For its final production in this season’s Ovations! series,
the Lively Arts at Indiana University of Pennsylvania will present Broadway’s award-winning
Memphis, the Musical. This finale,
featuring the traveling tour direct from Broadway, will be presented on Monday,
May 4, 2015, at 8:00 p.m. in Fisher Auditorium of IUP’s Performing Arts Center.
Winner of four 2010 Tony Awards, including Best Musical, Memphis, the Musical played pre-Broadway
at the La Jolla Playhouse and Seattle’s 5th Avenue Theatre and features a
Tony-winning book by Joe DiPietro (I
Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change) and a Tony-winning original score
with music by Bon Jovi’s founding member David Bryan. The London
production recently received an Olivier Award—the West End’s equivalent to the
Tony Awards—for Outstanding Choreography.
Inspired by actual events, Memphis, the Musical is set in the places where rock and roll was
born in the 1950s: the seedy nightclubs, radio stations, and recording studios
of the musically-rich Tennessee city of Memphis.
With an original score, it tells the fictional story of DJ
Huey Calhoun, a good ole’ local boy with a passion for R&B music and
Felicia Farrell, an up-and-coming black singer that he meets one fateful night
on Beale Street.
Despite the objections of those close to them—Huey’s
close-minded mama and Felicia’s cautious brother, the club owner—they embark on
a dangerous affair. As their careers rise, the relationship is challenged by
personal ambition and the pressures of an outside world that is just unable to
accept their love.
This hot-and-bothered Broadway musical is filled with heart,
soul, and energy to burn that is clearly demonstrated with electrifying
choreography and an inspiring, diverse collection of songs. The production
contains some strong language to which some audience members may object.
Tickets for this May 4 event are available now online, or the Lively Arts’ online ticketing site. They can also be purchased at the Hadley Union Building ticket office
on the IUP campus or by calling the HUB ticket office at (724) 357-1313.
