This annual event is your opportunity to enjoy music and theatre in a lovely outdoor setting. Two different University of Illinois performances groups will be offering their talents throughout the weekend, all set in the Allerton Music Barn the weekend of September 27-28.
Lyric Theatre @ Illinois will be performing Songs from a New World on Friday at 7:30 p.m and Saturday at 3:30 p.m. From the event page:
“It’s about one moment. It’s about hitting the wall and having to make a choice… or take a stand… or turn around and go back. These are the stories and characters of today, the Songs for a New World. The first musical from Tony Award winner, Jason Robert Brown (Parade, Bridges of Madison County), this moving collection of powerful songs examines life, love and the choices that we make.
Brown transports his audience from the deck of a 1492 Spanish sailing ship to a ledge, 57 stories above Fifth Avenue, to meet a startling array of characters that range from a young man who has determined that basketball is his ticket out of hardship to a woman whose dream of marrying rich nabs her the man of her dreams… and a soulless marriage.”
U of I Jazz Faculty will present Celebrating 100 Years of Bird: A Tribute to the Music of Charlie Parker on Saturday at 7:30 p.m.
“This concert will present the many compositions and facets that made Charlie Parker famous as one of the originators of the jazz genre known as bebop in the late 1940’s and early 1950’s. Charlie Parker’s career in jazz still stands as one of the most preeminent in terms of style contributions and compositional contributions and the Allerton Festival Jazz Faculty concert will represent those contributions with live performances of many of Charlie Parker’s most famous works including notables suck as ‘Bebop’, ‘Confirmation’, ‘Aleu-Cha’ in addition to some of his many blues-based compositions such as ‘Sippin At Bells’, ‘Barbados’, ‘Nows The Time’ and ‘Blues for Alice’.”
Doors open 30 minutes before each performance. There will be food and drink available for purchase, and snagging your tickets ahead of time is a good idea. You can do that here.
Photo by Gary Sebens, Allerton Photography Group