Black Jacket Symphony to kick off 2018-19 Library Theatre season
If you love the sound of The Beatles, you might want to catch the first show of the 2018-19 Hoover Library Theatre season.
The Black Jacket Symphony, a group that recreates classic albums in a live show setting, is kicking off this year’s season with a performance of The Beatles’ “Abbey Road” album.
The performers aren’t a tribute band and thus won’t be dressed like The Beatles. Instead, their focus is on trying to make the music sound exactly like it does on the original album, Hoover Library Fine Arts Director Matina Johnson said.
She’s had numerous people request a Beatles tribute band over the years, so she thinks the audience will enjoy The Black Jacket Symphony. The rest of the 2018-19 season includes a mix of plays, an improv musical and musical acts including jazz, Irish, classical, folk and soulful gospel.
The national tour of “Steel Magnolias” will hit the Library Theatre stage in October, and the season closes in May with “Alabama Story,” a two-act play produced by the Red Mountain Theatre Company.
In April, an improv troupe led by Rob Schiffmann and Deb Rabbai will perform “Broadway’s Next H!T Musical.” It’s a comedy show in which the improv actors take made-up song suggestions from the audience, let the audience pick their favorite and then turn it into a full-blown improvised musical.
There is plenty more music in this season.
In November, two sisters from Florence — Laura and Lydia Rogers — will take the stage with gospel grooves that have been shared all over the world. In December, three musicians from the Windham Hill label — pianist Liz Story, guitarist Sean Harkness and vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Samite — join together for a “Winter Solstice” performance.
Jazz master Cyrus Chestnut joins the Grammy-winning Turtle Island Quartet in January for a show that will touch multiple genres. And in February, Emily Saliers — one half of the Indigo Girls — will share a solo performance with her backup band.
Then, just in time for St. Patrick’s Day in March, The Irish Cultural Academy presents The Young Irelanders.
Tickets go on sale Aug. 14 for last year’s full-season subscribers, Aug. 16 for new full-season subscribers and Aug. 17 for individual shows. Tickets cost $27.50, plus a $2.50 processing fee, for a total ticket price of $30.
Once tickets go on sale, library officials encourage people to buy their tickets online at thelibrarytheatre.org. However, tickets also can be purchased by phone at 444-7888 or in person at the Library Theatre box office at 200 Municipal Drive.
Here’s a bit more about each of this season’s performances and the show dates and times:
The Black Jacket Symphony
► When: Sept. 22
The group got its start in Birmingham in 2009 when Mountain Brook native John Willoughby assembled a group of musicians to perform “Abbey Road” at WorkPlay. The Black Jacket Symphony has since performed more than 30 other albums from The Beatles, AC/DC, The Beach Boys, Madonna, Michael Jackson, The Police, Prince and U2.
Different groups of musicians are assembled to recreate the iconic albums based on their specialties, Johnson said.
The first half of The Black Jacket Symphony shows are designed to be an exact recreation of a selected album. At the Hoover Library Theatre, it will be The Beatles’ “Abbey Road,” which included hit songs such as “Come Together,” “Here Comes the Sun” and “Something.” After an intermission, the second half will feature other greatest hits by The Beatles from other albums.
The group’s attire, as you might expect, includes fitted black jackets. While all the other shows at the Library Theatre this season are spread over two days, The Black Jacket Symphony will perform two shows in one day at 4 and 7:30 p.m.
‘Steel Magnolias’ National Tour
► When: Oct. 18-19
This L.A. Theatre Works production features a cast of six women, deep in a small Southern town in a Louisiana bayou, who together work through life’s issues of marriage, birth and death.
The story is centered around the Southern belles’ gossip in a beauty parlor. The stage play, written by Robert Harling, gained widespread popularity in 1989 after being made into a movie with an all-star cast.
Johnson said it’s a story of female friendships, empowerment, resilience and the comfort that can be found in your own backyard. “It’s touching and funny, and we’re excited to have it,” he said.
The Secret Sisters
► When: Nov. 15-16
Laura and Lydia Rogers signed their first record deal after an open audition in Nashville in 2009. The soulful gospel singers toured with artists such as Levon Helm, Ray LaMontagne, Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan, Paul Simon and K.D. Lang, but their second album didn’t meet their label’s expectations and they were dropped.
After they fired their manager, he filed a lawsuit and they ended up having to file for bankruptcy. Out of the ashes came a crowd-funded third album, “You Don’t Own Me Anymore.”
“This record is deeply personal because of what we endured,” Lydia Rogers says on the sisters’ website. “But it’s important as an artist and songwriter to talk about the times things weren’t great. This is a hard business, and it’s not all roses and rainbows.”
Windham Hill: Winter Solstice
► When: Dec. 6-7
Three Windham Hill artists — Liz Story, Sean Harkness and Samite — made big names for themselves as solo acts and now are touring together with a show that Johnson said fits right in with the warm feeling of Christmas.
Story, a student of the Juilliard School of Music who has been nominated for a Grammy four times, has a classical piano background that is fused with a range of styles, including jazz, folk, pop and impressionistic music.
Harkness, a guitarist from New York City known for his duets and ensemble work with Broadway and on-screen singers, has made six CDs and scored music for entities that include ESPN, NASCAR and ABC Sports.
Samite has released 10 CDs featuring his smooth vocals accompanied by the kalimba, marimba, litungu and various kinds of flutes.
Turtle Island Quartet with Cyrus Chestnut
► When: Jan. 10-11, 2019
Chestnut, a gospel and jazz pianist, has played with artists such as Dizzie Gillespie, Betty Carter, Vanessa Williams, Anita Baker, Bette Midler, Isaac Hayes and Brian McKnight, and he has been first call in the piano chair for many big bands, including Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra and the Dizzie Gillespie All-Star Big Band.
Now, he’s touring with the Turtle Island Quartet, a string quartet that won Grammys in 2006 and 2008 for best classical crossover album by combining the classical quartet aesthetic with contemporary American musical styles.
Together, they delve into folk, bluegrass, swing, be-bop, funk, R&B, new age, rock and hip-hop, as well as the music of Latin American and India. Their collaborations range from Appalachian mountain music to tunes reminiscent of Johann Sebastian Bach, Duke Ellington and John Coltrane.
Emily Saliers of Indigo Girls
► When: Feb. 20-21, 2019
Saliers and musical partner Amy Ray gained national prominence with their breakout “Indigo Girls” folk album in 1989 and went on to win a Grammy Award and rack up a slew of gold and platinum records.
But 30 years into her career, Saliers released her first solo album called “Murmuration Nation” in August 2017.
The album combines her love of folk storytelling with the soulful R&B music that surrounded and inspired her growing up in New Haven, Connecticut.
“There are a lot of heavy, serious topics on this album, but there’s also a lot of whimsical groove and pop to it,” Saliers says on her website. “That mix is important to me because it’s ebb-and-flow, peak-and-valley journey of life.”
The Young Irelanders
► When: March 13-14, 2019
Every year, the Irish Cultural Academy brings together some of its finest performers of music and dance into a group known as The Young Irelanders. They’re all in their 20s, and all are world and Irish national champions in their disciplines.
The group has performed on six continents and for many heads of state, including the presidents of Ireland, the United States and Monaco, as well as venues that include the Beijing Opera House, Sydney Opera House, Kremlin State Palace in Moscow, the U.S. Capitol and John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., and the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City.
The troupe is bringing its “Wild Atlantic Way” show to Hoover. The show is inspired by Ireland’s Atlantic coast and includes vocal numbers and foot-stomping polkas, and it is designed to transport the audience to a beautiful land untarnished by the modern world.
Broadway’s Next H!t Musical
► When: April 11-12, 2019
This comedy improv show is a combination of the Tony Awards and “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” Johnson said.
The improv troupe, led by Rob Schiffmann and Deb Rabbai, lets the audience make up song titles and then vote on their favorite, and the actors create a full-blown improvised musical out of the audience choice, complete with costumes.
“It is truly hysterical,” Johnson said. “Every night is different. It’s just laugh-out-loud funny. … My cheeks hurt when it was done.”
The show started in New York City’s Don’t Tell Mama cabaret club and has gone on to venues that include The Triad, Tribeca Film Festival and New York Musical Theater Festival.
Alabama Story
► When: May 2-3, 2019
This Red Mountain Theatre Company production is a two-act play based on actual events about a librarian who takes on segregationist senators in the Jim Crow South when they try to ban a children’s book from Alabama public libraries.
The story is woven together through the recollection and experiences of two childhood friends, one black and one white, who were separated by a traumatic incident that only one of them remembers.
The production is part of the Hoover Public Library’s 2019 Alabama bicentennial celebration.