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Wednesday Morning Roundup


by Stephen Becker 10 Apr 2013 7:48 AM

Today in the roundup: Reviewing Jubilee’s Trav’lin, Natalie Merchant on her FWSO shows and words with Elphaba.

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PACK YOUR BAGS: For Trav’lin, Jubilee Theatre takes a trip to 1930s Harlem. The comedy features three couples and a jazz and blues score based on the music of Harlem Renaissance composer J. C. Johnson. And from reading the reviews, it sounds like an easygoing night at the theater. “On the whole, this production offers the same sort of sweet, simple pleasure you might find in watching an old 1930s musical on Turner Classic Movies. It is not hilarious, but it is funny,” Punch Shaw writes on dfw.com. “This isn’t a production that’s going to set the world on fire. It’s a very straightforward, simple show that exists purely to highlight the music of a certain man from a certain era,” Kris Noteboom writes on theaterjones.com. Catch it through April 28.

NATALIE GOES BIG: This weekend, Natalie Merchant takes the stage with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra. She’s been performing with orchestras for about four years now and has about 30 songs that she mixes into her shows. And she says that it’s the orchestras that allow her so many options. “It’s amazing how much variety there is night for night,” she tells theaterjones.com. “There’s variables—the conductor, the players, sometimes you have the audience that makes a difference. It’s just wonderful the textures and colors the orchestra can provide.”

QUOTABLE: “I wouldn’t say I look forward to flying. It seems to be so a part of what I do every night that it just is. It’s a piece of Elphi’s journey. I do stand on my tip-toes though. It’s the same as singing on the ground — just higher up.

– Dee Roscioli, who plays Elphaba in Wicked, in an interview with dallasnews.com. Dallas Summer Musicals’ Wicked opens tonight at the Music Hall at Fair Park.

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