Some "Cats" Tickets Are Still Available!

The tickets are going fast for Tuesday's performance of Cats that takes the stage at the Keith Albee Performing Arts Center!

Here's the info:

Presented by the Marshall Artists Series, Cats will take place at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Feb. 8 and Tuesday, Feb. 9. Monday's show is sold out, but tickets remain for Tuesday's show.

Based on T.S. Eliot’s Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats, and with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, Cats won seven 1983 Tony Awards including Best Musical, Best Book of a Musical, Best Lighting and Best Costumes.

Cats is the only production in North America sanctioned by Lloyd Webber. With original direction by Trevor Nunn and choreography by Gillian Lynne, this is the production credited with the British invasion of Broadway.

“Anybody who does a musical in England never really feels they've done it until it goes to Broadway and survives or fails that test,” Nunn told The New York Times. “That is the journey.”

The national tour of Cats recently celebrated its 26th anniversary season. In June 1997, Cats became the longest running musical on Broadway, continuing to live up to its motto “Now and Forever.” Its 18 year run ended on September 10, 2000.

Five continents and 26 countries later, Cats is still one of America’s most loved family musicals. Approximately 8.5 million audience members later, Cats is still the ground-breaking and awe inspiring event it was on opening night.

Tickets are on sale now at the Joan C. Edwards Performing Arts Center box office and all Ticketmaster locations, online at ticketmaster.com or call 304-696-6656 for more details. Adult tickets are $55, $50 and $45.

Cats is sponsored by the Children’s Hospital at Cabell Huntington Hospital, Heiner’s Bakery, Touma Foundation, University Physicians & Surgeons, West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission, West Virginia Department of Education, WKEE, B-97, The Herald-Dispatch, WSAZ, Marshall University, The College of Fine Arts and the Marshall Artists Series.

On Stage This Weekend - Five Shows!

The weekend is at hand, so get out there, brave the weather and enjoy one of five (count 'em, five!) shows taking the stage this weekend.

Here's the lineup:

- I Love You... You're Perfect... Now Change - ARTS presents this musical comedy in the Renaissance Ballroom (Old Huntington High School). Shows will be presented Feb. 5-7. Dinner is at 6:30 p.m. and the show begins at 8:00. Tickets for the show and dinner is $25.00 per person and $10.00 for show only. A group rate is available for groups of 10 or more. The story is based around four couples who take the audience through the whole journey of love, dating, and relationships and pokes fun at the process we go through in search of a mate.

- The Pirates of Penzance - the Charleston Light Opera Guild presents the Gilbert & Sullivan’s musical comedy on Feb. 5 and 6 at 7:30 p.m. and Feb. 7 at 3 p.m. All shows are at the Light Opera Guild Theater on the corner of Tennessee Avenue and Roane Street in West Charleston. Tickets are $15 and it is festival seating. The box office number is 304-342-9312 - for more info go to www.charlestonlightoperaguild.org.

- Galileo - The Contemporary Youth Arts Company will present Bertolt Brecht’s classic drama Galileo at 8 p.m. Feb. 5-6 at the historic WVSU Capitol Center Theater, 123 Summers Street, Charleston W.Va. Tickets are $9.50 for adults and $5.50 for students and seniors.

- The Memory House - A two-person play by Kathleen Tolan will be performed at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday nights at Marshall's Francis Booth Experimental Theatre inside the Joan C. Edwards Performing Arts Center. The play is free and open to the public.

- 12 Angry Men - The Kanawha Players presents this classic drama Feb. 5 - 7 and 12 - 13 at 8 p.m. and Feb. 7 at 2 p.m. at the Kanawha Players Theatre, 309 Beauregard Street in Charleston. Tickets are $16 for general admission and $10 for students. For more info, go to www.kanawhaplayers.org. (As my pal Mel points out in the comments, I missed this one in the original post - mea culpa!)

Theatre Notes About Three New Shows

There are three theatre stories to check out on the Herald-Dispatch online. For example:

- Go here and read my pal Dave Lavender's preview of the show that takes the stage next week - the touring show of Cats. Here's an excerpt:

More than 8.5 million purring fans can't be wrong.

Based on T.S. Eliot's Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats, and power-packed with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, Cats is without a doubt one of the most popular musicals of all times.

Cats set records for longevity in London, scratched out the second-longest-run on Broadway, and on the road, the big '80s musical has lived up to its motto, "Now and Forever" playing in some 26 countries and five continents.

Come Monday and Tuesday, the behemoth musical that cost some $5 million when it first came to Broadway in the early 1980s, brings its amazing and playful musical junkyard to the stage at the Keith-Albee Performing Arts Center, 925 4th Ave.

The Monday night show, produced by the Marshall Artists Series is sold out, as is a Tuesday morning school show that will be performed for more than 2,200 area school children from around the Tri-State.

Tickets do remain for a second night show at 7:30 p.m.

Tickets are $55, $50 and $45 and are on sale now at the Joan C. Edwards Performing Arts Center box office and all Ticketmaster locations, online at ticketmaster.com or call 304-696-6656 for more details.

As a testament to Cats' popularity we caught up with actor Adam Steiner (Rum Tum Tugger). He has only been with the touring production of Cats since February 2009, but has already been to most states, as well as South and Central America.

A graduate of Western Michigan University, Steiner said it was an amazing experience sharing Cats with audiences in South America, many whom were experiencing their first taste of American Broadway shows.

"It was just phenomenal, and we had sold out houses over and over. It was just an honor to be there as one of the first Broadway shows to go down there," Steiner said. "It's something people had only heard about, but they hadn't seen a full production, so it was so cool for them and for us to be immersed into their culture. It really was amazing to get to go and get a feel for each individual place that we were performing it in."

And here's a show that has its origins a bit closer to home - it takes the stage (and the dinner table) Valentine's weekend:

First United Methodist Church is thrilled to present yet another brand-new comedy by local actor, playwright and drama instructor Jonathan Joy.

First Church Dinner Theater will be hosting the World Premiere of Bitsy, Boots and Friends for your Valentine’s entertainment.

The show will take place Feb. 12-14. Dinner served at 6:30 p.m., the show begins at 8 p.m. There is a choice of entrees: Prime Rib au Jus or Glazed Cornish hen, with Tossed Salad, Baked Potato, Green peas and Pearl Onions, Dilly Rolls and assorted Valentine Desserts.

Tickets: Dinner plus Show: Adult - $22, Child under 12 - $8, Show only (as space permits) - $5. Babysitting available on request for all shows (advance notice required). Reservations are required for all shows. For Reservations, call: 304-522-0357 or 740-867-8576.

Bitsy, Boots and Friends presents still more of the unexpected, as Tommy brings his bride to southern Ohio for another visit with the two oddball aunts who raised him, their even odder cousin Ida, and an assortment of other friends, new and old.

Then go here to read about a show I knew nothing about (but it sounds like a great one to check out):

The Memory House, a two-person play by Kathleen Tolan, will be performed at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday nights at Marshall's Francis Booth Experimental Theatre inside the Joan C. Edwards Performing Arts Center.

Directed by Marshall University Department of Theatre student, Mary Poindexter Williams, the play is free and open to the public.

Set in a Manhattan apartment on a New Year’s Eve, the play follows a recently-divorced mother baking a pie as her daughter tires of finishing a college essay exploring her childhood memories. As the essay deadline looms, unexamined issues of the girl’s adoption from Russia, questions of her loyalty to one’s culture and country, her parents divorce and the fear of leaving home, surface as her mom works through her own loss and sadness.

The mom, Maggie, is played by veteran Huntington area actress, Linda Reynolds, and the daughter is a Marshall student, Rachel Kenaston, who is a senior theater and French major and also a Yeager Scholar.

For more theater events, go online at www.marshall.edu/cofa and click onto Theatre.

The Oscar Nominees

This blog is actually about community theatre, not movies, but we bend the rules at this time of the year to talk about the Oscars. This year there are 10 films nominated in the "Best Picture" category, which should make things interesting.

The nominees were announced this morning - give me a few days to get things sorted out, and we'll crank up our annual "Name the Winners" competition!

Wearing the crown from last year is my pal Linda Reynolds. Can she repeat? Will someone else win the title? Will Chuck finish in last place again? Only time will tell!

In the meantime, here are the nominees:

Best Picture:

Avatar
The Blind Side
District 9
An Education
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire
A Serious Man
Up
Up in the Air

Actor:

Jeff Bridges, "Crazy Heart"
George Clooney, "Up in the Air"
Colin Firth, "A Single Man"
Morgan Freeman, "Invictus"
Jeremy Renner, "The Hurt Locker"

Actress:

Sandra Bullock, "The Blind Side"
Helen Mirren, "The Last Station"
Carey Mulligan, "An Education"
Gabourey Sidibe, "Precious: Based on the Novel `Push' by Sapphire"
Meryl Streep, "Julie & Julia"

Supporting Actor:

Matt Damon, "Invictus"
Woody Harrelson, "The Messenger"
Christopher Plummer, "The Last Station"
Stanley Tucci, "The Lovely Bones"
Christoph Waltz, "Inglourious Basterds"

Supporting Actress:

Penelope Cruz, "Nine"
Vera Farmiga, "Up in the Air"
Maggie Gyllenhaal, "Crazy Heart"
Anna Kendrick, "Up in the Air"
Mo'Nique, "Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire"

Directing:

James Cameron, "Avatar"
Kathryn Bigelow, "The Hurt Locker"
Quentin Tarantino, "Inglourious Basterds"
Lee Daniels, "Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire"
Jason Reitman, "Up in the Air"

Foreign Language Film: "Ajami," Israel; "El Secreto de Sus Ojos," Argentina; "The Milk of Sorrow," Peru; "Un Prophete," France; "The White Ribbon," Germany

Adapted Screenplay: Neill Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell, "District 9"; Nick Hornby, "An Education"; Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci, Tony Roche, "In the Loop"; Geoffrey Fletcher, "Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire"; Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner, "Up in the Air"

Original Screenplay: Mark Boal, "The Hurt Locker"; Quentin Tarantino, "Inglourious Basterds"; Alessandro Camon and Oren Moverman, "The Messenger"; Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, "A Serious Man"; Bob Peterson, Pete Docter, Tom McCarthy, "Up"

Animated Feature Film: "Coraline"; "Fantastic Mr. Fox"; "The Princess and the Frog"; "The Secret of Kells"; "Up"

Art Direction: "Avatar," "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus," "Nine," "Sherlock Holmes," "The Young Victoria"

Cinematography: "Avatar," "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," "The Hurt Locker," "Inglourious Basterds," "The White Ribbon"

Sound Mixing: "Avatar," "The Hurt Locker," "Inglourious Basterds," "Star Trek," "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen"

Sound Editing: "Avatar," "The Hurt Locker," "Inglourious Basterds," "Star Trek," "Up"

Original Score: "Avatar," James Horner; "Fantastic Mr. Fox," Alexandre Desplat; "The Hurt Locker," Marco Beltrami and Buck Sanders; "Sherlock Holmes," Hans Zimmer; "Up," Michael Giacchino

Original Song: "Almost There" from "The Princess and the Frog," Randy Newman; "Down in New Orleans" from "The Princess and the Frog," Randy Newman; "Loin de Paname" from "Paris 36," Reinhardt Wagner and Frank Thomas; "Take It All" from "Nine," Maury Yeston; "The Weary Kind (Theme from Crazy Heart)" from "Crazy Heart," Ryan Bingham and T Bone Burnett

Costume: "Bright Star," "Coco Before Chanel," "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus," "Nine," "The Young Victoria"

Documentary Feature: "Burma VJ," "The Cove," "Food, Inc." "The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers," "Which Way Home"

Documentary (short subject): "China's Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province," "The Last Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner," "The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant," "Music by Prudence," "Rabbit a la Berlin"

Film Editing: "Avatar," "District 9," "The Hurt Locker," "Inglourious Basterds," "Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire"

Makeup: "Il Divo," "Star Trek," "The Young Victoria"

Animated Short Film: "French Roast," "Granny O'Grimm's Sleeping Beauty," "The Lady and the Reaper (La Dama y la Muerte)," "Logorama," "A Matter of Loaf and Death"

Live Action Short Film: "The Door," "Instead of Abracadabra," "Kavi," "Miracle Fish," "The New Tenants"

Visual Effects: "Avatar," "District 9," "Star Trek"

On Stage in February

The month ahead may be a short one, but there are quite a few great shows squeezed in there.

Here are the shows I know about - as always, if I've missed one, let me know in the comments below, or email the information to TheMinskers@aol.com.

Here's the list for February:

- I Love You... You're Perfect... Now Change - ARTS presents the musical comedy at the Renaissance Center Feb. 5, 6 and 7.

- The Pirates of Penzance - The Charleston Light Opera Guild presents the musical comedy by Gilbert & Sullivan Feb. 5, 6 and 7.

- Galileo - The Contemporary Youth Arts Company presents Bertolt Brecht’s classic drama Jan. 29-30 and Feb. 5-6 at the historic WVSU Capitol Center Theater in Charleston.

- CATS - The Marshall Artists Series presents one of Broadway's most popular musicals Feb. 8 and 9 at the Keith Albee Performing Arts Center.

- Bitsy, Boots and Friends - The original show by Jonathan Joy will be presented at the First United Methodist Church in Huntington Feb. 12, 13 and 14.

- 12 Angry Men - The Kanawha Players presents this drama Feb. 12 and 13.

- Willy Wonka, Jr. - ACTC presents the classic musical Feb. 19, 20 and 21.

- Dead Man's Cell Phone - The Charleston Stage Company presents the drama Feb. 18, 19, 20, 25, 26 and 27.

- Lucille Ball: "Thank You For Asking" - The Marshall Artists Series presents a show about the film and TV star at the Keith Albee Performing Arts Center Feb. 23.

- Born Yesterday - the Marshall Theatre Alliance will present the drama Feb. 24, 25, 26 and 27 at the Joan C. Edwards Performing Arts Center.

Two Shows Today (and Three Next Weekend)

My heart goes out to the cast and crew of the three shows that took the show this weekend. Whenever you stage a show, you always fear this kind of weather, because it keeps away all but the most hardy of theatre-goers.

Thankfully, things are warming up and the roads are (mostly) clear, so hopefully you'll get to see one of the shows running this weekend - and if not, they all have more performances next weekend!

Here's the lineup:

- I Love You... You're Perfect... Now Change - ARTS presents this musical comedy in the Renaissance Ballroom (Old Huntington High School). Shows will be presented today and Feb. 5-7. Dinner is at 6:30 p.m. and the show begins at 8:00. Tickets for the show and dinner is $25.00 per person and $10.00 for show only. A group rate is available for groups of 10 or more. The story is based around four couples who take the audience through the whole journey of love, dating, and relationships and pokes fun at the process we go through in search of a mate.

- The Pirates of Penzance - the Charleston Light Opera Guild presents the Gilbert & Sullivan’s musical comedy today and Feb. 7 at 3 p.m. and Feb. 5 and 6 at 7:30 p.m. All shows are at the Light Opera Guild Theater on the corner of Tennessee Avenue and Roane Street in West Charleston. Tickets are $15 and it is festival seating. The box office number is 304-342-9312 - for more info go to www.charlestonlightoperaguild.org.

Making Improvements at the Keith-Albee

Hey, there's a great story in today's Herald-Dispatch about some improvements being made to the classic Keith-Albee Performing Arts Center.

As my pal David Malloy writes in this story (with photos by Lori Wolfe), some students took the stage to make some much-needed repairs:

More than two dozen Collins Career Center students were busy outside the classroom on Friday to help make repairs and clean up the Keith-Albee Performing Arts Center in downtown Huntington.

Twenty-seven students from the vocational school at Getaway, Ohio, replaced boards on the stage floor and did cleanup work to get the building ready for a production of Cats scheduled Feb. 8 and 9, said Bob Edmunds, a former Marshall University professor helping out at the Keith-Albee.

"They need 15 hours of community service before they can graduate," said Matt Parnell, a carpentry instructor at the vocational school. "We came over before they had the premiere of We Are Marshall. They've been sanding the floor, replacing some boards in the stage and vacuuming."

The students are from the carpentry class and the building maintenance class at Collins, Parnell said.