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LPAC to close season with top acts in music, comedy and classic theater

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From child prodigies to literary masterpieces, the Lancaster Performing Arts Center will close its 2013-14 season with some of the entertainment industry’s most popular and surprising acts.

First up on March 11 is 13-year-old piano sensation Umi Garrett. At the age of nine, Garrett wowed American viewers with a virtuoso performance on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” and has since been in demand worldwide. In 2012 she became the youngest person to perform at the International Piano Stars Festival in Latvia. That year, she won the Osaka and the Chopin International music competitions. In 2011, Garrett performed at Italy’s Assisi nel Mondo Festival as well the Kizuna Concert Series in Tohoku, Japan, a special engagement to benefit the victims of the 2011 tsunami. She completed four dates in Tohoku last year.

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During her still brief professional career, Garrett has performed in the Netherlands, Poland, Germany and in Panama. She made her Chinese debut in 2010 with the Wuhan Symphony Orchestra and, a year earlier, captivated audiences at the Vianden Musical Festival in Luxembourg. In 2009 she also performed with Keith Lockhart and the Boston Pops, and made her orchestral debut with the Desert Symphony in Palm Desert.

—Ray Bradbury’s powerful 1953 sci-fi masterpiece, Fahrenheit 451, will be performed March 14 by the British-American touring troupe Aquila Theatre. The story is a visionary parable of a dystopic society gone wrong in a strange, future world where books have been outlawed and attainment of knowledge is discouraged. Bradbury wrote most of the novel on a public typewriter at Los Angeles Central Library.

Fireman Guy Montag is the principal character who is charged with uncovering and burning books as well as the homes of dissenters. But when his young neighbor, Clarisse, causes him to recognize how empty his life is, Montag starts to question his beliefs as well as the confines of authority, and slowly begins a process of self affirmation. Fahrenheit 451 questions the impacts of technology on literature and society; some of these issues are more relevant today than they were 61 years ago.

The novel has always been considered a commentary on censorship and restrictions of freedoms and has frequently been banned in some school districts nationwide. Bradbury said years ago that the novel was an outgrowth and commentary on the “Red Scare” during the McCarthy era of the early 1950s. Memorable characters include Montag’s boss, “Captain Beatty,” the ex-English professor “Faber,” and , representing the anti-intellectuals of the day, “Mrs. Ann Bowles” and Mrs. Clara Phelps.” The curtain rises at 8 p.m.

—Molly Ringwald and her Quartet will perform at 8 p.m. on March 15. Movie fans will remember red-haired Ringwald from the popular 1980s films by the late director John Hughes: “The Breakfast Club,” “Pretty In Pink” and “Sixteen Candles” all about teenage angst. What Ringwald didn’t display to audiences back then was an outstanding singing voice and musical aptitude. She was reared within a musical family as her father, Robert Scott “Bob” Ringwald, is a Jazz pianist who happens to be blind. She learned the “American song book” of Jazz and Pop classics at an early age. “There was nobody really in my generation that sang the kind of music that I sang, and I realize it gave me this backbone,” Ringwald said. “But my tastes in Jazz tend to be a lot more modern than my father’s. He is of the traditional era, but he gave me an incredible education that a lot of my generation do not have.”

Ringwald is also a novelist, having penned Getting the Pretty Back: Friendship, Family and Finding the Perfect Lipstick (2010) and When It Happens to You: A Novel in Stories (2013).

—“Hair” comes to town on March 23 for a 3 p.m. matinee. Sometimes referred to as the “American Tribal Love-Rock Musical,” the 1967 musical began as an off-Broadway revue of the ‘60s counterculture and the sexual revolution with songs penned by James Rado and Gerome Ragni. In the late ‘60s, “Hair” explored America through the eyes of the hippies and was controversial in its depiction of racism, environmental destruction, poverty, sexism/sexual repression, politics and the war in Vietnam. Thus, long hair was the mantra of the hippies and wheter it was flowing blond manes, shaggy  beards, or defiant Afros, the hairstyle was used as a symbol not only of rebellion but also as a rejection of “establishment” boundaries, racial segregation as well as restrictive gender roles. The show is most famous for its universal themes of individuality, experimentation and acceptance in the face of oppression and social rejection.

Clothing from other cultures, particularly the Third World and Native Indians, came to represent the hippies’ awareness of the global community and their rejection of American imperialism abroad and commercialism at home. “Hair” also integrated the Broadway musical as one-third of the original cast was African American.

Among the chart-topping hits that became anthems of American counterculture are “Aquarius/Let The Sun Shine In,” “Good Morning, Starshine,” “Easy to be Hard” and the title tune. All of the original songs and a few new ones from the original production will be performed live by The Tribe.

—Comedian Jim Breuer will perform at 8 p.m. on March 28. Breuer drew much of his early fame as a cast member on “Saturday Night Live” and is among the most popular comedians on the stand-up circuit. From charismatic stage antics, dead-on impressions and family-friendly routines, Breuer toured for years before landing a job with producer Lorne Michael’s comedy ensemble. He became known for an original character, “Goat Boy,” host of a fictional MTV program, as well as impressions of tough-guy actor Joe Pesci. In 2009, Breuer’s second one-hour Comedy Central special, “Let’s Clear the Air,” became one of the network’s highest-rated productions. He has also hosted several episodes of “Premium Blend” on Comedy Central.

Breuer is host of “Fridays with Jim Breuer” on the Sirius Satellite Radio channel and also penned the satirical book “I’m Not High (But I’ve Got a Lot of Crazy Stories About Life as a Goat Boy, a Dad and a Spiritual Warrior).

—“Rock of Ages” comes to town for two performances, 3 p.m. and 7 p.m., on April 13. The show is an homage to ‘80s Pop and Heavy Metal and features the songs “Don’t Stop Believin’”  by Journey, “We Built This City” by Jefferson Starship, “Wanted Dead or Alive” by Bon Jovi, “Can’t Fight This Feeling” by REO Speedwagon and “I Want to Know What Love Is” by Foreigner.

Set in 1987, “Rock of Ages” centers around a small town girl, Sherrie Christian, who just arrived from Paola, Kan. in search of Hollywood dreams. She subsequently meets a a big city rock star, Drew Boley, at the fictional “Bourbon Room” somewhere on the Sunset strip and the two fall in love amid the glitz and glitter of the decade’s biggest Top 40 hits. Lonny Barnett is the narrator who guides the audience through the “sex, drugs and Rock ‘N Roll” aspect of the Hollywood music business.

“Rock of Ages” premiered in 2005 at the King King Club on Hollywood Boulevard and has since been welcomed in Las Vegas, San Francisco, Toronto, Canada; Melbourne, Australia; in London’s “West End,” Japan and in Manila, the Philippines.

A novel aspect of  “Rock of Ages” are segments whereby cast members briefly step out of character and break through a “fourth wall,” directly addressing the audience about topical subjects not only from the play but from 80s society. To date, “Rock of Ages” is Broadway’s 31st longest running production, having won five Tony Awards in 2009. A motion picture was released in 2012 starring Julianne Hough, Paul Giamatti, Mary J. Blige, Tom Cruise and Alec Baldwin.

—Branford Marsalis is a contemporary master of the saxophone and will perform at 8 p.m. on May 13. Equally adept at Jazz, Classical and Pop music, Marsalis hails from a famous New Orleans musical family which includes his father, Ellis Marsalis, Jr., a renowned pianist and music professor, and Wynton Marsalis, composer/trumpeter  and director of the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra.

The Branford Marsalis Quartet is one of the world’s finest Jazz ensembles whose leader is a NEA (National Endowment for the Arts) Jazz Master, a Grammy winner and Tony Award nominee. The group of world-class musicians is unique for focusing on each number as a unique musical entity unto itself, instead of a typical vehicle to showcase individual talent. In short, the vitality and strength of the songs take the stage and the musician becomes the “instrument” by which the piece is presented to the audience.

Fans of the former “Tonight Show with Jay Leno” will remember Marsalis as band leader from 1992-95 and he has performed with an eclectic mix of individuals and groups ranging from Sting, the Grateful Dead, the Dave Matthews Band, Herbie Hancock, Yo Yo Ma, and Jazz masters Clark Terry, Art Blakey, Lionel Hampton, Miles Davis and Dizzy Gillespie. Marsalis co-starred in Spike Lee’s “School Daze”  (1988), “Throw Momma From the Train” (1987) and portrayed himself in a 1994 episode of the TV comedy “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.”

—“Les Miserables” may have become the world’s most popular musical. Music Theater International will stage its version of the classic tale of misfortune leading to redemption in three performances at 8 p.m. May 30 and 31, and at 2 p.m. June 1.

Set in 19th century France, Jean Valjean is released from 19 years on the chain gang only to discover that the “yellow ticket” that he must, by law, display actually condemns him to be an outcast. Only the saintly Bishop of Digne treats him kindly and Valjean, now bitter from years of hardship, repays the clergyman’s kind gesture by stealing silver from him. The police catch Valjean and the ex-con is amazed when the bishop lies to the police to save him. Valjean decides to start a new life but his struggle for deliverance is shadowed by his nemesis, Inspector Javert. Throughout the story, Valjean’s journey is accompanied by memorable characters, as well as the classic score by Claud-Michel Schonberg and lyrics by Herbert Kretzmer.

Adapted from Victor Hugo’s 1862 book, musical theatre lyricist Alain Boublil in 1980 presented the modern version of Les Miserables in Paris, France and it has been a hit from stage to motion pictures including a 1935 film starring Fredric March and Charles Laughon; Sir Lew Grade’s British production in 1978, and in 2012 starring Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe and Anne Hathaway.

—Music fans worldwide know the songs and the singers, but have never recognized the faces behind some of the biggest hits in Top 40 history. Lee Shapiro, Gerry Polci, Jimmy Ryan, Larry Gates and Russ Velazquez are “The Hit Men” and will close out the season at 8 p.m. on June 6.

Audience members will relive the greatest hits from the ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s released by Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, Tommy James and the Shondells, Jim Croce, Cat Stevens, Carly Simon and many others. The five musicians spent decades in the studio and on-stage behind these famous acts and will perform some of the most popular hit songs such as “Sherry,” “Crystal Blue Persuasion,” “Bad, Bad, Leroy Brown,”  “Peace Train” and “You Belong to Me.” Lee Shapiro, who formed the group, is the lead singer on one of the Four Seasons’ biggest hits, “December 1963 (Oh, What A Night).”

The LPAC box office is open noon to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday,  and from noon to 4 p.m. on Saturday. For tickets or more information, call (661) 723-5950.

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