{"id":52005,"date":"2023-03-16T15:45:38","date_gmt":"2023-03-16T19:45:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=52005"},"modified":"2023-03-16T15:45:41","modified_gmt":"2023-03-16T19:45:41","slug":"on-stage-tom-rush-comes-to-the-colonial-theater","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=52005","title":{"rendered":"On Stage: Tom Rush comes to the Colonial Theater"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Denny Dyroff<\/strong>, Entertainment Editor, The Times<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"

Tom Rush<\/p><\/div>\n

Tom Rush, one of America\u2019s most revered folksingers, is a New Englander through and through. However, in recent years, he has built a connection with Chester County.<\/p>\n

One of his last live shows prior to the COVID pandemic was a concert at the Uptown! Knauer Performing Arts Center. Tonight, Ruch is returning to the area for a show at the Colonial Theatre(227 Bridge Street, Phoenixville, thecolonialtheatre.com<\/a>).<\/p>\n

His last three albums \u2013 \u201cWhat I Know\u201d in 2009, \u201cCelebrates 50 Years of Music\u201d in 2013 and \u201cVoices\u201d in 2018 were all released via West Chester-based Appleseed Records.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018Voices\u2019 is my last record \u2013 not my last but my most recent album,\u201d said Rush, during a phone interview Wednesday afternoon from a tour stop in State College.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m actually going back in the studio next month. Matt Nakoa found a studio in Connecticut, and I trust his taste.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rush has worked with Nakoa in the past and is using him as his sideman for the current shows. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been working for eight years with Matt,\u201d said Rush, who now lives in Southern Maine on the New Hampshire border.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe steals the show. He plays piano and sings like an angel. He\u2019s also a monster guitar player.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomehow, he\u2019s turned into a record producer. Now, he booked us a studio and lined up some dates to work on a new album.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have a bunch of new songs \u2013 many which were written during the pandemic. I also have a lot of older songs.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know where the songs come from. They\u2019re happy and sad \u2013 basically emotional whiplash. I have 18 songs ready to record but I\u2019ll probably ditch a few.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not quite sure why I\u2019m making an album. With Spotify, the royalty I make for 1,000 listens is one cent. The good news for me is that I\u2019ve always made my living on stage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rush released his first album, \u201cTom Rush at the Unicorn,\u201d in 1962. \u00a0\u201cVoices\u201d was released in April 2018. Altogether, Rush has put out 26 albums in 60 years \u2013 and just eight since the turn of the century.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, he is much more active when it comes to live performances. Rush is a consummate performer who always delivers an entertaining show when he takes the stage to perform his songs and choice songs by other artists.<\/p>\n

He will be performing a number of songs from \u201cVoices,\u201d an album that has its own special niche in Rush\u2019s long discography.<\/p>\n

Over the course of his 50-year-plus career, one of Rush\u2019s defining gifts has been his ear for the faint voices of significant new songs by little-known writers. The New England-based singer-guitarist was among the very first to record future standards by then-fledgling performers Joni Mitchell, James Taylor and Jackson Browne on his 1968 album \u201cThe Circle Game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rush brought a later generation of singer-songwriters such as Nanci Griffith and Shawn Colvin to wider audiences as part of his tours. James Taylor and country music superstar Garth Brookshave both named him as a major influence.<\/p>\n

Until \u201cVoices,\u201d Rush has been heard only sparingly as a songwriter, with only a few tantalizing handfuls of originals \u2013 about 20 \u2013 spread out over eleven studio albums.<\/p>\n

\u201cVoices\u201d is the first album ever of all-Rush originals \u2013 10 relaxed, warmhearted, amused and sometimes thoughtful songs that perfectly reflect his wry persona.<\/p>\n

\u201cA bunch of songs all of a sudden came out,\u201d said Rush.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur daughter was going away to college, so we were moving from Vermont but didn\u2019t know where. We moved to southern New Hampshire and rented a farmhouse from our friends Bob and Laura about three years ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a peaceful countryside exterior, but it was in some ways boring. That\u2019s where the songwriting started. I kept getting ideas for songs.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes, songs take a long time for me to write. These songs came rapidly because I didn\u2019t have anything else to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

There might have also been another reason and the veteran singer had a theory.<\/p>\n

According to Rush, \u201cIt might be some musical equivalent of epicormics branching, where a tree that\u2019s stressed or elderly starts putting out shoots in great profusion.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whatever the reasons, the results were enough to bring smiles to fans\u2019 faces everywhere.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always wrote on guitar,\u201d said Rush. \u201cEvery song came differently. A lot of times, it\u2019s a phrase \u2013 just a few words that suggest a melody. Sometimes, it starts with a melody. There is no pattern.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy pattern is to write too much. Each song tended to end up too long. You find that out when you take them in front of a live audience.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rush explained the process for making \u201cVoices.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI was taking audio notes on my cell phone,\u201d said Rush. \u201cOnce I had enough to go in the studio, I\u2019d set up with a mic going into a computer. Then, I\u2019d send what I had recorded to my producer Jim Rooney.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had all the songs written before I went in the studio with Jim \u2014 and then I wrote one more in the sessions. We were wrapping up and I only had 11 songs. Jim said we needed a 12th track. He insisted on it.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, I had to write another in my hotel room, and I wrote \u2018If I Never Get Back to Hackensack.\u2019 We recorded the album in May 2017 at The Butcher Shop \u2013 a studio in Nashville.<\/p>\n

\u201cJim brought in some really great studio musicians to play on the album \u2013 players who are known as \u2018Rooney\u2019s Irregulars\u2019 including Matt Nakoa on piano, Sam Bush on mandolin and fiddle along with Kathy Mattea and Suzi Ragsdale on background vocals.\u201d<\/p>\n

It has been more than a half-century since Rush made people take notice with one particular song \u2014 \u201cUrge for Going,\u201d which was written by Joni Mitchell and recorded by Rush in 1968. It quickly became one of Rush\u2019s signature songs.<\/p>\n

\u201cUrge for Going\u201d is something that seems to happen to Rush when November arrives \u2014 especially if the destination is the Delaware Valley.<\/p>\n

Back in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the veteran singer-songwriter established a tradition of performing a series of shows over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend at the now-defunct Main Point in Bryn Mawr.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always played the Main Point at Thanksgiving,\u201d said Rush. \u201cI probably did that at least six years in a row. The first show would be Thursday night and it was always a groggy show. People were showing the effects of eating a big Thanksgiving dinner. I did two shows a night on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI enjoyed those days of doing multiple nights. And the Main Point was a great place to play. Jeannette (Main Point owner Jeanette Campbell) was the patron saint of the Philadelphia folk scene.\u201d<\/p>\n

Video link for Tom Rush — https:\/\/youtu.be\/AWSWUD5soGM<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The show at the Colonial Theatre on March 16, which also features Loudon Wainwright III, will start at 8 p.m.<\/p>\n

Tickets are $32.50, $42.50 and $49.50.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Cats<\/p><\/div>\n

For area theater fans, this will be the final weekend to catch performances by two impressive stage shows \u2013 \u201cCats\u201d at the Miller Theatre in Philadelphia and \u201cThurgood\u201d at People\u2019s Light in Malvern.<\/p>\n

The cats in the show that the Kimmel Cultural Campus\u2019 Broadway Philadelphia series has brought to Philly for a six-day run from March 14-19 at the Miller Theatre (250 South Broad Street, Philadelphia, 215-893-1999,\u00a0www.kimmelculturalcampus.org<\/a>), are a different breed. Not just stray cats, they are Jellicle cats who sing, dance and tell their own stories in the record setting musical.<\/p>\n

Numbers associated with \u201cCats\u201d are also very impressive.<\/p>\n

\u201cCats\u201d is a sung-through musical based on \u201cOld Possum\u2019s Book of Practical Cats\u201d by world-famous poet T. S. Eliot. The musical tells the story of a tribe of cats called the Jellicles and the night they make the \u201cJellicle choice\u201d \u2014 deciding which cat will ascend to the Heaviside Layer and come back to a new life.<\/p>\n

Directed by Trevor Nunn and choreographed by Gillian Lynne, \u201cCats\u201d first opened in the West End in 1981 and then with the same creative team on Broadway in 1982. It won numerous awards, including Best Musical at both the Laurence Olivier Awards and the Tony Awards. By 1994, the musical had grossed over $2 billion worldwide. The London production ran for 21 years (1981\u20132002; 8,949 performances) and the Broadway production ran for 18 years (1982\u20132000; 7,485 performances), both setting new records. As of 2018, it is the fourth-longest-running Broadway show and the sixth-longest-running West End show.<\/p>\n

The national touring production has been revived for a new generation.<\/p>\n

In this tour, Tayler Harris plays Grizabella, Hank Santos plays Rum Tum Tugger, Sam Buchanan plays Macavity, Brian Criag Nelson plays Mungojerrie and Erica Lee Cianciulli plays Bombalurina.<\/p>\n

\u201cCats,\u201d which has maintained a high level of popularity, is easy to enjoy but not really that easy to figure out.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an understandable situation because \u201cCats\u201d doesn\u2019t really have a plot. Audience members can see \u201cCats\u201d several times and never really know much about the show except for the costumes, the actors\u2019 athleticism, the popular songs \u2013 and the elaborate sets.<\/p>\n

Audience members who have seen several productions often gain familiarity with the different cats in the show and their diverse personalities \u2013 the cocky Rum Tum Tugger, the mischievous Mr. Mistoffelees and the wise Old Deuteronomy.<\/p>\n

There are also several lesser-known cats in the show \u2013 all with their own distinct personalities. There is Victoria, the little white kitten; Cassandra, the aloof brown-and-cream Abyssinian queen; and Alonzo, the young male who is just beginning to assert himself.<\/p>\n

Bombalurina is a flirty and confident red queen. She is best friends with Demeter and the two share an intense hatred for Macavity.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile there is no plot, there is a story line,\u201d said Cianciulli, who grew up in Montgomery County. \u201cThe story line is redemption \u2013 redemption for Grizabella.\u201d<\/p>\n

Video link for \u201cCats\u201d — https:\/\/youtu.be\/DYmryQkHdXM<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cCats\u201d will run at the Miller Theatre from March 14-19. Ticket prices start at $40.<\/p>\n

Now through March 19, People\u2019s Light (39 Conestoga Road, Malvern, www.peopleslight.org<\/a>) is presenting a riveting play called \u201cThurgood.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thurgood Marshall\u00a0was an American civil rights lawyer and jurist who served as an\u00a0associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States\u00a0from 1967-1991. He was the Supreme Court’s first African American justice.<\/p>\n

Prior to his judicial service, he was an attorney who fought for civil rights, leading the\u00a0NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. Marshall was a prominent figure in the movement to end\u00a0racial segregation\u00a0in schools.<\/p>\n

Marshall won 29 of the 32 civil rights cases he argued before the Supreme Court, culminating in the Court\u2019s landmark 1954 decision in\u00a0Brown v. Board of Education, which rejected the\u00a0separate but equal doctrine\u00a0and held segregation in public education to be unconstitutional.<\/p>\n

President\u00a0Lyndon B. Johnson\u00a0appointed Marshall to the Supreme Court in 1967. A staunch liberal, he frequently dissented as the Court became increasingly conservative.<\/p>\n

Marshall has a strong connection to Chester County. He was a graduate of Lincoln University.<\/p>\n

Lincoln University\u00a0is a\u00a0public\u00a0state-related\u00a0historically black university\u00a0(HBCU) near\u00a0Oxford. Founded as the Ashmun Institute\u00a0in 1854, it has been a public institution since 1972 and is the second oldest HBCU in the state after\u00a0Cheyney University of Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n

Born in\u00a0Baltimore, Maryland, Marshall attended\u00a0Lincoln University\u00a0and the\u00a0Howard University School of Law. At Howard, he was mentored by\u00a0Charles Hamilton Houston, who taught his students to be \u201csocial engineers\u201d willing to use the law to fight for civil rights. Marshall opened a law practice in Baltimore but soon joined Houston at the\u00a0NAACP\u00a0in New York.<\/p>\n

\u201cThurgood\u201d was written by playwright George Stevens, Jr. The play is directed by People\u2019s Light Associate Artistic Director Steve H. Broadnax III. and the title role is played by Brian Marable. In this one-act play, Marable captures Marshall\u2019s signature poise, wit and storytelling skill.<\/p>\n

First appearing on Broadway in 2008, \u201cThurgood\u201d explores the historic life of Justice Marshall. From watching trials at the Baltimore courthouse with his father as a child, to winning all but three of 32 civil rights cases he argued in the Supreme Court as an NAACP lawyer, Justice Marshall is credited with paving the way for young African American leaders. The play is a testament to the hard work and dedication that earned Marshall his Supreme Court nomination in 1967 and how his legacy still resonates today.<\/p>\n

Before the show, attendees can also enjoy scratch cooking and theatrical sensibilities in the laid-back atmosphere of the Theatre\u2019s newly renovated on-site restaurant, The Fern & Fable. Located just steps away from the Leonard C. Haas Stage, the restaurant occupies three rooms of a 1700s farmhouse, complete with two working fireplaces and plenty of historic quirks.<\/p>\n

\u201cThurgood\u201d is running now through March 19. Ticket prices start at $47, including fees.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Denny Dyroff, Entertainment Editor, The Times Tom Rush, one of America\u2019s most revered folksingers, is a New Englander through and through. However, in recent years, he has built a connection with Chester County. One of his last live shows prior to the COVID pandemic was a concert at the Uptown! Knauer Performing Arts Center. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":52003,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[6520,7426,6401],"class_list":["post-52005","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-cats","tag-featured","tag-tom-rush"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52005","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=52005"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52005\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52006,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52005\/revisions\/52006"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/52003"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=52005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=52005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=52005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}