Arts Alliance decides to pull plug on shows
Dayton Performing Arts Alliance cancellations were made after state’s Stay Safe Ohio order was extended through May 29.
In response to Gov. DeWine’s Stay Safe Ohio order extending to May 29, the Dayton Performing Arts Alliance has made the difficult choice of canceling most of its 2019-2020 season.
The Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra has canceled the following events: Masterworks presentations of Beethoven’s “Eroica” ( June 5 and 6) and Beethoven’s First and “The Firebird” (Aug. 18 and 19); SuperPops presentation of “The Rat Pack, Symphonic!” (May 15 and 16, original dates; Aug. 24 and 25, revised dates); Rockin’ Orchestra presentation of Super Diamond (May 23, original date; Aug. 6 revised date); “Jane in Concert” ( June 14 in collaboration with Dayton Live); “Raiders of the Lost Ark in Concert” ( June 27); and the Stained Glass concert at Calvary Missionary Baptist Church (May 17).
However, the DPO’s Recital presentations of “Strings and Piano Salon” ( July 26) and “Concertmaster’s Choice” (Aug. 23) remain on schedule. Also, Heritage Day at Carillon Park, originally slated May 24, will be held Sept. 5. “Star Wars: A New Hope in Concert,” originally slated June 13, will be held June 26, 2021.
In addition, Dayton Opera has canceled its Opera Star Recital starring Angel Blue ( June 21) as well as its presentation of “Going for Baroque!” ( June 26 and 28).
“We made each of the decisions regarding our 2019-2020 performances one by one with the safety and well-being of our musicians, dancers, vocalists, staff, and patrons fully in our hearts,” said DPAA President and CEO Pat McDonald. “While we are sad to have to cancel many of the remaining 2019-2020 performances, we are thrilled to have our sights set on the upcoming 20202021 season, and we cannot wait to welcome everyone back to celebrate the joy that Dayton Ballet, Dayton Opera and the Dayton Philharmonic brings to all of us when we get under way again.”
“All of us at the DPAA are crushed by the early end to our 2019-2020 ‘Titans’ season,” echoed DPO Artistic Director and Conductor Neal Gittleman. “Who would’ve guessed titans like Beethoven, Strauss, Handel, Jane Goodall, Luke Skywalker, and Indiana Jones could be knocked out by a microscopic RNA virus barely 100 nanometers across? But that’s where we are. Since neither our artists nor our audience can come together under present circumstances, we’ve had to come up with new, nimble, imaginative ways to try to serve the community.”
In addition to the DPO’s recent, ongoing collaboration with Discover Classical entitled “Concert Night with the Dayton Philharmonic,” consisting of rebroadcasts of concerts from the organization’s archives, an assortment of online offerings will launch soon.
“(We’ll provide) chamber music and vocal recitals, more ‘Virtual DPO’ performances like our ‘Hang On, Sloopy’ video, multimedia
‘All of us at the DPAA are crushed by the early end to o ur 2019-2020 ‘Titans’ season. Who would’ve guessed titans like Beethoven, Strauss, Handel, Jane Goodall, Luke Skywalker, and Indiana Jones could be knocked out by a microscopic RNA virus barely 100 nanometers across?’
Neal Gittleman
DPO artistic director and conductor
streaming events from the archives, virtual educational activities, and more,” Gittleman said. “We (have also) created a ‘What’s Next?’ Committee that is guiding our tactics and strategies with subgroups working on different pieces of the puzzle (such as) safety, programming, technology, business model, and communications.
“There are days when it’s really exciting and then there are days when it feels like we’re building the boat while crossing the ocean in the middle of a hurricane. But the one constant is that we’re a team of creative, imaginative, passionate, and committed problem solvers. Our mission stays the same: to transform lives through the power of music and dance. How we do that will continue to evolve with the changing times.”
If you have tickets to a performance that has been canceled, the DPAA particularly encourages you to donate the value of your tickets to the organization due to the current economic climate.
“Every cent counts and brings us closer to being able to survive this perilous time for the performing arts,” Gittleman said. “If you can donate your ticket, you’ll help make sure that we will be here ready to perform for you when this crisis finally ends. When this is all over will the performing arts be exactly as they were before this started? Maybe. Maybe not. But we’ll still be here. And we’ll still matter to the great people of our great community. Count on it.”
For more information about ticketing options, call (937) 228-3630 or send an e-mail to tickets@daytonlive.org.
The DPAA requests you make a decision regarding your tickets no later than June 16. Additional information can be found on the DPAA website at daytonperformingarts. org/covid-19/.
show is funny, it’s riotous and when it’s touching, it’s so human it brings him to tears. “In the more than 40 years I’ve listened to his shows, I find myself understanding them better and realizing how much they reveal about my evolving life to me,” Deer says. “A kind of artistic mirror that reflects a different ‘me’ each time I look closely. I think my experience is not uncommon. This is the magic of great art -= and Sondheim is probably our greatest musical theater writer, like a modern Shakespeare.”
Muse and Sondheim
The first musical Dayton’s educational arts organization, the Muse Machine, ever produced was “West Side Story” in 1985.
In 2011, the arts organization staged “Into The Woods.” “Through an intertwined retelling of fairy tales, it actually speaks to very real, very human emotional challenges,” says Doug Merk, producer and director of student programs. “The creative team had frequent conversations with the young performers, exploring the often heartbreaking resonance of losing a parent or partner, betrayal in relationships, the horrific things someone might do to save a loved one, and the resilience to carry on.”
Alongside that human introspection, Merk says, there were also mini-masterclasses in navigating Sondheim – “the angular melodies, the rapidfire lyrics and finding the ways for tearful moments and funny moments to live side-by-side while honoring each other.” He says teens gravitated to the challenge. “Not only is the music unlike anything else in structure and rhythm, but the content runs deep,” he says. ” It doesn’t talk down or simplify life’s experience, and young performers thrived on the richness of that exploration.”
Muse founder Suzy Bassani had an opportunity to meet and interact with Sondheim and says he is one of her heroes. “He was charming and an absolute delight,” she says. “Generous with his time and great with his speeches.”
Because Broadway is dark now, Muse Machine’s Advanced Teacher Training Seminar
in New York this summer had to be canceled. Among the shows the group was scheduled to see was Sondheim’s “Company.”
Playing the villain
Veteran Dayton actor Scott Stoney has portrayed Sweeney Todd on a number of occasions and says it’s his favorite role. “A sympathetic villain is delicious,” quips Stoney of the demon barber of Fleet Street.
“The complexity of the plot in ‘Sweeney Todd’ is crafted to continue building in every moment,” Stoney notes. “Every character has an arc. Plain and simple, Sondheim is brilliant. His sense of melody is unique. And every one of his shows is a musical journey that at the time of each opening was unlike any other.”
A Sondheim expert
Rick Pender of Cincinnati has been reviewing theater for more than 30 years and is the author of “The Stephen Sondheim
Encyclopedia,” a comprehensive A-Z volume about the composer’s shows, his career, his fellow artists and more. The book, being published by Rowman & Littlefield, is currently in production.
Pender first discovered Sondheim while recovering from surgery in 1990. “I was captivated by his songs — their erudite lyrics, the intricate melodies and tonalities, the varied stories they told,” he says.
In the late 1990’s Pender discovered “The Sondheim Review,” a quarterly magazine published in Chicago. He became a critic for the publication and eventually its editor. When it ceased publication Pender created “Everything Sondheim,” a website later acquired by Signature Theatre in Arlington, VA.
His role with the magazine led to several opportunities to spend time with the composer. In 2005, he was invited to conduct an onstage interview with him. “Sondheim is a pretty private guy, not much for mixing and mingling,” Pender remembers. We met first at a cocktail reception; he asked for a private corner where we could get briefly acquainted. He didn’t want to know in advance what questions I’d be asking him onstage, since he preferred to respond off-thecuff. We had a pleasant exchange.”
When the Cincinnati Playhouse staged a revival of “Company,” Sondheim came to Cincinnati for the opening and Pender conducted an hour-long interview with him on Cincinnati Public Radio. The show moved to Broadway in 2006 and won a Tony Award. A few years later, Sondheim was recognized by the Cincinnati Institute of Fine Arts with its Sachs Award and Pender escorted him during his visit.
“Sondheim could be testy, but usually with reason,” he notes. “When
I was editing ‘The Sondheim Review,’ he occasionally took me to task for something we published that he deemed not entirely accurate. His recollection of details from his career was astonishing, so there was no reason to dispute his observations.”
Rick Pender shares these facts about Stephen Sondheim:
■ As a teenager he was mentored by Oscar Hammerstein II (of Rodgers & Hammerstein fame.)
■ He was just 26 when he joined the creative team of “West Side Story” as the show’s lyricist; two years later he wrote lyrics for Ethel Merman in “Gypsy.” His first musical as composer and lyricist was “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum,” for which he won his first Tony Award.
■ He most often provided songs for shows based on ideas by others. However, perhaps his greatest work, “Sweeney Todd,” was something he wanted to do after seeing a play in London about the fictional serial killer. It’s rare for one person to serve as composer and lyricist for musicals. He handled both tasks for 15 of his 18 shows
■ He’s really only had one “hit” number: “Send in the Clowns” (from “A Little Night Music.”) But many of his songs have become familiar standards — “Broadway Baby,” “I’m Still Here,” “Everything’s Coming Up Roses” from Gypsy, “Tonight” from West Side Story, “Nothing’s Going to Harm You” from “Sweeney Todd,” “Being Alive” from “Company,” “No One Is Alone” from “Into the Woods. “
■ “Company”, which is marking its 50th anniversary, contains some of Sondheim’s greatest songs, especially “Being Alive” and “Another Hundred People,” a song first sung on Broadway by Cincinnati native Pam Myers shortly after her graduation from the University of Cincinnati’s College Conservatory of Music.
■ He has won eight Tony Awards (more than any other composer), plus a Special Tony for Lifetime Achievement in the Theater, the 1985 Pulitzer Prize for Drama as well as an Academy Award and several Grammys.
■ His works have been repeatedly revived and produced on stages around the world and translated into many other languages. Several — especially “Sweeney Todd” and “A Little Night Music “— have been produced by opera companies.