Kings, queens, knights and... dragons?!? Join Campus Events + Entertainment Creative Arts + Theatre for Madrigal Dinner 2013, a grand Renaissance-themed dinner theatre experience in the Texas Union Ballroom on the UT Austin campus! Enjoy an original comedic play, choir concert, and a four-course meal, all for the price of entry.
Madrigal Dinner will be held on the nights of Thursday, Friday and Saturday, November 21st, November 22nd and November 23rd, 2013. A cash bar will be available starting at 5:30 pm. Show starts at 6:30 pm.
General Public Tickets: $32, $30, and $28 -- Discounted UT Austin Student Tickets: $18, $16, and $14. You must present your current University of Texas at Austin STUDENT I.D. at the door to enter with a discounted student ticket.
Tickets for this year's amazing Madrigal Dinner production are on sale through November 19th at www.TexasBoxOffice.com or in person at the Frank Erwin Center, 1701 Red River St. Tickets CANNOT be purchased through the Texas Union. Tickets are not refundable. Please select your main course dinner option at time of purchase. (Click here to view options.)Click to purchase your tickets online now! A very limited number of tickets will be available at the door. Purchase your tickets in advance for best seating!
I knew that The 1940s Radio Hour done last week at the One World Theatre by the Austin Community College Choir would provide us a time machine to amusement. The surprise for me was the dipsy-doodle movement of that flight through time.
I went to the 11:30 a.m. performance, enjoying the novel sensation of driving in daylight to a theatre performance. I got there half an hour early, picked up my ticket, hiked upstairs to the theatre and was astonished to find myself walking into a capacious performance space with almost every seat already filled. I had to scramble to get a front seat to the far right of the stage.
Looking a little closer, I realized that I'd unwittingly signed up for the "senior special" performance -- rarely had I seen such a vast display of tidily coiffed older women. Yes, I saw some men here and there, usually of the same age, but for a moment it was if the Frank Sinatra fan club of 1942 had been waiting eagerly and patiently in that magic space for the past 68 years. Buzzing and happy, they didn't mind that the show started ten minutes late.
Strictly speaking, most of these folks were probably toddlers back in 1942, so the time warp wasn't exactly perfect. But the ACC choir players gave us good renditions of the golly-gee-whiz all-American entertainment of the 40s, so it hardly mattered.
The set-up for the Radio Hour is familiar -- it's exactly the sort of ensemble piece about young hopefuls in the entertainment world churned out in the various Big Broadcast films of the 1930s and perfected by Arthur Freed at MGM. The hassled, abrupt producer; his dutiful second banana ordering the players around; a crooner with a drinking problem; a cute girl group, the Boutineers, that's a direct knock-off of the Andrews sisters; a couple of clean-cut young men, one destined for the Army Air Force and another taking the relay from his older brothers, now both in the service; "Pops," the janitor; the Judy Garland vulnerable heart of gold, and the tough sexy blonde who reeks of late nights with sugar daddies.
