Averett plays loving tribute to Broadway this weekend

By Don Webb

Published: November 14, 2008

The Averett University Theater and Music departments, along with members of the community, are coming together this weekend to pay tribute to the Great White Way.
“A Salute to Broadway”  celebrates some of the best loved musicals of all time, from “Showboat” and “Oklahoma” to “Wicked” and “Avenue Q.”
Woven amid selections from some of those shows — including the haunting “Ol’ Man River” from “Showboat” and a medley from “Les Miserables,” as well as playful versions of “There is Nothin’ Like a Dame” (“South Pacific”) and “It’s the Hard-Knock Life” from “Annie” — are trivia and snippets of information about the musical, providing a glimpse into the show’s history along with the hit songs that made it famous.
Audience members will get a sample of barbershop quartet sounds with “Lida Rose” from “The Music Man,” will hear the jazzy style of the standard “My Funny Valentine” from the 1937 Rodgers and Hart musical “Babes in Arms.”
Other shows celebrated through the original production include “Wicked,” “Spamalot” and “Avenue Q.”
Averett University’s “A Salute to Broadway” opens at 7:30 p.m. tonight on Averett’s Pritchett
Auditorium stage.
Show times are 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday. Tickets are $8 for adults and $6 for students and seniors and will be available at the door.
For more information or for advance tickets, call the Averett box office at (434) 791-5712.
m. tonight aTickets are $8 for adults, $6 for students/senior citizens. Tickets may be purchased the night of the performance or in advance by calling the Pritchett Auditorium Box Office at 434-791-5712. Seating is general admission.