into a unique piece of artwork.

“My violin is something of a visual bridge between music and art–both creative outlets,” Cahlander said. “Where words fail, music speaks, displayed on a work of art.”

Cahlander, the daughter of Karla Cahlander of Chanhassen, is a 2008 graduate of Chaska High School. She is majoring in art at Luther College in Decorah.

Vänskä, a critically acclaimed and internationally renowned conductor, joined the Minnesota Orchestra in 2003.  Since that time, he has been named conductor of the year by Musical America, led several critically-lauded European tours, and conducted the Orchestra’s performance that received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Orchestra Recording.

“I’m honored by the experience” said Cahlander, “and by the opportunity to display my work in a professional setting.”

For more information about the WAMSO, visit the website http://www.wamso.org

Performances will feature Chinese dance, rip-roaring comedy, an arena-rock love story, dazzling ballroom dancing, Celtic musicians, riveting African dance and more.

Tickets go on sale to the general public Monday, Aug. 1, at 8:30 a.m. Order tickets by calling (319) 273-7469, toll-free 1-(877) 549-SHOW or visit the box office.

To view the artist series for the 2011-2012 season go to http://www.gbpac.org/

Ticket prices listed are adult and youth prices in order of zones (Gold Zone, Zone 1, Zone 2, Zone 3 and zone 4); youth 18 and under receive a 20 percent discount on tickets, and UNI students receive 2 free tickets each semester to an artist series show.

2011-2012 Artist Series

Remembrance 9-11; 10 Years Later”

Sunday, Sept. 11, 2011

7 p.m.

Ten years ago the world changed in an instant as a terrorist attack demonstrated our vulnerability and tenuous nature of life.  Ten years later we come together as a community to remember those lost, honor servicemen who have sacrificed in war and most of all seek a way forward inspired by courage and love.

This special collaboration between the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Symphony, Metropolitan Chorale, Red Cedar Chamber Music and Theatre UNI will feature music coupled with multimedia and dramatic readings on the evening’s themes. Highlights of the program include Vaughan Williams’ meditation on poetry by Walt Whitman and a classic American requiem, the Fourth Symphony of Howard Hansen.

Join us as we remember, honor, heal and celebrate those lost and look to the future.

Tim Conway & Friends

Sunday, Sept. 25, 2011

7 p.m.

Best known for his 11 years co-starring on “The Carol Burnett Show,” Tim Conway has been making audiences laugh with family-friendly comedy for more than 50 years. To his peers, Tim Conway is “the comedian’s comedian.” Audiences, on the other hand, simply consider him one of the funniest men in show business.

“Tim Conway & Friends” features classic sketches between Conway, McCann and Louise DuArt as well as Tim’s loveable original characters including the diminutive golf expert Dorf, The Old Man, The Dental Sketch and many more.

Conway’s 11 years co-starring on TV’s classic Carol garnered him five Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe.

Masters of the Fiddle

Thursday, Oct. 13, 2011

7:30 p.m.

If you experienced the performances of Leahy and Natalie MacMaster at the Gallagher Bluedorn, you remember the high energy fiddling virtuosity of the stars of those two ensembles.

Natalie MacMaster and Donnell Leahy are two of the world’s most celebrated fiddlers. They also happen to be married. Together, Natalie and Donnell meld their virtuosities into a whirlwind of fiddle-driven music, dance and song, combining the best of French, Celtic and American Bluegrass and even Cajun styles and making it their own.

Joined by highly-acclaimed pianists Mac Morin and Erin Leahy, you’ll be treated to the foot-tapping rave-ups, heart-wrenching ballads and world-class step dancing  . . . that have brought audiences to their feet on three (and counting) continents.

By the time you leave the show, you will have been enriched by the music, the stories and the warmth of the Cape Breton lifestyle.

Lily Cai Chinese Dance Company

A BUCK A KID!

Sunday, Oct. 23, 2011

3 p.m.

The most visually stunning show of the year! Lily Cai Chinese Dance Company is a blend of traditional and contemporary Chinese dance.

See the company meld ancient Chinese forms with modern dance in an artistic and inventive marriage of styles.  In Silk Cascade, Lily Cai’s choreography bridges the past to present, from the creative interpretation of China’s Dai minority dances to the vibrant contemporary swirls of long silk ribbons in the Silk Cascade finale, inspired by the art of Jackson Pollock.

Lukas Nelson and Promise of the Real

Thursday, Oct. 27, 2011

7:30 p.m.

Part of the NEW Gallagher-Bluedorn Club Series

For some, their first musical memory might be a favorite song playing on the radio, a video on MTV, or a concert their parents took them to. But for 22-year-old singer-songwriter-guitarist Lukas Nelson, his first music memory is being onstage with such superstars as Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Kris Kristofferson and his father, Willie Nelson, singing along and stomping his feet to a crowd of thousands.

Nelson fronts the Southern-folk-rock group Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real. Their full-length debut CD, Promise of the Real, was released Dec. 21, 2010.

Come and experience a rising new star in Gallagher-Bluedorn’s first intimate Club Series.

“My Fair Lady”           

Saturday, Oct. 29, 2011

2 and 7:30 p.m.

Hailed by the Daily Mail as “the revival against which all others will be measured”, and the Daily Telegraph as “probably the greatest musical of all time” Cameron Mackintosh and the landmark production of Lerner & Loewe’s “MY FAIR LADY” will be coming to the Gallagher-Bluedorn.

Adapted from George Bernard Shaw’s clever comedy, this award-winning musical is the bewitching story of a cockney flower seller’s transformation into the pride of London society. With memorable songs such as “With a Little Bit of Luck,” “The Rain in Spain,” “I Could Have Danced All Night,” it’s no wonder everyone — not just Henry Higgins — falls in love with Eliza Doolittle.

Hugo Wolf Quartet

Sunday, Oct. 30, 2011

3 p.m.

Within just a few short years the Hugo Wolf Quartett has developed from a chamber music lover’s insider tip to one of the most sought-after string quartets of its generation.

The International Hugo Wolf Society of Vienna allowed this ensemble, founded in 1993 at the Vienna University for Music, to use the composer’s name. Shortly thereafter, the quartet won the Fifth International String Quartet Competition in Cremona, took first prize at the 45th International G.B. Viotti Chamber Music Competition, the European Chamber Music Prize and Special Prize of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and were elected Rising Stars.

The group’s current members are violinists Sebastian Gürtler and Régis Bringolf, violist Gertrud Weinmeister and cellist Florian Berner.

The Nutcracker — Minnesota Ballet

A BUCK A KID!

Nov. 18 to 20, 2011

7:30 p.m. Friday, 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday

The classic holiday story returns to the Gallagher-Bluedorn with a dazzling new set and costumes, and all new choreography.

This timeless ballet features Tchaikovsky’s masterpiece score, the Minnesota Ballet and guest appearances by Northeast Iowa’s best dancers.

Kathy Griffin           

Sunday, Dec. 11, 2011

7:30 p.m.

Double Emmy winning and Grammy nominated comedian Kathy Griffin is a multi-faceted performer with a rapid fire wit, probably best known for her four-year stint on the NBC sitcom “Suddenly Susan.”

Kathy has co-hosted The Billboard Music Awards three years in a row and appeared on numerous talk shows including “Late Night with David Letterman,” “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,” “Howard Stern” and “The View.”

“Kathy Griffin: My Life on The D-List” won Griffin her first of two Emmys for Outstanding Reality Program.

Mannheim Steamroller

Friday, Dec. 16, 2011

7:30 p.m. SHOW CHANGED TO 8 p.m.

SECOND SHOW ADDED AT 5 p.m.

The last time they visited the Gallagher-Bluedorn they sold out faster than any show in our 11-year history.  Be the first to get your tickets to this one of a kind Christmas extravaganza!

Grammy Award winner Chip Davis has created a show that features the beloved Christmas music of Mannheim Steamroller along with state-of-the-art multimedia effects in an intimate setting.

Monty Python’s “Spamalot”

Sunday, Jan. 15, 2012

2 and 7:30 p.m.

Winner of the 2005 Tony Award for Best Musical, Monty Python’s “Spamalot” is the outrageous new musical comedy lovingly ripped off from the film classic “Monty Python and The Holy Grail.”

With a book by Eric Idle and music and lyrics by the Grammy Award-winning team of Idle and John Du Prez, “Spamalot” tells the tale of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table as they embark on their quest for the Holy Grail. Flying cows, killer rabbits, taunting Frenchmen and show-stopping musical numbers are just a few of the reasons audiences everywhere are eating up “Spamalot.”

“Rock of Ages”           

Thursday and Friday, Jan. 19 and 20, 2012

7:30 p.m.

In 1987 on the Sunset Strip, a small town girl met a big city rocker and in LA’s most famous rock club, they fell in love to the greatest songs of the 80s. It’s “Rock of Ages,” an arena-rock love story told through the mind-blowing hits of Journey, Night Ranger, Styx, REO Speedwagon, Pat Benatar, Twisted Sister, Poison, Asia, Whitesnake and others. It’s an awesomely good time when the world was about dreaming big, playing loud and partying on!

“The Magic Flute” with UNI School of Music

Friday, Jan. 27, 2012

7:30 p.m.

Mozart’s masterpiece, first performed just two months before his death, “The Magic Flute” contains high nobility and some of the most thrilling soprano arias of all time.  Mozart’s combination of Masonic subtexts and comic buffoonery made this one of his most popular operas.

Featuring the talents of the University of Northern Iowa’s School of Music, this production will stir your heart and make you laugh out loud.

“Elvis Lives”

Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2012

7:30 p.m.

“Elvis Lives” is a pulse-racing, multimedia musical journey across Elvis’ life, featuring the finalists from Elvis Presley Enterprises’ worldwide Ultimate Elvis Tribute Artist Contest. Audiences “Can’t Help Falling in Love” with this theatrical concert experience.

Spirit of Uganda

A BUCK A KID!

Sunday, Feb. 19, 2012

3 p.m.

“Young, proud, and marvelously spirited musicians and dancers. Whatever these performers do, in whatever different bright attire, they do with discipline, fervor, and joy. … The pounding feet and agile bodies, the drums and vibrant human voices all send a message – one of courage and hope.” – Village Voice

Spirit of Uganda will present a riveting program of music and dance. To the melodic tones of standing drums, with dramatic choreography, bright, layered rhythms, and gorgeous call-and-response vocals, a cast of 22 performers ages 8 to 18 oscillates between ferocity and softness as they bring to life the sounds and movements of East Africa.

Ambassadors for Uganda’s 2.4 million orphans, these children personify the resilience and promise of Africa’s next generation as they promote awareness of Uganda’s dual crises of AIDS and civil war, and raise funds to support themselves and others in their homeland.

Wroclaw Philharmonic with Garrick Ohlsson

Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2012

7:30 p.m.

The Wroclaw Philharmonic Orchestras was established in 1954 and from the beginning of its existence has drawn on the rich traditions of its home city which has played host to such great artists as Wagner, Brahms (who conducted the premiere of his Academic Festival Orchestra there), Mahler, Bruch, Paderewski, Sarasate and Ysaÿe.

Since winning the 1970 Chopin International Piano Competition, pianist Garrick Ohlsson has established himself worldwide as a musician of magisterial interpretive and technical prowess. Although he has long been regarded as one of the world’s leading exponents of the music of Frédéric Chopin, Ohlsson commands an enormous repertoire, which ranges over the entire piano literature.

A student of the late Claudio Arrau, Ohlsson is noted for his masterly performances of the works of Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert, as well as the Romantic repertoire. His concerto repertoire is wide and eclectic – ranging from Haydn and Mozart to works of the 21st century – and to date he has at his command some 80 concertos.

Burn the Floor

Saturday, Feb. 25, 2012

2 and 7:30 p.m.

The international dance sensation Burn the Floor visits the Gallagher-Bluedorn direct from its record-breaking run on Broadway.

You’ve seen Ballroom dance on shows like “Dancing with the Stars” and “So You Think You Can Dance.”  Now, with Burn the Floor, you will feel  the passion,  drama and excitement of 20 champion dancers,in a true theatrical experience — a performance with a grace and athleticism that The New York Times calls, “Dazzling!”

From Harlem’s hot nights at The Savoy, where dances such as the Lindy, Foxtrot and Charleston were born, to the Latin Quarter where the Cha-Cha, Rumba and Salsa steamed up the stage, Burn the Floor takes audiences on a journey through the passionate drama of dance. The elegance of the Viennese Waltz, the exuberance of the Jive, the intensity of the Paso Doble — audiences will experience them all, as well as the Tango, Samba, Mambo, Quickstep and Swing.

The Chieftains

Saturday, March 3, 2012

7:30 p.m.

The world’s greatest Celtic band, The Chieftains, are recognized for bringing traditional Irish music to the world’s attention. They have uncovered the wealth of traditional Irish music that has accumulated over the centuries, making the music their own with a style as exhilarating as it is definitive.

This has led the Chieftains to being officially named Ireland’s Musical Ambassadors, as they have become the standard bearers of the Irish folk music tradition.

The winners of six GRAMMY awards, The Chieftains have been nominated for 18 Grammys and also have won an Emmy and a Genie award. In 1975, The Chieftains recorded the soundtrack to Stanley Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon, featuring the hit single “Women of Ireland,” for which they won an Academy Award.

Colin Hay

Friday, March 9, 2012

7:30 p.m.

Part of the NEW Gallagher-Bluedorn Club Series

The former frontman for ‘80s hitmakers Men at Work, Aussie Colin Hay’s solo shows intersperse classic and new songs with hilarious and poignant stories drawn from his often experiences over the past three decades.

“I’ve been doing these solo tours for a number of years,” he says, “going back to the same places and building audiences by doing the best shows I can.”

Themes of redemption and renewal come naturally to Colin Hay, as he is in the midst of a renaissance.

Bela Fleck and the Flecktones

Saturday, March 31, 2012

7:30 p.m.

Groundbreaking banjo player/composer/bandleader Béla Fleck has reconvened the original Béla Fleck & The Flecktones, with pianist/harmonica player Howard Levy back in the fold alongside Fleck, bassist Victor Wooten, and percussionist/ Drumitarist Roy “Futureman” Wooten.

While all manners of genres come into play – from classical and jazz to bluegrass and African music, electric blues and Eastern European folk dances – the result is a sound all their own.

Flying Karamazov Brothers

A BUCK A KID!

Sunday, April 15, 2012

3 p.m.

These are not your father’s wild-haired, juggling, flame-throwing, kilt-and-tutu-wearing performers. Each night, the audience is invited to bring objects to the theater for the Brothers to keep airborne in a challenge that ends either with a pie in the face or a standing ovation. As director/founder/performer Paul Magid says, “Juggling is dropping.” Julia Roberts had to go all the way to India to learn the same thing.

The Midtown Men

Friday, April 20, 2012

7:30 p.m.

The group’s jump-to-your-feet show features top hits from a who’s who of the ‘60s including The Beatles, The Beach Boys, The Temptations, The Jackson 5 and The Four Seasons, whose story they brought to life every night as stars in the original cast of the Broadway hit, “Jersey Boys.”

The Midtown Men are Tony Award-winner Christian Hoff, Michael Longoria, Daniel Reichard and Tony nominee J. Robert Spencer.

Morgenstern Trio

Thursday, April 26, 2012

7:30 p.m.

To name a piano trio after the popular 19th century German poet Christian Morgenstern was the inspiration of Catherine Klipfel, piano, Stefan Hempel, violin, and Emanuel Wehse, cellist, who met during their studies at the Folkwang Conservatory in Essen, Germany.

After only two short years of working together, the Morgenstern Trio emerged on the German music scene by continuously being awarded top prizes and awards. In January 2010, the Kalichstein–Laredo-Robinson Trio Award elected the Morgenstern Trio for the most prestigious piano trio prize in the United States, which comes with 20 major debuts.

Twist and Shout

Sunday, May 6, 2012

7:30 p.m.

Twist & Shout is the definitive Beatles experience played by musicians with an inherent understanding of why The Beatles will forever be the most beloved and respected rock band in history.

Beginning with the early hits, colored with film clips from the ‘60s, Twist & Shout will immerse you in a complete experience from a band that looks and sounds like the real deal, without smoke and mirrors or pre-recorded tracks.

A dance troupe led by Cedar Rapids native Lynne Waggoner-Patton wowed the judges of NBC-TV's "America's Got Talent" earlier this month.

Leaving no shadow of a doubt, viewers were in synch with the studio audience and “America’s Got Talent” judges after seeing The Silhouettes in action during this week’s Hollywood round.

The Denver-area dance troupe, led by Cedar Rapids native Lynne (Waggoner) Patton, has advanced to the semifinal round of the popular NBC television talent show. The 42 young dancers, ages 9 to 18, have their eyes on the $1 million prize, but their sleek, patriotic shadow dance to “God Bless America” captured judges’ and viewers’ eyes.

Twelve acts competed Tuesday and the semi-finalists were announced Wednesday. The Silhouettes were among the top three after viewer voting and the three celebrity judges voted for the fourth act advancing to the next round. Eight acts were sent home.

“That was just complete genius,” judge Piers Morgan said after The Silhouettes performed Tuesday night. “I loved it, absolutely loved it. That is a world-class act and I’m proud that you’re on our show.”

“That was just brilliant and I applaud you,” judge Sharon Osbourne added.

“Original, unique, wow — there’s no other word to describe you. You are worthy of your own show,” judge Howie Mandel said. “You are already stars.”

Patton, a 1983 graduate of Cedar Rapids Kennedy High School, moved to the Denver area in 1987. She runs A Rocky Mountain School of Dance and Performing Arts in Arvada, Colo.

Watch the performance here:

A dance troupe led by Cedar Rapids native Lynne (Waggoner) Patton wowed the judges of NBC-TV's "America's Got Talent" this month.

America is discovering what Cedar Rapids audiences have known for years. Lynne (Waggoner) Patton has talent.

Now a choreographer who owns a dance studio in the Denver metro area, her dance troupe, The Silhouettes, wowed the judges last Wednesday on NBC’s “America’s Got Talent.” The episode highlighted the Minneapolis auditions for the popular talent search, and was repeated Sunday.

Piers Morgan, the toughest of the three celebrity judges, called Patton out to the stage and showered her large group with praise.

“That is one of the most brilliant things I’ve seen in a long time,” he said. “I think I’ve seen everything, and then this kind of act comes out of nowhere. We all just sat back and I could hear us go ‘Wow.’ ”

The young dancers, ages 9 to 18, hail from Patton’s studio, A Rocky Mountain School of Dance and Performing Arts in Arvada, Colo. They performed in silhouette behind a large screen to Kirk Franklin’s inspirational song, “Imagine Me.”



“What an amazing, original concept,” judge Howie Mandel said. “It was beautiful and it was a story.”

Patton is a 1983 graduate of Kennedy High School and attended Kirkwood Community College in Cedar Rapids. A singer/dancer/actress, she starred as Mary Magdalene in ”Jesus Christ Superstar” at Theatre Cedar Rapids in the 1980s. She also directed the children’s Summer Performing Arts Camp for Kirkwood College and TCR, before moving to the Denver area in 1987.

For more on her career, go to www.rmsdance.com/instructors.htm

Left to right: Peter Eli Johnson as Speed, Big Red as Crab the dog, and Patrick DuLaney as Launce in Two Gentlemen of Verona at the Riverside Theatre Shakespeare Festival, June 17 through July 10, 2011. Photo by Bob Goodfellow.

Shakespeare saw all the world as a stage, and Riverside Theatre is opening that Elizabethan globe to bring an American classic to the annual summer series bearing the Bard’s name.

Eugene O’Neill’s only comedy, “Ah, Wilderness!” will open Riverside’s Shakespeare Festival on June 17 on the outdoor stage in Iowa City’s Lower City Park. “The Two Gentlemen of Verona,” Shakespeare’s first comedy — and possibly his first play — takes to the festive stage fashioned after London’s Globe Theatre on June 24, 2011.

The two shows will play in rotation through July 10, with each one having its own scenery.

It’s not the first time the Riverside troupe has stepped out of Shakespeare’s hallowed footsteps for the festival.

Ron Clark, resident artist and production manager at Riverside Theatre in Iowa City.

“About six years ago we did Moliere’s ‘The Imaginary Invalid,’ ” Ron Clark, Riverside’s co-founder, says via email. “There are just too many great classics to limit the festival to Shakespeare. All Shakespeare festivals eventually get to other authors.”

The two comedies, written hundreds of years apart, dovetail nicely.

“The company demands are similar and they are wonderfully different comedies,” says Clark, 60, of Iowa City, who is directing “Two Gentlemen” and performing in “Ah, Wilderness!”

“They both deal with young love and the stress it puts on the young and the people who have to put up with them,” he says.

Riverside describes “The Two Gentlemen of Verona” as “a madcap romp where friendship and irresistible desire clash.”

Believed to have been written in 1590 or 1591, Shakespeare’s love triangle takes on too many angles when best friends Proteus and Valentine desire the same woman, Silvia.

The plot thickens as Proteus decides to forsake his betrothed, Julia, and betray the unsuspecting Valentine. Disguises, outlaws and a dog play into the antics as the women teach Proteus lively life lessons in love in loyalty.

“It is very high energy and requires lots of stamina in both the actors and the costumes they wear,” Clark says, adding that it even includes “a great fight and one song/dance number for the outlaws.”

He’s keeping the action in the Elizabethan era, and says his joy as a director comes from “finding the truth of an early work that resonates clearly today.”

He says audiences are in for “a rousing night of great humor, music and energy.”

Left to right: Christopher Peltier as Richard and Kelly Gibson as Muriel in Ah, Wilderness! at the Riverside Theatre Shakespeare Festival, June 17 through July 10, 2011. Photo by Bob Goodfellow.

“Ah, Wilderness” will launch the popular summer series in the 20th century.

Theodore Swetz, 58, of Kansas City, Mo., who directed last year’s “Love’s Labour’s Lost,” is returning to Iowa City to direct his first O’Neill play. Head of acting in the University of Missouri-Kansas City’s professional training program, he began his career with the New York Shakespeare Festival in Central Park.

He’s relishing this brush with O’Neill, acclaimed for such early 20th century dramas as “The Iceman Cometh” and “Long Day’s Journey into Night.”

“I have studied his work over the years and I am thrilled to finally direct one of his plays, especially ‘Ah, Wilderness!’ which I believe to be an American classic,” Swetz says via email.

Riverside describes the show as “a comedy about family and first love.” Written in 1933, the play is set on the Fourth of July, circa 1906, in a small Connecticut town, where Richard Miller, 17, is in the throes of teen angst. Spurned by his true love, he turns to “gin fizzes and a tart’s kisses in a roadside dive,” testing his family’s mettle.

Theodore Swetz

“This is (O’Neill’s) one-and-only comedy and he was very attached to it,” Swetz says. “O’Neill wrote this as a ‘recollection,’ a recreation, an imaginative redefining of what he wanted his own young life to be like. He identifies himself with the Richard character and has stated that the play is an active wish of what would have been.

“It is a wonderful family where love is the true center. It is a place of acceptance, a safe haven before one embarked into the excitement of life — the unknown — ah, wilderness.”

Even though O’Neill is known for his dramas that delve into tragedy, he deftly injects this coming-of-age story with humor.

“The spine of the play is an individual earnestness and naive energy that infests everyone. O’Neill is a genius in capturing these individuals, their sadnesses and absurdities and we all connect as we remember our own formative years.”

It was written to reflect a simpler, happier time before The Depression.

“The acting challenges are to be not as ‘knowing’ as we all are in 2011. Actors must give into a naive exuberance and embrace a simpler and ultimately deeper style,” he says.

“For me as a director, I must dig and find (the play’s) deepest human moments — and the play is abundant with them. If one does not ‘dig,’ then the piece will just seem quaint and that would be failing O’Neill and our audience.

“The play is a beautiful gift of sincerity and the power of love and commitment of family to hold each other up. And it should remind us all of a simpler time that we all long for.”

ARTS EXTRA

• What: Riverside Theatre’s Shakespeare Festival: “Ah, Wilderness!” and “The Two Gentlemen of Verona”
• Where: Outdoor Festival Stage, Lower City Park, Iowa City
• When: June 17 to July 10, 2011; shows run in rotation
• Times: 8 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays; 7 p.m. Sundays and Tuesdays; 7 p.m. Family Nights June 28 and July 5
• Tickets: $17 to $39 at (319) 338-7672 and www.riversidetheatre.org/buytickets/
• Extras: Grounds open 90 minutes before show times for picnics; Green Show Stage performances start 60 minutes before show times
• Preview: Festival Intern Company previews the Green Show for “Ah, Wilderness!” at 12:10 p.m. Friday, June 17,  in the Ped Mall (near Washington Street), downtown Iowa City
• Information: www.riversidetheatre.org

Over 90 people packed into the Londoner at 3325 Center Point Rd NE Cedar Rapids Friday morning to watch the royal wedding, before daybreak. (Kenny Knutson/The Gazette)

Diana Nollen provided liveblog coverage of Friday’s Royal Wedding, beginning at 4 a.m. Central time.

Replay her live coverage below. It was a smashing good time!

Poet and novelist Maya Angelou, shown here at an event in Alabama in 2006, spoke to the Iowa Women's Leadership Conference in Coralville Tuesday night. (AP photo)

The woman who dropped out of school at age 14 to become San Francisco’s first African-American female cable car conductor, has spent the next seven decades shattering all the barriers in her path.

“Maya Angelou has paved the way for all women today,” event director Diane Ramsey told an overflow audience Tuesday night at the Iowa Women’s Leadership Conference, held at the Coralville Marriott Hotel and Convention Center.

And for the next hour, Angelou offered pearls of wisdom born of her 83 years of knowing great joy and great hardship, as she developed the courage to let herself soar.

A celebrated poet, author, professor, singer, dancer, actor, historian, playwright, producer, director and civil rights activist, the St. Louis native is an example for both genders.

She went back to school, speaks multiple languages, teaches at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C., and has amassed more than 30 honorary degrees, a Pulitzer nomination, three Grammy Awards and in February, the nation’s highest civilian honor — the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Yet her basic life lessons were learned from the grandmother who raised her — the daughter of a former slave and the only black store owner in Stamps, Ark.

“What kind of phenomenon she must have been,” Angelou said. “Here is a group of women in 2011 talking about leadership and I’m obliged to remember we’ve been leading a long time. We’ve been raising a nation of leaders.”

Through poetry, song, life stories and encouraging words, she urged those gathered to continue teaching, leading the next generation through truth and example.

She remains astonished by her grandmother’s declaration: “You are going to be a teacher and teach all over this world.”

“Black, the daughter of a former slave, this mother of two sons, raising them in the lynching South, had enough courage to lead,” Angelou said. “In her time she was considered a wise woman. How do we get to be like that, unless you accept your responsibility?

“This is why I wanted to come here, because the women in this leadership conference have decided to accept the responsibility — to take the responsibility for the time they have and the space they occupy.”

A scene from the World Famous Lipizzaner Stallions show. Officials canceled Saturday's Lipizzaner shows at the U.S. Cellular Center in Cedar Rapids due to a routing issue. (White Stallion Productions)

The Saturday, April 16, 2011,  performances by the World Famous Lipizzaner Stallions have been canceled at the U.S. Cellular Center because of a  routing conflict.

The shows, slated for 2 and 7:30 p.m., will not be rescheduled, since the center is due to close soon for renovations.

Ticket refunds are available at point of purchase. Box office officials said online and phone-orders will be automatically refunded.

Fun is an understatement. Every aspect was exhilarating Saturday night for the orchestra’s debut  in the glorious new 1,000-seat Concert Hall at College Community. The concert repeated there Sunday afternoon.

“With 160 people onstage, singing their hearts out, and that turbo-charged brass, the Verdi Requiem would not have been possible in the Paramount Theatre. In Eastern Iowa, no stage  has been large enough until tonight,” Hankewich told season ticket holders at a post-show reception Saturday at the nearby Hotel at Kirkwood.

The entire evening was a rare treat for audience and performers, alike. The effervescent maestro was clearly in his element, conducting the entire 90-minute score from memory, punctuated by his own kind of ballet at the podium. What a joy to see him fling his arms wide open to embrace the music, the musicians and the energy flowing through this revered Mass for the Dead that could wake the dead.

No element wavered as 240 musicians moved seamlessly through each mood and movement in this work best-known for its bombastic Dies Irae (Day of Wrath) that sends the fear of God coursing through  your soul. It’s a terrifying tour de force for all instruments and voices. They were equally adept at handling the sudden near-silence of pianissimos, with excellent percussive enunciation from the well-rehearsed Cedar Rapids Concert Chorale and Coe College Concert Choir.

The thrilling theme was repeated throughout the work, knocking the lucky listeners back in their seats each time.

The entire work is filled with passion and pathos, dripping in the drama of heart-wrenching pleas for God’s mercy upon the departed soul. Hankewich created even more drama by using four antiphonal trumpets in the Tuba Mirum and Sanctus passages.

With all eyes riveted on the menacing strings and bass soloist  Kevin Deas during the Tuba Mirum, a blast of brass rang out from either side of the the balcony. The trumpets reappeared there later during the Sanctus,  all grouped on one side. The acoustics in the hall are perfect for such an effect, with no time-lag that can ruin such attempts at surround-sound.

Certainly not all movements were blaring and quivering. The quiet, peaceful passages were equally special, with soprano Mary Wilson, mezzo Jane Dutton and tenor Nathan Granner working in counterpoint to add another lovely layer of contemplation in the Quid Sum Miser passage. Verdi wove other moments of angelic beauty throughout the work, from the strings and upper woodwinds as well as the singers, especially in the Lux Aeterna plea for meriful eternal light.

It’s impossible to single out instrumentalists for moments of glory, since their entire collaborative effort was a moment of glory. However, a special bravo goes to bass drum and timpani for supplying the rumbling, sonorous thunder beneath the orchestra’s fire.

Darren Ferreter (left) president of the Cedar Rapids Area Theatre Organ Society and Jeff Weiler move a 1828 Wurlitzer console closer to a Wurlitzer console that was taken out of the Paramount Theatre ( in crate, at left) at a warehouse Friday, March 11, 2011, in southwest Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Members of the Cedar Rapids Area Theatre Organ Society obtained the organ console from an organ broker in Ohio. The group will use the Wurlitzer in the restoration of the Wurlitzer organ that was damaged at the Paramount Theatre during the 2008 flood. The new console has an opus number of 1908 while the Paramount Theatre organ has an opus number of 1907. Ferreter says that the organs were possibility manufactured next to each other given the sequential numbering. (Jim Slosiarek/SourceMedia Group News)

CEDAR RAPIDS — When the Paramount Theatre reopens in 2012, the organ pipes will be singing the same old song, which is music to the ears of organ enthusiasts.

The city of Cedar Rapids has purchased the very next console built in the 1920s after the Mighty Wurlitzer, which was destroyed when 8 feet of raging floodwaters tossed it onto the Paramount stage in June 2008.

It took a national search, a stroke of good luck, and $7,500 in insurance funds to buy the instrument from a private collector.

Jeff Weiler of Chicago, who is leading the $300,000 Paramount organ restoration project, picked up the console in Alliance, Ohio, on Wednesday and drove it to Cedar Rapids in a rented panel truck. He and a crew from the Cedar Rapids Area Theatre Organ Society (CRATOS) unloaded it Friday morning into a secure city storage facility, next to the remnants of the Mighty Wurlitzer.

The famed organ company produced its instruments sequentially, and historians later assigned them Opus numbers, Weiler said. The Mighty Wurlitzer was dubbed Opus 1907. The “new” console is Opus 1908.

“Finding any Wurlitzer console is extremely difficult,” he said. “Finding one that was still intact is extremely difficult. Finding the console from the next instrument built is — there must be higher forces at work in doing that, because that is absolutely incredible.

“These materials were created at the same time, in succession, and the artisans that worked on this console were the same artisans that worked on that console within weeks of each other,” he said.

“From the standpoint of a restorer, that’s as good as it gets.”

Similar in color but less ornate than its predecessor, the Opus 1908 console was installed in the Kenmore Theatre in Brooklyn, N.Y., in 1928. It will be rehabilitated and end up looking very much like the organ that has delighted Cedar Rapids audiences for 80 years.

“The new console will be restored so that it will conform in every respect to the original,” Weiler said.

As many components as possible will be salvaged from the Mighty Wurlitzer and incorporated into the finished replacement. Work is estimated to take about a year.

A native of Traer, Weiler, 52, is a 1981 Coe College graduate and pipe organ conservationist with a special affinity to the Paramount organ.

“That instrument is an old friend,” he told The Gazette early in the restoration process. “I’ve known that instrument since my youth. I have a real emotional attachment to it.”

After the Paramount reopens, the organ installed in 1928 to accompany silent films will be silent no more. CRATOS plans to hold two organ concerts and have the instrument featured in two Orchestra Iowa concerts each year.

Walter H. Furman II (far right) was one of the stars of “Forever Plaid” at Theatre Cedar Rapids, with runs in 1995 and 2001. He now lives on Hawaii’s Big Island and is riding out the tsunami on a friend’s boat at sea. The other 2001 Plaids are (from left) Phil Hershner, John Stepanek and Doug Elliott. (Steve Eckert photo)

Cedar Rapids native Walter H. Furman II, who lives on Hawaii’s Big Island, set out to sea to ride out the tsunami on a friend’s boat.

Via Facebook postings, he explained it’s safer to get the boats out of the harbors and into open waters, where the waves will go under them.

At 2:30 a.m. Iowa time, he wrote: “The Tsunami warning sirens just went off. It is very creepy.” Immediately after, he added: “Sirens still screaming and my cell will not work. Going to gas station to fill up with gas.”

An hour later, he reported feeling an earthquake, so he was heading out to sea.

At 5:30 a.m., he wrote: “Beautiful night sky from the harbor. Heading out in a few minutes. Wave expected at 3:30 a.m. Friday morning. The entire coast is evacuating.”

Furman is well-known to Eastern Iowa artists and audiences for his many performances in Follies and Theatre Cedar Rapids musicals.

Stephen Sondheim’s daring musical of love, revenge and insanity in seedy 19th century London opened to cheers, wild applause and an immediate standing ovation from Friday night’s capacity crowd. The show runs through March 26. Snap up tickets while you can.

This is one of the most cohesive productions I’ve ever seen at the theater, and shows why this troupe is a cut above the competition. I can’t imagine any community theater staging this show at all, let alone doing it any better. Every element works in tandem to breathe life into what is essentially the Demon Barber of Fleet Street’s nightmare from beginning to end.

All of the stunning visual, visceral aspects are a perfect match for the massive talent onstage, moving deftly through a musical maze of stunning sound effects crafted by music Director Janelle Lauer and her small, tight orchestra.

A stunning group of newcomers to the TCR stage embody the major players and make the supporting characters memorable, hilarious and horrifying.

Leading the group is Daniel Kelchen as Sweeney Todd, a man wrongfully banished to life imprisonment by a judge (TCR veteran Michael Cervantes) who wants to take Todd’s beautiful wife and infant daughter as his own. Todd escapes, is rescued at sea and returns to exact revenge and reclaim his life, instead leaving murder and mayhem in his wake.

Kelchen’s imposing figure is terrifying at every turn, yet soft and sad in a couple of key moments with his business partner in crime, Mrs. Lovett, who churns his victims into delectable meat pies that fly off the bakery shelves. Piper Pack-Smith — new to Cedar Rapids but not to operatic, theatrical realms — plays her role with delicious abandon.

Both have glorious voices and commanding forms that complement each other, as Lovett’s soft, round edges smooth Todd’s sharp, looming form.

Jay Burken as Italian barber Pirelli and Nick Williams as the unctuous Beadle Bamford light up the stage every time they saunter into a scene, with stylized swishes as different as night and day.

In a show that could easily be an exercise in tension throughout, it’s hard to tell if the moments of comic genius come from the playwright’s pen or Director Leslie Charipar.

Regardless, they’re all welcome, allowing the audience to exhale with delight.

Bravo to everyone onstage and behind the scenes who have staged this garish musical so magically.

He was the guest speaker for Coe College’s eighth annual Contemporary Issues Forum, the tickets for which were snapped up faster than tickets to hear the elder George Bush, Lech Walesa, Garry Trudeau and all other Forum speakers before him.

His 75-minute presentation began with footage from his 2007 epic look at World War II, simply titled, “The War.” He broke the solemn hush with a 30-minute, rapid-fire, impassioned discussion of the importance of preserving history, which he said provides the common voice for humanity.

“I am delighted and honored to have this opportunity to speak with you tonight to celebrate the special messages the past — our common heritage, our common memory — continually directs our way,” Burns said. “Let us listen, let us listen.

“Too often as a culture we have ignored this difficult but often joyful historical noise, becoming in the process blissfully ignorant of the power those past lives and stories and moments have over this moment and, indeed, our vast unknown future.

“I am interested in that power of history and I am interested in its many, varied voices, not just the voices of the old top-down version of our past which would try to convince us that American history is only the story of great men, capital G, capital M.”

And even in the telling of many varied facets of American history — from his first film, “Brooklyn Bridge,” to his explorations of Mark Twain, jazz, baseball, national parks and his current project on Prohibition — Burns said he feels like he’s “made the same film over and over again.” All are asking, “who are we” and “what does an investigation of the past tell us about who we were and what we have become.”

He likened his work to “a kind of emotional archaeology,” showing him all along the way that “there are no ordinary lives.”

The 253-seat theater at the Galaxy 16 Cine was packed with laughter from beginning to end, from Sigourney Weaver’s hilarious turn as a cougar to John C. Reilly’s sophomoric high jinks as the credits rolled.

The event drew a mix of ages, with everyone clutching the golden tickets they’d won in media giveaways this week.

Demetrios Hadjis, 59, of Cedar Rapids, a veteran of Theatre Cedar Rapids performances, said he was “excited to see what they’ve done with the movie.”

He wanted to walk into the movie with no preconceived notions.

“I’m trying to keep my eyes closed” to the hype beforehand, he said, “so I can have my first impressions without the reviews and trailers.”

He couldn’t help but hear, however, that shooting moved to Ann Arbor, Mich., after the collapse of the Iowa film tax credit nearly forced the movie to be scrapped entirely.

“With the potential acting opportunities for the local people lost, it’s sad,” he said, “not to mention the restaurants and hotels” that would have profited had the film been made here. “It’s a big loss to the community.”

Having a scattering of local icons on-screen helped buffer that disappointment for Josh Willia, 30, of Cedar Rapids.

“The Cedar Rapids shots made it real,” he said, “and the humor was very original. Cedar Rapids was very well portrayed.”

His wife, Lizette, 27, agreed. She especially liked the shots of Quaker and the talk about the floods of 2008.

The plot follows naive Tim Lippe (played by Ed Helms) as he steps out of his small-town world in Wisconsin into a big city of opportunities at a regional insurance convention in Cedar Rapids. Compounding his angst, he’s trying to bring home the coveted Two Diamond award for his company. That’s more pressure than he has ever faced.

Lippe’s dumbfounded blank looks drew as many laughs as the raunchy humor hopping out of his hotel roommate’s mouth (Riley). Some lines and antics even drew applause, especially when Lippe attempted to scale a rock climbing wall at Westdale Mall.

Among those laughing on the way out was Sheryl Bequeaith, 65, of Cedar Rapids.

“It was funny — it really was,” she said. “It made Wisconsin look worse than us.”

“Cedar Rapids” opens today at the Galaxy 16 Cine and the Wynnsong 12 in Cedar Rapids.

His three-part homage to trains, “Deus Ex Machina,” recorded by the Nashville Symphony on his “Metropolis Symphony” CD, was named Best Classical Contemporary Composition; Best Orchestral Performance; and Best Engineered Album, Classical. He had been nominated in five categories.

Daugherty, 56, teaches composition at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. He has written more than 100 works for symphonies; string quartets; percussion, brass and chamber ensembles; opera; symphonic bands; and solo instruments.

He is the son of Willis Daugherty of Cedar Rapids.

Of course, we hope they don’t.

Both are accomplished in their respective fields – Michael, 62, as an award-winning composer for television and film and Kevin, 52, for making a splash whenever his megawatt smile hits the silver screen.

But when they leave Hollywood behind and pool their talents with their band, they create a magical musical explosion  onstage.

They rocked onto the Riverside Casino Event Center on Saturday night (2/12/2011), bathed in a shower of shrieks from the female fans wild to see their favorite “Footloose” actor. Ninety minutes later, all genders and ages in the nearly sold-out crowd of 1,150 or so people were on their feet clapping, cheering and singing along.

The celebrated siblings and their stellar band mates have half a dozen of the best CDs you’ve never heard under their belts. They slip easily between genres, making their music hard to describe but easy to embrace. They call it “forosoco”  — a blend of folk, rock, soul and country. I just call it cool.

Like rock? You’ll love the retro edge of Kevin’s super-fueled “Woodstock 99.” Country more your style? You’ll dig “I’d Write a Song,” where slide guitar wraps around Michael’s stripped down, plaintive baritone, and his new piece, “Whole Lotta Shade.”

For folkies, it doesn’t get much better than Kevin’s ode to a giant squid, “Architeuthis,” launched with Michael’s gorgeous “prelude to a squid” on cello. Surrounded by acoustic guitars and Kevin on bodhran, the whole thing takes on a Celtic vibe capturing the haunting quality plumbing the ocean’s mysterious depths.

If soul is your thing, you’ll get your groove on with the bluesy “Only a Good Woman,” where Kevin uses his rakish charms to explain what it takes to be a man.

They have many more moods, too, with a reggae island feel on “Bunch of Words,” which Kevin wrote at the beach, promising warmer times and climes; Michael’s glorious cello and Kevin’s poetic lyrics on “Go My Way”; the funky beat of the new “Why Do Northeast Girls Love Florida”; and the kicky novelty songs “36 Cents” and “Strung Out (On You Baby),” dedicated to the bachelorette party girls in the audience.

Kevin and Michael are the real deal – terrific singers, masters of multiple instruments and pensive, polished songwriters. Add Ira Siegel on various guitars, Paul Guzzone on bass, Frank Vilardi on drums  and Kevin’s unending energy, then sit back and watch the fireworks.

The Bacon Brothers could be major rock stars, but something tells me they’re having more fun being one of the best-kept secrets in the industry.

“Cedar Rapids” the movie is ready for its close-up. So is the city.

Except for an aerial view of downtown, moviegoers may not see much of the real Cedar Rapids in the Fox Searchlight movie premiering at 9:45 tonight at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah.

The comic romp through an insurance convention — starring Ed Helms, John C. Reilly, Anne Heche and Sigourney Weaver — will have four Sundance screenings and hit more cities Feb. 11. It’s slated to come to Cedar Rapids on Feb. 18, said Anna Wilcox, general manager at Galaxy 16 Cine, 5340 Council St. NE.

The movie actually was shot in Ann Arbor, Mich., in 2009, reportedly moved there in the wake of the Iowa film tax credit collapse. Michigan offers a 40 percent tax rebate on eligible expenses for movies filmed in the state, bumped up to 42 percent for films shot in specified core communities, including Ann Arbor.

Comparable in size to the Cedar Rapids, Ann Arbor reaped the bulk of its rewards during the production phase. Estimated economic impact was $1.1 million during filming, plus boosts to smaller vendors and businesses frequented by cast and crew, said Kay Seaser from the Ann Arbor Area Convention and Visitors Bureau, which operates the city’s film office.

Ann Arbor also is a Sundance film presenter, with the Midwest premiere of “Cedar Rapids” slated for Jan. 28 at the Michigan Theatre in that city.

It’s time for the real Cedar Rapids to shine.

Trailer

Mayor Ron Corbett and City Manager Jeff Pomeranz will travel to Ann Arbor for the film premiere.

“I’m anxious to see the film,” Corbett said, “because it has our name associated with it and to have the chance to tell them about Cedar Rapids — how we’re challenged with the great flood of 2008 and how we’ve spent the past 2 1/2 years trying to recover and set the stage for a greater future for our community.

“I’m looking forward to meeting the mayor of Ann Arbor,” Corbett said, “and seeing the community from their standpoint. With the filming in their town, they had the economic benefit of the actors and the ripple effect of the filming.”

A different ripple effect is about to hit home.

Having the name “Cedar Rapids” on movie marquees is “priceless,” said Marilee Fowler, president and CEO of the Cedar Rapids Area Convention & Visitors Bureau.

“You can’t put a value on having our name in newspapers, on marquee signs, on websites promoting that movie,” she said. “The general public is not going to know it was filmed in Ann Arbor unless they stay and read the credits.

“Just having our name out there in the film production world and on marquees — they’re going to know where Cedar Rapids is,” she said.

She says the timing is excellent, since the plot revolves around an insurance convention, and the City of Five Seasons is on the brink of building a new convention complex downtown.

“I’m hoping (the film) is not too off-color, so we can use it to promote our new facility and Cedar Rapids as a great meeting place,” Fowler said.

Tim Hankewich speaks with Judge Jon S. Scoles after the Naturalization ceremony in which he became an American Citizen, Friday January 14, 2011 at the Federal Court House in Cedar Rapids. Hankewich, who is the Music Director of Orchestra Iowa, came to the States from Dawson Creek, British Columbia in 1992 and is in his sixth season with Orchestra Iowa. "I'm very proud today, " said Hankewich. "I feel like I belong." (Becky Malewitz/The Gazette)

CEDAR RAPIDS — Orchestra Iowa Maestro Timothy Hankewich is singing a new tune of allegiance, replacing “O Canada” with “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

“It’s been a great day to be an American,” he said, beaming after taking the oath of citizenship Friday afternoon at the Federal Courthouse, 4200 C St. SW.

Hankewich, 43, of Cedar Rapids, was among 21 people from 12 countries who took the final step in becoming American citizens. They came from Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo, China, Lebanon, Sudan, Iran, India, Haiti, Chad, Mexico, the Philippines and Hankewich’s native Canada.

“The ceremony was very touching and moving,” Hankewich said. “I was most moved about the diversity of the countries and the solemnity of accepting these new citizens into this nation of immigrants.”

Guest speaker Rep. Dave Loebsack, D-Iowa, described the event as “a tremendous day.”

“When you leave here today, you will step foot on United States soil for the first time as American citizens,” he said, telling the group that “each one of you is proof that the American dream is alive and well.”

He reiterated the responsibilities that come with citizenship, and urged them to actively participate in their communities, their state and the democratic process.

“I know that the path to citizenship is long, and I congratulate each of you on working your way through the process, including learning about our nations history and the meaning of our Constitution,” he said.

Hankewich, a native of Dawson Creek in British Columbia, came to the United States in 1992 to study instrumental and opera conducting at Indiana University. His road to citizenship began about 10 years ago when he applied for a green card.

“When I first came here, I expected to study and return to Canada,” he said.

Then his career took off. He spent seven years as resident conductor for the Kansas City Symphony and was named music director and conductor of the Cedar Rapids Symphony, now known as Orchestra Iowa, in 2006.

“This country has been very good to me and afforded me more opportunities than anywhere else,” he said. “Because it’s been so good to me, becoming a citizen seemed like the least I could do.”

The hardest part of the process was waiting, along with learning about the culture, government and history.

—- But that’s all behind him now, and he’s most looking forward to “bragging that I’m an American citizen.”

—- He said his family supports his decision and while his wife, Jill, also is from Canada, he said she’s “still thinking about” changing her citizenship status.

Members of the ensemble sing in Orchestra Iowa's Follidays performance on Sunday, Dec. 19, 2010, at Coe College in Cedar Rapids. (Liz Martin/The Gazette)

First came the recession. Then came the flood of June 2008.

The one-two punch has forced Eastern Iowa’s cultural community to stretch even farther than the shrinking dollar in patrons’ pockets as the organizations struggle to stay afloat.

Many cultural groups join the push for end-of-year charitable donations, but in reality, fundraising is a way of life for the non-profit sector.

“It’s ongoing; it never stops,” said Terry Pitts, 60, of Cedar Rapids, executive director of the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art. “We do two (donor solicitations) at the end of the year. One at the end of the real calendar year, when many people give for tax reasons, but we also do another push in June,” at the end of the museum’s fiscal year.

In many ways, it’s still a new world as the area’s cultural entities enter another year in new or renovated locations.

“We’re still trying to figure out what our new normal is,” said Casey Prince, 33, of Cedar Rapids, executive director at Theatre Cedar Rapids, which returned to its renovated home in the Iowa Theatre Building in February. “It will take a full year to figure out what our utilities will be. We’ve been reminded what snow removal is. There’s still a little bit of new here and there.”

The show goes on

Hancher has been on the road since the Iowa River swept through the University of Iowa’s cultural showplace in June 2008. Its world-class performances have been staged throughout the state and will continue on that path until a new facility in a new location opens in 2015 in Iowa City.

“We’ve learned to approach our work in a different way,” Chuck Swanson, Hancher’s executive director, said from his relocated office at UI’s Seashore Hall.

“We’ve become a lot more creative in how we present our work. … I’ve been here 25 years, and this is a totally different way to approach the work than I’ve ever seen,” said Swanson, 57, of Coralville. “Part of it is the fact that we’ve got to think of other venues — where we present these great performances and the ways of making these performances happen in these venues.”

The Englert Theatre in downtown Iowa City has been one of the primary venues for Hancher concerts post-flood.

“Since we were not physically affected by the flood, we became a haven for the University of Iowa, and specifically Hancher, to do a few of their shows. We’re totally happy to work with them,” said Englert Executive Director Andre Perry, 33, of Iowa City. “ … Given that the flood was such a drastic and terrible event, we’re happy to work with these organizations and let their programs continue.”

For Orchestra Iowa, displaced from the flood-ravaged Paramount Theatre in downtown Cedar Rapids, the line between the challenges are blurred.

“It’s kind of hard to tell what is recession-based and what is still a flood-recovery mode,” said Robert Massey, the orchestra’s executive director. “What we have seen post-flood … is a rather substantial decrease in subscription season ticket sales.”

That was expected, he said, and so Orchestra Iowa took the show on the road.

“(The Iowa City series) has grown from zero to 500 members per show. We’ve taken it to Decorah, Elkader, Mason City — places that might not have the chance to hear an orchestra,” said Massey, 40, who moved to Cedar Rapids from Washington just two weeks before the floods hit.

The natural disaster has forced orchestra staff to “think outside the box,” Massey said. “(Concerts at) Brucemore and Veterans Memorial Stadium are two of the most successful things we’ve done. We’re doing more with smaller ensembles; we’re thinking economically conscious.”

Mind the bottom line

Even the groups that didn’t have their doors knocked down by the raging Cedar and Iowa rivers have been treading uncertain waters.

All are businesses, striving to enhance the quality of life in the region, while employing artists, administrators, designers, musicians, directors, curators, crew members, educators and support staff who will, in turn, pay rent or mortgages, buy food and clothes, pay for utilities and otherwise pump their earnings into the local economy.

Operating budgets range from $300,000 at the Ohnward Fine Arts Center in Maquoketa to $2.2 million for Hancher Auditorium in Iowa City and $2.8 million for Orchestra Iowa. Several hover around the million-dollar mark, including the Englert Theatre in Iowa City, the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, Brucemore and Theatre Cedar Rapids. More are in the half-million-dollar range.

They’re grateful for all the help that has come their way but worry about donor fatigue and funding sources that may be diverted in other directions.

Many of the Cedar Rapids cultural non-profits are anxiously awaiting the City Council’s allocation of hotel/motel tax funds for fiscal 2012, which go toward operational expenses and retiring bonded building debt. Rumors are rippling that allocations may be cut by 50 percent or more, as hotel/motel funds are channeled toward the new $75.6 million convention complex.

Jen Neumann, 38, of Cedar Rapids, is chairwoman of the hotel/motel tax allocation committee, which makes recommendations to the city manager and City Council, who will make the final decisions this winter.

Neumann said the pot is about the same for 2012 as it was for 2011 — $2.5 million — but the reality is that a chunk of funds are expected to be diverted to the convention center, leaving less for the arts, cultural and recreation groups.

“No matter what, there are going to be reductions over previous allocations, and there’s probably not a lot (the requesting groups) can do about it,” she said. “They should spend some time talking to the City Council about how important arts, culture and recreation are, but they should also work together to raise the cap on funding at the state level. They have one (legislative) session to get this done.”

She knows making up any shortfall will be hard for the cultural and recreational entities.

“While reductions in allocations are looking to be somewhat significant, we’re not zeroing everybody out,” Neumann said. “We’ve worked really hard to get fair allocations to everybody. It’s painful. I wish it was one of those years when we’re flush with money, but we’re not. We have a post-flood reality.”

In preservation mode

That reality has sent the arts organizations into preservation mode. From slashing budgets to freezing wages, all are looking for ways to cope with economic downturns.

The Cedar Rapids Museum of Art recently shortened its gallery hours. The flooded African American Museum of Iowa, which reopened two years ago in Cedar Rapids, is operating with seven full-time staff members instead of nine. Riverside Theatre in Iowa City has kept all its staff members, but they didn’t take raises this past year.

“Our challenges are not unique,” said Ron Clark, Riverside’s resident artist and production manager. “Ticket sales are pretty flat all over. People are watching their dollars, and you can’t really blame them for that.”

He said the recession affects how much effort has to go into fundraising.

“It’s incumbent on the arts leaders to avoid a reactionary ‘let’s just hunker down, and we’ll get through this’ attitude,” said Clark, 60, of Iowa City, who co-founded the small, professional performance troupe 30 years ago. “We have to be proactive. We’re an essential part of the cultural community. …It’s up to us to find affordable ways to get them into the theater.”

Wherever that might be.

Theatre Cedar Rapids created a performance space from scratch in a vacant building at Lindale Mall shortly after floodwaters rose through the basement and over the stage downtown. More than 500 people stood in amazement as the community theater troupe unveiled its rejuvenated home space on Feb. 26.

Necessity can be creative

The Cedar Rapids Opera Theatre, which had called Theatre Cedar Rapids its home for nearly a decade, is returning there with “Tosca” on Jan. 14 and 16. Executive Director Daniel Kleinknecht couldn’t be happier and, like so many others, has found the silver lining in a most difficult situation.

“In an odd way, it’s forced us to grow in other ways,” said Kleinknecht, 50, of Coralville. “It was very challenging to move our productions to different cities. We’ve done videos of two productions with Iowa Public Television. I’m not sure we would have had the courage to do those if we hadn’t had to do so out of necessity. It’s forced us to work in a different way and be creative in a completely different situation and venues.”

Two smaller organizations that already had taken hard hits in hard times are rebounding.

Volunteers have rolled up their sleeves to help save the financially strapped Iowa City Community Theatre and put it back on track.

“We’re actually doing a lot better this year than at this time last year,” said board President Kehry Lane, 33, of Iowa City. “The situation improved primarily due to a lot of volunteer intervention.”

The troupe saved money and pumped up profits by staging a concert version of “South Pacific” in August and will be doing the same with “My Fair Lady” on Friday and Saturday. The run of “Cinderella” was extended this past holiday season, and fundraising, publicity efforts and discounts have been ramped up to shore up the bottom line.

The Carl & Mary Koehler History Center in Cedar Rapids also has been bouncing back after shutting down for part of 2006 and reopening with an all-volunteer staff, until Executive Director Melanie Alexander was hired about a year and a half ago.

“We’ve been stable for several years and growing slowly,” said Alexander, 35, of Solon. “We’ve just added a part-time education position, so we now have two full-time staff and six part-time staff.

“We’re stable, but there’s always a need to continue to fundraise. That job never stops.”

Lynne Rothrock talks about her new holiday show.

Nothing says “Christmas” like cookies, comedy and cabaret.

They rock Lynne Rothrock’s world and she’s putting on her apron and sequins, getting ready to rock Cedar Rapids with her annual musical confection.

The show will go on, but not until April 2012.

After losing its home when floodwaters ravaged the Paramount Theatre in downtown Cedar Rapids in 2008, the popular song-anddance extravaganza found a temporary home at Gallagher-Bluedorn Performing Arts Center in Cedar Falls. Now that venue will be closed during Follies’ previously announced performance dates in July.

The center’s Great Hall will undergo sound-system renovations this summer, requiring scaffolding to be set up throughout the 1,680-seat auditorium.

Follies, traditionally one of Orchestra Iowa’s most significant events and fundraisers, will stay at Gallagher-Bluedorn in a different time slot until the Paramount reopens in 2012.

‘Follies is not being canceled,’ said Robert Massey, Orchestra Iowa’s executive director. ‘This really is beyond our control.

We need to do (the show) and this is the only theater in the region that can accommodate the Follies we all know and love.

This is when (the renovation) has to be done, so we will move to that April 2012 timeline and do it in Cedar Falls.’ Moving the performance dates to April actually moves the show back to the spring time slot that audiences, bus tours, casts and crews are used to.

‘When we’re back in the Paramount, we’ll have more control over scheduling,’ Massey said. ‘Orchestra Iowa will have a March concert and Follies will be in April, staying away from Holy Week.

‘We needed to make the move at some point,’ he said. ‘We probably wouldn’t have done a Follies in July and then in April. As long as we’re out of the Paramount, this was the logical time to make the switch.’ Organizers had explored other venue options, including Sinclair Auditorium, Linn-Mar High School and Theatre Cedar Rapids, but none offered the seating, backstage space and onstage space needed to give audiences and performers the experience they had come to expect.

‘We’re not going to present a diminished product, but wait until we can do it right so the institution that is the Follies maintains its integrity,’ Massey said.

Patrons who have purchased Follies tickets for July 2011 can exchange them for any other Orchestra Iowa performance this season or keep them for the April 2012 production. For season options, go to www.orchestraiowa. org. For information, call 1-(800) 369-TUNE or (319) 366-8203.

The Rockettes' “Radio City Christmas Spectacular” performed at the U.S. Cellular for two shows Thursday. (Madison Square Garden Entertainment photo)

Never has winter landed with such grace and glamour as in the wonderland Radio City created in the U.S. Cellular Center on Thursday.

The Rockettes kicked up a storm of glitter and glitz that showered snow and streamers throughout the arena, bringing cheers and applause again and again from more than 2,000 people gathered for the 4 p.m. matinee. Quite a few seats were empty in the upper balcony, but that wasn’t expected to be case for the sold-out 7 p.m. show.

While the gorgeous high-kickers are clearly the stars of the show, they’re far from alone onstage. Santa is there in all his red-velvet splendor, along with Mrs. Claus, their elves, at least three children and a top-notch ensemble of singers, dancers and actors.

Not to mention the village it takes backstage to make the magic happen. Especially exciting is having Cedar Rapids native Rod Caspers as one of the stage managers, making sure the choreography backstage runs smoothly and safely.

From the opening number featuring The Rockettes as Santa’s dashing, dancing Prancers with twinkling antlers, it’s obvious why Radio City calls this its “Christmas Spectacular.”

Every aspect of the 90-minute show is a spectacle of the finest degree. The kids sitting around me were giggling and giddy, as were people throughout the arena who haven’t been kids for decades. All these years after disco died, it’s amazing how a giant mirror ball can still spin plenty of aah factor throughout an audience.

In a show filled with highlights, there are no lowlights.

The production values are lavish, led by a  giant LED screen transporting the action from Times Square to the North Pole and eventually to Bethlehem. The scenery is breath-taking, the costumes divine, the dances precise, the singing lovely and a stage full of Santas right jolly.

It’s impossible not to feel the Christmas spirit in your bones after watching teddy bears dance “The Nutcracker,” rag dolls tap dance on snowflakes, a real double-decker bus pivot in front of Manhattan street scenes and wooden soldiers collapse ever so slowly like dominoes.

Then at the end, comes a magnificent pageant beginning with children reading the Christmas story from the gospel of Luke, their voices melting into a Living Nativity unfolding onstage. It’s all done with reverence and splendor befitting the season.

The entire production is a class act from beginning to end.