On the Scene arts calendar for Oct. 27-Nov. 2: Spooky play, dance, ‘Superstar’ review

Dana Oland

This week’s offerings include a celebratory rock opera, a spooky children’s classic brought to life, and a dance company “Taking Flight.”

Highlights

Boise State University:

  • It’s closing weekend for the Boise State Theatre Department’s spooky production of “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.” A headless horseman terrorizes the quaint village of Sleepy Hollow until he meets the humble schoolteacher Ichabod Crane. Based on Washington Irving’s short. 7:30 p.m. Oct. 27-28, 2 p.m. Oct. 29-30, Danny Peterson Theater, inside the Morrison Center, 2201 Cesar Chavez Drive, on BSU campus. $5. The Morrison Center website that runs ticket sales for the Danny P says tickets are sold out, but director Darin Pufall-Purdy posted on his Facebook page that there are some tickets available if you go to the theater’s box office.

  • Idaho Dance Theater opens its season with “Taking Flight: A New Generation,” which features work by six choreographers, including IDT Artistic Director Marla Hansen, and the premiere of the dance film “Silhouette,” with an original score by jazz pianist Alex Sjobeck. 7:30 p.m. Oct. 28-29, 2 p.m. Oct. 30 at the Boise State Special Events Center, 1800 W. University Drive. $15 previews, $15-$35 general at IdahoDanceTheatre.org.

Elevator Pitch Review

“Jesus Christ Superstar” opened at the Morrison Center on Friday night, and boy did it rock the house to the delight of a full audience.

British director Timothy Sheader’s staging for the 50th Anniversary tour production gives nods to all of this history from the 1970 concept album to 1971 Broadway musical to 1973 film. But this is really more of a concert experience than a traditional musical.

Performers wield microphones on stands and hand-held mics and are bathed in rock-concert-style lighting. The on-stage band performs live on the multilevel set, and a few of the performers showed their guitar chops — including Jack Hopewell as Jesus and Kodiak Thompson as Annas.

Special kudos to the sound crew who make it all work so you could hear the voices and the electric ensemble without getting overloaded.

The cast is a collection of knockout rock vocalists and energetic movers who all are worthy of mention as they revel in Andrew Lloyd Weber’s and Tim Rice’s music, performing with passion and energy.

Hopewell nails those high falsetto notes that punctuate his character’s songs. Elvie Ellis infuses Judas with all the questioning grief the character deserves. Faith Jones is pitch perfect as Mary Magdalene, especially her rendition of one of the show’s hits, “I Don’t Know How to Love Him.”

Isaac Ryckeghem’s impressive bass-baritone marks Caispas as one of the most intriguing characters, along with Thompson’s spot-on tenor as the manipulator behind the scenes.

Other performance highlights include Erich W. Schleck as a glittery, high-heeled Herod, Nicholas Hambruch’s heavy metal Pilate and dancer Caroline Perry’s enthusiastic “Mob Leader.”

This show that runs through Sunday has enough weight to satisfy the generation who grew up with it — many of whom were there to on Friday to revisit their vinyl memories — and enough sparkle and theatrical wizardry to entice the new generation who may have discovered it with the 2018 NBC “Live in Concert” TV special that starred John Legend and Brandon Victor Dixon.

2 and 8 p.m. Oct. 29, 1 and 6:30 p.m. Oct. 30 at Morrison Center, 2201 Cesar Chavez Lane. $40-129 at Ticketmaster.com.

Find out more about the rest of the Morrison Center Broadway in Boise season.

Music

Country music powerhouses Kathy Mattea and Suzy Bogguss team up to open Caldwell Fine Arts at College of Idaho’s Jewett Auditorium.
Country music powerhouses Kathy Mattea and Suzy Bogguss team up to open Caldwell Fine Arts at College of Idaho’s Jewett Auditorium.

Oct. 29: Caldwell Fine Arts opens its season with Kathy Mattea and Suzy Bogguss: Together at Last. Two country music powerhouses, who each have had their own successful careers, combine for one terrific show.

7 p.m. Oct. 29, Jewett Auditorium, $30, $35, $40 general, $20, $25, $30 children at 208-717-5368. Learn more about the season at CaldwellFineArts.org.

More theater

Alley Rep’s production of “Hot Asian Doctor Husband” postponed some of its run because of a COVID-19 outbreak in the cast. The final performances of this quirky, timely play are 8 p.m. Tuesday-Wednesday, at Visual Arts Collective, 3638 Osage St., Garden City. $30 at AlleyRepTheater.org.

Boise Contemporary Theater’s world premiere production of Jodeen Rever’s one-woman show “The Persistent Guest” closes this weekend. It’s definitely worth seeing. 7 p.m. Wednesdays-Thursdays, 8 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays, now through Oct. 29; 2 p.m. Saturdays Oct. 22 and 29, Boise Contemporary Theater, 854 Fulton St., 208-331-9224. $32-$45 general, $15 student at BCTheater.org.

On the Radar

Ballet Idaho opens its 50th anniversary season with “Mozart in Motion,” featuring Balanchine’s “Divertimento No. 15.” Pictured: Dancer Jacob Beasley.
Ballet Idaho opens its 50th anniversary season with “Mozart in Motion,” featuring Balanchine’s “Divertimento No. 15.” Pictured: Dancer Jacob Beasley.

  • Ballet Idaho’s season opener “Mozart in Motion” features George Balanchine’s “Divertimento No. 15,” to Mozart’s composition of the same name; Stephanie Martinez’s “Kiss”; a new work by Ballet Idaho Artistic Director Garrett Anderson; and Lar Lubovich’s American contemporary classic “Concerto 622.” 7:30 p.m. Nov. 4, 2 and 7:30 p.m. Nov. 5, 2 p.m. Nov. 6, Morrison Center.

  • LED Boise’s “Kid Lightning,” a dance and original music production that pays tribute to the 1970s, set on a popular game show. 8 p.m. Nov. 19, 6:30 p.m. Nov. 20, Morrison Center. $31.75, $41.75, $62.25 at Ticketmaster.com.

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