Music news:
The Messiah Project will present their Spring concert, A Festival of Hallelujahs Saturday, April 13, at 4 p.m. at All Saints Anglican Church, 2751 E. Galloway in Springfield. It will feature their women’s ensemble under the direction of Dr. Heather Nelson, the debut of their men’s ensemble under the direction of Dr. Nathan Cornelius and a closing section featuring both groups. Admission is free. For more information, check the messiah project website.
Joplin’s arts org Connect2Culture is putting on a few events over the next two weeks. They’ll host a Tribute to Elvis Presley Saturday night, April 13. It will feature the trio, Hot Club of Cowtown, as well as actor and singer/songwriter, Tyler Hilton, who is known for, among other things, playing Elvis in Walk the Line. Tickets start at $35.
On Saturday, April 20, at 7 p.m., Connect2Culture will host a concert by Jontavious Willis, a Grammy-nominated blues singer. Tickets for that one will be free.
On April 23 at 6 p.m. is a concert from Time for Three, a self-described “classically trained garage band.” It’s two violin players and a double bass player, and they do a sort of pop-classical fusion. It’s not string quartet covers of pop songs — they do their own thing pretty much. Tickets start at $40.
Then on April 26 at 7 p.m., C2C will host the New York Gilbert and Sullivan players performing a one-act version of The Pirates of Penzance, the classic comic opera from which the modern major general song is derived. That will be followed by a best-of Gilbert and Sullivan, including impromptu requests, if you want to hear something specific from, say, H.M.S. Pinafore. Tickets start at $40.
All of these events are taking place at the Beshore Performance Hall in the Harry M. Cornell Arts Complex. More information at the Connect2Culture website.
Theatre news:
The MSU Theatre department is presenting A Killer Party this weekend. It opened Thursday, April 11, and runs thru Sunday, April 14, at Coger Theatre. There will be an evening performance at 7:30 every day of the run, with matinees at 2:30 Saturday and Sunday. The musical, which features lyrics by MSU alum Nathan Tysen, is a comedic whodunit centering around the murder of a theatre company’s tyrannical artistic director. The show was actually conceived back in 2020 as a remotely performed streaming series. Tickets are $24 for adults and $22 for students and seniors. Information on the theatre department website.
Also opening next weekend is Springfield Little Theatre’s production of Mary Poppins, Jr., which we had director Lorianne Dunn in the studio last week to talk about. It opened at the Landers Theatre Thursday, April 11, and closes on the 21st. Tickets start at $22. More information on the SLT website.
On the topic of junior musicals, The Branson Regional Arts Council’s Staccato Show Choir will present Legally Blonde: The Musical Jr. this weekend at the Historic Owen Theatre. Based on the Broadway musical based on the film based on the book, it follows Elle Woods as she attends Harvard law to prove looks and intelligence aren’t mutually exclusive. Performances are at 7 p.m. Friday, Saturday and Sunday, April 12-14, with 2 p.m. matinees Saturday and Sunday. Tickets are $20 for adults and $12 for youth. More info here.
In addition to those local productions this weekend, we’ll get a touring show at Juanita K Hammons Hall. Come From Away is an NYT critics pick Broadway Musical based on the true story of the 7,000 airline passengers who were stranded in a tiny town in Newfoundland when U.S. airspace closed in September 2001. The show runs Friday and Saturday, April 12 and 13, with performances at 7:30 both nights and a 2 p.m. matinee Saturday. Tickets start at $57, including fees. More information at the Hammons Hall website.
Ozark Lyric Opera’s production of Black Rider: The Casting of the Magic Bullets opens next weekend. It’s got music and lyrics by Tom Waits, and the book is by William S. Burroughs. It’s pretty rarely produced. It centers on a man who accepts a set of magic bullets from the devil in a sort of Faustian bargain — so there’s some German folklore, but also elements of Burroughs’ life. There’s a performance Friday, April 19, at 7:30 p.m. and another on Sunday, April 21, at 2:30 p.m. Tickets start at $27. For more information, visit the OLO website.
Next week, we’ll get another touring show at Juanita K. Pretty Woman: the Musical is based on the film of the same name, and yes they do sing the song. The original score is composed by Bryan Adams and Jim Vallance, the two guys who wrote “Summer of ’69.” It’s also got a book by the film’s original director and also its original screenwriter. The show runs Tuesday, April 23, through Thursday, April 25, with performances at 7:30 all three nights. Tickets start at $57, including fees.
The Springfield Art Museum
A collaboration with Missouri State University opens on the April 20 in the Armstrong Gallery. Renaissance Works on Parchment and Paper is guest curated by Dr. Mitzi Kirkland-Ives with assistance from other faculty, museum staff and many students. It’s pretty much what it says on the tin, an exhibit of works from the museum’s collection exploring the culture of the period when manuscript gave way to print.
Museum fundraising event “Art in Bloom” runs Wednesday, April 24, through Sunday, April 28. They’ll have both floral and fashion designers displaying their interpretations of works of art beside those works of art, with both jury prizes and people’s choice awards being given out. In addition to local vendors and activities for families, there’s going to be a watercolor workshop on the 24th, a flower pounding workshop on the 25th, an embroidery workshop on the 26th, a basket weaving workshop on the 27th and a floral design workshop on the 28th. These all cost money, and the museum encourages people to purchase tickets in advance. More information on that event here.
Currently running at the art museum is the All School Exhibition, closing on April 21, Ancient Artifacts Abroad, closing in mid-June, Survey of Ceramic Art and Creating an American Identity, which close late June and Collection Focus: Bradi Barth and Glenna Goodacre, which don’t close until the museum closes long-term for renovations on September 2. As always, museum admission is free.
The Moxie Cinema:
Currently running is Wicked Little Letters, a farcical mystery set in a 1920s English seaside town starring Olivia Colman. Opening Friday night, April 12, is Civil War, a film by Annihilation director Alex Garland following a group of journalists in a dystopian America, and La Chimera, an Italian magical-realist dramedy.
Friday, April 19, the Moxie will open Housekeeping for Beginners, a family comedy-drama from acclaimed Macedonian-Australian director, Goran Stolevski, and God & Country, a documentary on Christian nationalism in the United States.
There are also some special screenings coming up. Saturday, April 13, at noon there will be a free screening of Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times, a classic slapstick sendup of life in the Depression era. It’s part of the Moxie’s MOVIE FLIX series of films for kids to see before they turn 13.
On Wednesday at 7 p.m., as part of the Moxie’s Essentials Series, will be a screening of An Angel at my Table. From the director behind The Piano and The Power of the Dog, it follows the true story of New Zealand author Janet Frame on her journey from a schizophrenia misdiagnosis to international literary fame.
Then on April 23 is a screening of Sunset Boulevard, as part of the theater’s Two Tuesdays series. It’s paired with The Player one week later. It’s an absolutely seminal noir about corruption and madness in Hollywood. Information on all this is at the Moxie website.