Big names pepper schedules

T he Omaha Community Playhouse will stage “Fiddler on the Roof,” and the Omaha Symphony will present fiddler Itzhak Perlman.

Mozart, meanwhile, will take center stage at Opera Omaha, while characters from “The Wizard of Oz” and “Beauty and the Beast” will pop up at such diverse venues as the Joslyn Art Museum and Orpheum Theater.

Tough economic times have prompted many metro area arts groups to play it safe this season. They’re hoping to attract as many cash-crunched consumers as possible, so they devised a 2009-10 season lineup of big names and sure bets.

“We chose a season as our best bet for what we think will help us survive,” said Susan Baer Collins, the Omaha Community Playhouse’s associate artistic director. “We’re trying to come back and end up on the plus side” financially.

The Omaha Symphony and Omaha Performing Arts are leading the way in presenting marquee-name artists.

Perlman, the world’s foremost classical violinist, will headline the Omaha Symphony’s Nov. 7 concert at the Holland Performing Arts Center. He’ll play an entire program of hits, including Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 3 and music from the movie “Schindler’s List.”

Not to be outdone, Omaha Performing Arts will present two famous string players at the Holland.

Béla Fleck, the banjo virtuoso, will present “The Africa Project” on Feb. 20.

Yo-Yo Ma, the world’s most popular and imaginative cellist, will perform a March 20 recital with pianist Kathryn Stott. Their performance repeats March 21 at Lincoln’s Lied Center for Performing Arts.

Opera Omaha’s season is going to seem like mostly Mozart much of the time. The company will produce Mozart’s “The Marriage of Figaro” at the Orpheum on Feb. 26 and 28. It will also hold four “Mozart 101” music appreciation classes devoted to the creations of the classical music’s most popular composer.

“We want to introduce more people to our company and make it relevant to their lives,” said John Wehrle, the opera company’s general director. “Mozart is good place to start.”

Dorothy, the Wicked Witch of the West and the Cowardly Lion will pop up as big draws at the Joslyn. “Wizards of Pop: Sabuda & Reinhart” runs Oct. 10 to Jan. 3 and features the work of celebrated children’s pop-up book artists Robert Sabuda and Matthew Reinhart.

Another big draw at the Joslyn will be “Landscapes from the Age Impressionism,” featuring the work of such popular masters as Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and John Singer Sargent.

Community theaters, some feeling the financial pinch after soft attendance last season, are also turning to proven winners.

At the John Beasley Theater, “Jitney” and “God’s Trombones” return after successful runs in the recent past.

The Bellevue Little Theatre has chosen perennial community-theater hits “Oliver,” “Noises Off” and “The Odd Couple” to anchor its season. At the Chanticleer in Council Bluffs, “Annie Warbucks,” “Mister Roberts” and “Barefoot in the Park” reinforce the trend toward the tried and true.

Anchor shows at the Rose, Omaha’s children’s theater, are a fourth run of “The Velveteen Rabbit,” the popular musical “Annie” and the sequel, “High School Musical 2,” to last year’s smash hit.

“For several years now we’ve asked our members to give us ideas on shows to select,” said Julie Walker, managing director at the Rose. “That translates economically. We have more popular shows when we do what they ask.”

Omaha Performing Arts’ Broadway musical season includes sure-fire “Beauty and the Beast” and frequent returner “Chicago.”

Familiar, sentimental titles like “White Christmas” and “Little House on the Prairie” are also in the lineup.

The Omaha Community Playhouse let patrons last season vote on the two anchor musicals for this season: “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” and “Fiddler on the Roof.” Other past hits in the playhouse lineup this season include “Mister Roberts,” “Quilters” and the evergreen “A Christmas Carol.”

Playhouse patrons now are voting on possible shows for 2010-11, such as “Beauty and the Beast,” “A Chorus Line,” “Rent” and “The Wizard of Oz,” though artistic director Carl Beck said familiar titles and patron preferences aren’t the only factors in choosing a season.

“We try to blend it” with ideas from the playhouse’s play-reading committee, he said. “We also have a new piece, ‘Almost, Maine,’ that we had to include simply because it’s extremely good writing.”

Contact the writers:

444-1269, bob.fischbach@owh.com and

444-1076, john.pitcher@owh.com

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