Post by Jonel on May 12, 2002 18:31:21 GMT -5
THE TEMPTATIONS HEADLINE LONGVIEW THEATER BENEFIT
Tuesday, April 30, 2002
By BRETT OPPEGAARD, Columbian staff writer
The Columbia Theatre for the Performing Arts hopes to entice patrons to a fund-raising benefit Friday night presenting a show by the appropriately enough named group: The Temptations.
This is the second year the Longview organization has offered such a nationally well-known act in an effort to raise awareness of the theater as well as money. Last year, the Smothers Brothers sold out the house and the preshow dinner bringing in $20,000 in net profit. This year, ticket sales have been slower for the Temptations, said Marisa Davis, marketing director, acknowledging, "We've been struggling for some reason."
Executive director Dan Mankin said venues throughout the country similarly are having trouble filling seats, contending that the combination of the Sept. 11 attacks and a foundering economy has made money tightly protected by most.
"When things get tough, people cut back on things they don't have to do," Mankin said. "We're down 15 to 20 percent from a typical year, and the national trend in theater is that it's an off-year like most other businesses are having."
Mankin said he considered bringing either Dionne Warwick, The Manhattan Transfer or Lyle Lovett before finally settling on the Temptations to draw the crowd he needs to keep the season's loss at a minimum. In addition, Mankin has added a special concert by classic country singer Merle Haggard at 7:30 p.m. May 18 in the Longview theater.
The Temptations were the most consistently commercially successful and critically lauded male vocal group of the 1960s and early 1970s, according to Rolling Stone's "Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll." The Motown-styled quintet had 19 Top 20 albums between 1964 and 1975, and the group has had 37 Top 40 singles during its career, including four that reached No. 1: "My Girl," "I Can't Get Next to You," "Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me)" and "Papa Was a Rollin' Stone." Other hits include "Cloud Nine," "The Way You Do the Things You Do" and "I'm Gonna Make You Love Me," with Diana Ross and the Supremes.
The original Temptations toured through the 1980s, and the group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland in 1989. But after three of the four remaining members died in the early 1990s, group founder Otis Williams decided to recast the crew and start fresh. This new version of the band now featuring Williams with Terry Weeks, Barrington "Beau" Henderson, Roy Tyson and Harry McGilberry released the album "Phoenix Rising" in 1998 and a record called "Awesome" in late 2001.
The 90-minute Longview concert will feature the quintet on stage with a 20-piece backing band composed of 10 local horn players and 10 musicians that tour with the group, Mankin said. A large screen will display video of past shows and various highlights from the band's more than four-decade career. Mankin added that the opening act will be Derique, a humorous handbone player, meaning he makes music by slapping various parts of his body while incorporating jokes. A fund-raising party for the theater begins at 5:30 that night at the nearby Italian restaurant Cibo con Amici, 1260 Commerce Ave., Longview. The concert starts at 8 p.m.
"It's just going to be a great show," Mankin said. "People don't often get to see the Temptations in a setting like ours, such an intimate space, and it's going to be an important night to help us get out of the (fiscal) year with a little less of a deficit."
IF YOU GO
WHAT: The Temptations
WHEN: 8 p.m. Friday
WHERE: Columbia Theatre for the Performing Arts, 1231 Vandercook Way, Longview
COST: $50 to $60 for the concert, $40 for the preshow function
INFORMATION: 888-423-8499
ON THE WEB: www.columbia theatre.com
www.columbian.com/04302002/life/278062.html
Tuesday, April 30, 2002
By BRETT OPPEGAARD, Columbian staff writer
The Columbia Theatre for the Performing Arts hopes to entice patrons to a fund-raising benefit Friday night presenting a show by the appropriately enough named group: The Temptations.
This is the second year the Longview organization has offered such a nationally well-known act in an effort to raise awareness of the theater as well as money. Last year, the Smothers Brothers sold out the house and the preshow dinner bringing in $20,000 in net profit. This year, ticket sales have been slower for the Temptations, said Marisa Davis, marketing director, acknowledging, "We've been struggling for some reason."
Executive director Dan Mankin said venues throughout the country similarly are having trouble filling seats, contending that the combination of the Sept. 11 attacks and a foundering economy has made money tightly protected by most.
"When things get tough, people cut back on things they don't have to do," Mankin said. "We're down 15 to 20 percent from a typical year, and the national trend in theater is that it's an off-year like most other businesses are having."
Mankin said he considered bringing either Dionne Warwick, The Manhattan Transfer or Lyle Lovett before finally settling on the Temptations to draw the crowd he needs to keep the season's loss at a minimum. In addition, Mankin has added a special concert by classic country singer Merle Haggard at 7:30 p.m. May 18 in the Longview theater.
The Temptations were the most consistently commercially successful and critically lauded male vocal group of the 1960s and early 1970s, according to Rolling Stone's "Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll." The Motown-styled quintet had 19 Top 20 albums between 1964 and 1975, and the group has had 37 Top 40 singles during its career, including four that reached No. 1: "My Girl," "I Can't Get Next to You," "Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me)" and "Papa Was a Rollin' Stone." Other hits include "Cloud Nine," "The Way You Do the Things You Do" and "I'm Gonna Make You Love Me," with Diana Ross and the Supremes.
The original Temptations toured through the 1980s, and the group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland in 1989. But after three of the four remaining members died in the early 1990s, group founder Otis Williams decided to recast the crew and start fresh. This new version of the band now featuring Williams with Terry Weeks, Barrington "Beau" Henderson, Roy Tyson and Harry McGilberry released the album "Phoenix Rising" in 1998 and a record called "Awesome" in late 2001.
The 90-minute Longview concert will feature the quintet on stage with a 20-piece backing band composed of 10 local horn players and 10 musicians that tour with the group, Mankin said. A large screen will display video of past shows and various highlights from the band's more than four-decade career. Mankin added that the opening act will be Derique, a humorous handbone player, meaning he makes music by slapping various parts of his body while incorporating jokes. A fund-raising party for the theater begins at 5:30 that night at the nearby Italian restaurant Cibo con Amici, 1260 Commerce Ave., Longview. The concert starts at 8 p.m.
"It's just going to be a great show," Mankin said. "People don't often get to see the Temptations in a setting like ours, such an intimate space, and it's going to be an important night to help us get out of the (fiscal) year with a little less of a deficit."
IF YOU GO
WHAT: The Temptations
WHEN: 8 p.m. Friday
WHERE: Columbia Theatre for the Performing Arts, 1231 Vandercook Way, Longview
COST: $50 to $60 for the concert, $40 for the preshow function
INFORMATION: 888-423-8499
ON THE WEB: www.columbia theatre.com
www.columbian.com/04302002/life/278062.html
