Cannonball, a hard-driving, roots music, Americana band from Chicago featuring Springfield native, Andon Davis, Jr., plays the Curve Inn on Friday with Cats on Holiday. Our happening little scene in Springfield continues to burn up the music atmosphere at an incredible rate. Here we go on a trip through marvelous music-making mayhem. Congratulations to the […]
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Posted inArts & Culture
A Broadway show for children
The newest show for children at the Hoogland Center for the Arts, Dr. Dolittle, Jr., is a musical adaptation of the popular book authored by Hugh Lofting and the film of the same name from Twentieth Century Fox. The musical, about a wacky veterinarian with the ability to communicate with animals in more than 500 […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Akin to the sacred
Sunday, June 2, Fantastic Jones Family will perform a free gospel concert at Abundant Faith Christian Center, celebrating 40 years of making music. Siblings Robert L. Jones, Jr., Jerry E. Jones, Clifton O. Jones, Jackie L. Newman and Patricia A. Pittman will sing contemporary to traditional spirituals from the group’s earlier recordings and preview songs […]
Posted inArts & Culture
United visions
Local artists Wendy Allen and William Crook, Jr. present a joint exhibit of their work March 9-10, at 627 E. Adams, a temporary gallery space. The show, A Marriage of Spirit and Place, unites the couple’s interests and interactions after 26 years of marriage. Both formally trained in the fine arts, Wendy’s work will focus […]
Posted inOpinion
Facts about State senator’s bust for carrying
One of the most fascinating things about the media frenzy surrounding state Sen. Donne Trotter’s arrest last week was that not one of his Democratic 2nd Congressional District opponents immediately jumped in front of the cameras to comment publicly about the matter. They stayed silent even when Trotter, D-Chicago, announced after he was bonded out […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Quixotic musical
The musical Man of La Mancha opens with a gala performance on Friday, Aug. 24, followed by five performances at the Hoogland Center for the Arts LRS theater. A pre-show cocktail hour and post-show dessert reception, cast meet-and-greet and silent auction are included in the price and festivities of the opening night gala. Over the […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Wedded bliss
Gus Gordon and Cynda Wrightsman play Michael and Agnes in the musical comedy, I Do! I Do! The story of a couple’s 50-year marriage runs for six performances at the Hoogland Center for the Arts over two weekends. Written by Harvey Schmidt and Tom Jones, who also wrote The Fantasticks, the local production includes the […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Grand jetes
Last year’s dance and musical extravaganza Men in Tights sold out, so get in on the action now by purchasing your tickets by phone or online from the Hoogland Center for the Arts. The Springfield Ballet Company once again has a new cast of local men who will perform for you Friday, March 2. They […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Local lore
The Springfield and Central Illinois African-American History Museum hosts a Grand Opening Gala on Thursday, Feb. 23 at its new location on the second floor of the National Museum of Surveying, Inc. Featured is the photography exhibit “African-American Life and Contributions to Springfield in 1930s, 1940s and 1950s,” by Winfred “Doc” Helm, state photographer from […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Buddy Holly tribute
John Mueller’s Winter Dance Party is a tribute concert from the Winter Dance Party Tour that Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper were performing in before their fateful airplane crash. Endorsed by all three estates, the show includes: John Mueller as Buddy Holly, Ray Anthony as Ritchie Valens, Jay P. Richardson, Jr. as […]
Posted inOpinion
Markable authors
On Oct. 12, on what would have been the subject’s 100th birthday, a marker was unveiled at Second and Jackson streets, noting the once-presence nearby of the boyhood home of Robert S. Fitzgerald, the noted poet, teacher, and translator of the classics. (See “All is not well forever,” Nov. 19, 2009) Robert Fitzgerald was arguably […]
Posted inOpinion
Reinventing the past
Building new businesses based on new ideas is the central axiom of the near-science of economic development. Sangamon County’s would-be Edisons in the medical field recently were invited to submit ideas for the Greater Springfield Chamber of Commerce’s Project Innovation, intended to encourage local entrepreneurs in health care. The finalist ideas, announced in May, included […]
