'Grand Night': A Tradition 22 Years in the Making
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Ad for "It's a Grand Night for Singing!" 2014. A transcript of this video can be found here. Video courtesy of UK Opera Theatre.
LEXINGTON, Ky. (June 9, 2014) — Guaranteed to have you singing and dancing in your seats, University of Kentucky Opera Theatre presents the 22nd annual “It’s a Grand Night for Singing!” Executive Producer and Music Director Everett McCorvey brings together a company of more than 100 performers to present the best of Broadway, cinema and Billboard hits June 13-22, at the Singletary Center for the Arts.
The continued popularity of the annual musical revue is a bit surprising to McCorvey. "Wow, that's amazing to me. I pinch myself when I think about it. We started it 22 years ago as a way of giving our opera singers a broader perspective of the business," said McCorvey in an interview with WUKY's Josh James. The tenor and educator speaks from personal experience as he worked on Broadway, in the movies and at the Metropolitan Opera when starting out in New York City.
For 2014, stage director Peggy Stamps and choreographers Jeromy and Lyndy Franklin Smith, instructors at UK Department of Theatre, return to stage popular numbers with the 100+ cast of hits from “Singin’ in the Rain,” “The Book of Mormon,” “The Fiddler on the Roof” and Disney’s “Frozen.”
Students from UK Opera Theatre will again join forces with members of the Lexington community to perform the annual town-and-gown revue. Audience favorites returning to the stage include UK alumnus Gregory Turay, Alicia Helm McCorvey, Ron Wilbur and Peter Gibbons of “Sing-Off” acoUstiKats fame, Zack Morris and Gabrielle Barker from UK's production of “Les Misérables,” and Lexington actor Robert Parks Johnson.
One special treat audiences have come to love and will enjoy again this year is when Everett joins his wife, Alicia, for a performance. "We always have fun doing duets together. She is a fantastic performer and I love performing with her," said Everett in the WUKY interview.
Showtimes for the six performances of "Grand Night" are 7:30 p.m., June 13, 14, 20 and 21, and 2 p.m., June 15 and 22.
"Grand Night" tickets are $15-$45 plus applicable fees. Each performance will also have a limited number of select seats available to UK staff for only $25. The special staff price is presented in memory of Russ Williams, the university's first representative of the staff on UK's Board of Trustees who died in 2009. Tickets are available through the Singletary Center ticket office, by phone at 859-257-4929, online at www.scfatickets.com or in person at the venue.
UK Opera Theatre is one of a select group of U.S. opera training programs recommended by the Richard Tucker Music Foundation. The Tucker Foundation is a nonprofit cultural organization dedicated to the support and advancement of the careers of talented American opera singers by bringing opera into the community and heightening appreciation for opera by supporting music education enrichment programs.
The UK School of Music at the UK College of Fine Arts has garnered a national reputation for high-caliber education in opera, choral and instrumental music performance, as well as music education, composition, and theory and music history.
MEDIA CONTACT: Whitney Hale, 859-257-8716; whitney.hale@uky.edu
