FIVE BY DESIGN’S “CLUB SWING” AT WILLIAM PATERSON UNIVERSITY ON SATURDAY, OCTOBER 3
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Five by Design will present “Club Swing,” a celebration of the rich harmonies of America’s swing era with a big band sound, at William Paterson University on Saturday, October 3 at 2 p.m. in Shea Center for Performing Arts.
Celebrating the songs, events, and personalities that defined American popular culture during the swing era, Five By Design enchants audiences by deftly blending music and theatrics effortlessly.
The setting is the fictional Club Swing, a soon-to-be shuttered nightclub built during the heyday of swing. But before the wrecking ball falls, Joe Sullivan, the club's former mixologist, visits the establishment one last time. As drop cloths are removed, the neon marquee flickers and then begins to glow as Club Swing is transformed to its former splendor.
From the frenetic paced opening of Benny Goodman's "Bugle Call Rag" to the show's blockbuster finale featuring Louie Prima's "Sing, Sing, Sing," Five by Design celebrates the swing movement from 1937-1955. The repertoire embraces a rich harmonic treatment of Nat King Cole's "Mona Lisa" while a Steve and Eydie-styled arrangement of "Something’s Gotta Give" foreshadows the club's closing, paralleling the decline of swing in the fifties.
The stage design evokes the ambiance of a nightclub cut from a vintage movie. The Club's marquee floats above the orchestra surrounded by palm trees, an art deco bar, and linen covered tables. Each decade highlights the songs, events, and personalities that defined the era. Whether being seduced by Cole Porter's "Begin the Beguine" or the madcap parody of Spike Jones "Cocktails for Two," Five by Design's "Club Swing" personifies American popular culture during the swing era.
The Minneapolis-based Five by Design is the first vocal group to successfully form its own production company to create and star in their own original, musical retrospectives for symphony orchestras and big bands. Since their 1994 debut of Radio Days with the Milwaukee Symphony, Five by Design has performed with more than 100 of the leading symphony orchestras throughout the U.S. and Canada.
The event is part of William Paterson’s WP Live Vistas Series, designed to serve the University’s students and faculty, as well as the surrounding multicultural community. Funding for the Vistas Series at William Paterson University has been made possible, in part, by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State.
Tickets to the show are $25 for orchestra and $15 for loge. For ticket information, call the Shea Center Box Office at 973-720-2371 or order online at www.wplive.org.
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September 8 , 2009
www.wpunj.edu
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