What's Up - Your guide to what's happening in Fayetteville, AR this week!
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8 WHAT'S UP! MARCH 22-28, 2020 Theatrical Confections WAC announces season of 'pure imagination' JOCELYN MURPHY NWA Democrat-Gazette A prevalent theme in Walton Arts Center's 2019-20 Broadway season was how the series served as viewers' passport to the world. The current season has taken audiences to the French Antilles, Russia, France, Margaritaville and will transport them back to Russia and to Israel in the two remaining shows of the season. For the 2020-21 season, the journey is a little closer to home, reveals Scott Galbraith, vice president of programming and executive producer. "We're still visiting foreign places, but this [coming] season, more than the current season, gives us an opportunity to look inside and evaluate what it is to be our authentic selves," Galbraith says of the just-announced lineup. "It's more introspective. Finding value in who you are as opposed to how you speak or how you dress, it's those things that permeate this whole season. We're traveling inward." Shows like "My Fair Lady," "Mean Girls," "An Officer and a Gentleman" and "Come From Away" also reflect the strength of the female character — another motif Jennifer Ross, director of programming, points out is developing within the series. Building the Broadway schedule each season may involve countless variables that impact programming decisions, but a series that stresses the stories of nontraditional characters, told from their own points of view, is no coincidence, Galbraith says. "Not to say that women are nontraditional characters, but only in the last handful of years do I think that women's stories have really started to come to the fore in an authentic way — told by women, written by women, directed by women. It's the right way to have it happen," he insists. Eliza Doolittle's story — that of a young Cockney flower girl who seeks elocution lessons to improve her station in life and the linguistics professor teaching her, who makes a bet he can transform Eliza into a "proper lady" — has been around for many years. But The Lincoln Center's new staging of the classic and beloved "My Fair Lady" (Sept. 15-20) reveals more nuance to the story than theatergoers have ever experienced before as it is viewed through a contemporary — and #metoo — awareness, Galbraith shares. In November, another story with an already established fanbase will take audiences back to high school. "Mean Girls" (Nov. 3-8) brings the musical version of Tina Fey's cult classic comedy, based on the book "Queen Bees and Wannabees" by Rosalind Wiseman, to WAC straight from Broadway. The adaptation opened on the Great White Way in 2018 and set out on its first national tour last year. "The creative team, as part of the research, went to one of the naval academies to see what that training was like, so they understood more viscerally what Zack, the main character, what his experience is," Scott Galbraith, WAC vice president of programming and executive producer, says of "An Officer and a Gentleman." "They came out with a deep respect for the character of recruits, of the training that goes into it, and they really want to make sure that the audience comes away with that same sense of respect for our service personnel, which is not necessarily something that I think is in the film. That's coming from the contemporary creative team." (Courtesy Photo/Walton Arts Center) COVER STORY SNEAK PEEK The WAC has already revealed one show for the 2021- 22 season: Global phenome- non "Hamilton" will indeed be coming to Fayetteville in early 2022. Staff are sharing this exciting news so early because subscribers to the 2020-21 season will be first in line to nab "Hamilton" tickets when they renew their Broadway subscription for the following season.