MONTICELLO — The Music Theatre Workshop and Jazz Band I of the University of Arkansas at Monticello will take guests back to the Big Band Era of the 1940s with two performances of the Walton Jones musical “The 1940s Radio Hour” at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday in the UAM Fine Arts Center.
Both performances are free and open to the public. Reserved seating is available for the Saturday night performance for patrons who also attend a dinner prior to the performance hosted by Chancellor and Mrs. Jack Lassiter at 6 p.m. in the Spencer Gallery of the Fine Arts Center. Dinner tickets are available by calling 870-460-1028 or e-mailing withers@uamont.edu.
The show is set in 1942 at Christmas time at fictional radio station WOV. The characters prepare for the broadcast and then go live with the show, which features hits from the 1940s, including “I’ve got a Girl in Kalamazoo,” “That Old Black Magic,” “Ain’t She Sweet,” and “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy from Company B.”
The student cast includes Travon Block of Monticello, Jennifer Neely of Warren, Carrie Ann Savage of Warren, Makayla Burris of Hooks, Texas, John Gladden of Monticello, Katie King of Warren, Dylan Cash Miles of McGehee, Michael Skinner of Monticello, Kaitlin Tucker of El Dorado, and Robert Webb of Texarkana, Ark. UAM faculty member Gary Meggs, director of Jazz Band I, will play the role of Zoot Doubleman.
The performance is being directed by Kent Skinner, director of choral activities.
For more information, contact the Division of Music at 870-460-1060.