Concert to feature Desha County native
The Judy Kohn Tenenbaum Argenta Contemporary Theatre at North Little Rock will host Michael Rice: A Homecoming Concert on Sunday at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Concert tickets are $75 each. Proceeds will benefit the ACT II Sharon Heflin Performing Arts Education Program, according to a news release. The concert will include three works by Rice — Americanisms, American Beauty, and During Wind and Rain — all inspired from Rice’s Desha County roots, according to the release.
The program will consist of Rice’s theatre compositions, both music and lyrics with highlights from Americanisms, (A Song Cycle), The Good Woman of Setzuan, produced at the Arkansas Rep in 1985, with Book by Bertolt Brecht, American Beauty, (originally titled Pageant!) produced at The Rep in 1985, both directed by the late Cliff Baker, and During Wind and Rain, a musical drama, with libretto by Margaret Jones Bolsterli and directed by Judy Trice, produced by Argenta Community Theater in 2017. Rice was the original musical director and arranger for the off-Broadway hit Nunsense, which won the Outer Critic Circle Award for Best Musical in 1985 and was musical director for Dick Gallagher’s Have I Got a Girl for You. As a conductor/pianist he also worked on the national Broadway tours of Cats, Peter Pan, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Jesus Christ Superstar, and Camelot, according to the release.
Performing with Michael Rice will be: Bob Bidewell, Jean Cantrell, Karen Q. Clark, Sarah Dailey, Daniel Felton, Ben Grimes, Lauren Lasseigne, Kathryn Pryor, Claire Rhodes, Amanda Smith, Judy Trice and Will Trice.
For ticket details visit https://argentacontemporarytheatre.org/homecoming/ For details about Rice, visit https:// www.michaelricemusic.com/about.