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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 11, 2000)
' Billy Bacon & the Forbidden Pigs -( Where: Bacon to sizzle at Zoo ■Billy Bacon and the Forbidden Pigs kick off a four-night stay at the Zoo Bar. BY KEN MORTON The Zoo Bar should be siz zlin’ hot the rest of this week when Billy Bacon and Forbidden Pigs pull into town to fry up four straight nights of their brand of country, blues and Tex-Mex music. Bacon, the band’s lead singer and upright bass player, said he hoped to see every music fan in Lincoln come out for at least one night of the Pigs’ sweaty, high energy music. “You really don’t have many excuses for not coming,” Bacon said. “I don’t care what you have to do - cancel your doctor’s appointment, get a sitter, what ever. Pick a night, and come enjoy yourselves.” Bacon said the monumental four-night stands are a special opportunity to spend an extend ed amount of time in a great city. “The Zoo Bar is wonderful, and to be able to play one of the best places in the country for four nights is a huge honor,” he said. Local musician Brock Beckman said he tries to catch die Pigs whenever they come to Lincoln. “I think I saw diem the sec ond or third time they were here, but I’ve gone every time since,” • he said. Beckman, an 11-year veter an of the Lincoln music scene, said going to a Billy Bacon show was a lot like a big party. “If anyone had been to see the Self Righteous Brothers when they were at the Zoo, it’s quite a bit the same,” he said. "People are dancing, singing along, drinking and just having a good time.” Bacon ana ms tags, original ly from San Diego, released their first CD in 1992 and eventually hooked up with Triple X Records. The band and label have had a working relationship ever since. Bacon said most of the CDs have been released on sort of an "on-spec" basis. “We'd release something on our label, Swansong Records, then Triple X would usually buy it from us and release it again,” he said. With the Pigs’ latest release, however, Triple X was involved from the beginning. “Pig Latin," released in July of 2000, showcases the band's flare for Tex-Mex music. The album combines new songs with previously released tunes, as well as some rare, older tracks that have never been released before. “I went into Tttple X with the idea, and they absolutely loved it," Bacon said. The Mexican influence in the band’s music was inevitable, he said. “I grew up 15 minutes from the border," he said, “It would have been really difficult for that type of music to not show up in some form. It just so happens it turned in a very blatant form.” After their stint at the Zoo Bar this week, Bacon and the Pigs are on their way back to California where they’ll most likely take the rest of the year off from touring. “It’ll feel good to see friends and family again,” Bacon said. But Bacon did add that tour ing is what he and the Pigs do best “We’re a roadhouse band," he said. “We belong out on the road 30 or 35 weeks a year. It’s just what we do best” I* *i John Jasper (David Claus) and Edwin Drood(Cris Rook)share a musical moment in the murder mystery "The Mystery of Edwin Drood,"a play in which the audience decides the end ing.The Charles Dickens work opens Thursday at the Star City Dinner Theatre. Steven Bender/DN THEATRICDEMOCRACY Interpretation of unfinished Dickens novel left for Star City Dinner Theatre audience BY MELANIE MENSCH Not every election involves politics this year. Murder, mayhem and mischief draw voters from the election booths to the Star City Dinner Theatre, 803 Q St., for “The Mystery of Edwin Drood,” where the audi ence chooses how the play ends. Based on the final, unfinished novel by Charles Dickens, the musical murder mys tery combines the seasonal ingredients of elections and Halloween. In 1869, Dickens began the tale of the mysterious disappearance of a wealthy, popular young man named Edwin Drood. But the famed author died less than a year after starting his 15th novel, leaving the world to ponder “whodunit?” * More than 100 years after Dickens’ untimely death, Rupert Holmes wrote the play based on the unfinished book, allowing the audience to choose the show’s finale by ballot Written as a play within a play, Holmes' script follows the Theatre Hall Roy ale’s per formance of “The Mystery of Edwin Drood.” Through comedic ballads and technical mishaps, die fictitious actors perform the twisted tale until its abrupt ending, when Dickens took the secret to his grave. Audience members then vote for the play’s outcome, choosing the night’s pair of lovers, the secret detective and, of course, the murderer. Robert Rook, the show’s director, said each night delivered a different show, depending on the audience’s decisions. "The actors do double duty,” he said. “They’re actors playing actors, then actors playing possible suspects. There’s many dif ferent combinations, so the ending can be quite mixed and matched.” The Star City ensemble spent less than five weeks rehearsing the numerous possi ble endings to the dinner play, catered by the Flatwater Grill. Patrick Harder, who portrays the Chairman, said the different scenarios keep the actors on their toes each night “This is my first time doing something like this,” he said. "Usually, everything is scripted, and all you have to do is memorize your lines. But this keeps us sharp and keeps the dement of mystery and surprise in the play, even for us.” The show adds yet another twist when Royale actress Alice Nutting performs the lead role of Edwin Drood. “In the late 1800s, directors hired women to impersonate men because they could pay them less,” Rook said. "Women impersonators could make a good chunk of change playing men on stage, especially if they did it well and signed on to a compa ny.” "... this keeps us sharp and keeps the element of mystery and surprise in the play, even for us." Patrick Harder actor irTThe Mystery of Edwin Drood" Rook's wife, Cris, takes on the role of Alice Nutting, a prima donna actress por traying the lead character Edwin Drood. “It's challenging, but it does all come together,” Cris Rook said. “It’s completely up to the audience what the outcome is.” Popular belief holds that the murderer is Edwin's uncle John Jasper, who leads the double life as choirmaster and opium addict. But Dickens left no outlines for his book’s finish. However, every character is a suspect, even Drood himself, as his body was never found. Cris Rook said audiences tended to pick “the most unlikely or most comical charac ters.” Robert Rook said he found his first time directing the show rewarding. “It’s a glorified melodrama,” he said. "There’s booing for the villain and hooray ing for the hero. It’s just music, fun and entertainment” • The Mystery of Edwin Drood l ---* -( Where: —(When: —(Cost: * American music missionary brings symphony to Lincoln BY BRIAN CHRISTOPHERSON Some people get the urge to travel to Russia. Some people get the urge to play some music. Rarely do people get the urge to leave their possessions, move to Ukraine and become mission aries of music. Maybe everyone except Roger McMurrin and his wife, Diane. In 1993, Roger McMurrin dropped a prestigious position as director of music at his Presbyterian Church in Dallas, Texas, because he felt called to establish the Kiev Symphony Orchestra and Chorus along with a church in the Ukraine. Seven years later, his idea is a reality as he directs 105 singers and 65 orchestra players in a 45 city tour across America. Next stop: Lincoln. It hap pens tonight at 7:30 at the First Plymouth Church, 20th and D streets. The concert is sponsored by f Kiev Symphony Orchestra & Chorus l -J Abendmusik, as they continue its Lincoln Fine Arts Series. And interested fans better get in line early, said Sue Buss of Abendmusik. “We expect a full house,” Buss said. “It should sell-out at the door.” There never would have been a Kiev Symphony had it not been for a feeling in the pit of McMurrin’s stomach, said Jack Levick, artistic director and founder of Abendmusik. “He felt a restlessness, a call ing to go over there; so he did with almost no money, not knowing where to begin or how he was going to make it,” Levick said. McMurrin went into Russia with only lint in his pockets, began a church and was ordained for the Christian min istry. “He’s a missionary in a sense, but not the same as someone who is sent to Africa,” Levick said. “He’s a musician first, and he wanted to bring some of the greatest music in the world to the Ukraine. “It was just his dream to take Western music to communist Russia.” His Kiev Symphony idea started with small numbers, but McMurrin had a high quantity of professional chorus and orches tra members to recruit from, with six professional orchestras and 50 choirs in Kiev. 1 The symphony grew quickly, and McMurrin is now the direc tor of the only private choral orchestral musical group in Ukraine. He has led his group in performances at such crowned venues as the National Opera Theater, the Philharmonic Hall and the National Academy of Music. The Kiev Symphony per forms music from Russian, Ukrainian, English and American composers. Listeners can expect to hear classics from “Romeo and Juliet,” the “Finale from the Nutcracker” and songs from "Swan Lake.” “There is lots of great choral music,” Buss said. “One section is going to be choral music only, acapella with Russian music.” Fittingly, the name of the American concert tour is “From Sea to Shining Sea,” as the group literally tours from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific until November. “It's such a great deal to have Jake Gilespie/DN them here,” Levick said. "I heard through the grapevine that Rogei was around, and it just all worked out.” * ^