The Glenn Korff School of Music presents the musical “City of Angels,” which is directed by Alisa Belflower, coordinator of musical theatre studies. Performances are at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 14 and 3 p.m. Nov. 16 in Kimball Hall.
Tickets are $20 adults and $10 for students and seniors. Advance tickets are available from the Lied Center Box Office by calling 402-472-4747 or 800-432-3231. Tickets are also available at the door one hour before the performance.
“Musically, it has a very unique plot,” Belflower said. “There hasn’t really been anything else like it before or since.”
Featuring a cast of 33 graduate and undergraduate students, “City of Angels” weaves together two plots: the real world of a detective novelist trying to turn his book into a screenplay, which is in color; and the world of the fictional film he is creating, which is in black and white.
“The whole show is the process of him writing the screenplay for his own novel,” Belflower said. “You get the plot of the movie, and you get the plot of the writer as he writes the script. The show is all about how vulnerable you are when you’re creating something out of your imagination, and how protective you can be about your artistic work.”
Members of the newly configured UNL Jazz Orchestra will be in the pit to play for “City of Angels,” which has a 1940s Big Band/Jazz musical influence.
A portion of the students in the cast received recognition at the National Association of Teachers of Singing National Conference last July, including Angela Gilbert, a senior music major from Ralston, who won the collegiate musical theatre women’s division; and Jeremy Brown, a junior music education major from Kearney, who was awarded second place in the men’s musical theatre division.
“I’m very fortunate to have students who are gifted and talented and trained well enough to take on something this complicated, in terms of going back and forth between playing two characters,” Belflower said. “I couldn’t be more grateful to have that level of talent to work with on stage in creating the show.”
Gilbert takes on two characters: Donna, the assistant to the famous director/producer; and Oolie, the secretary to the private investigator in the film noir world of the movie being written.
“It’s fun to see what the different assistants have in common and how they are very different from each other,” Gilbert said. “It’s also intriguing to visit the 1940s when as high as most women could rise in the business world was being the assistant or secretary to a powerful male boss.”
Brown plays Stone, the private detective in the fictional world, whose life is turned upside down when a beautiful and mysterious woman shows up at his office, offering him a case that spirals out of control.
“The mirroring effect of this show between the two separate stories is something special,” Brown said. “And the level of depth and careful attention to detail the writers put into this story is incredible. I am definitely looking forward to performing ‘City of Angels’ for audiences, and I can’t wait for them to enjoy all the intricacies found within.”
In addition to the details of the musical, Gilbert said that the theme is engaging.
“This show is so much fun for the audience because you get to watch the process of a writer struggling with the idea of ‘selling out,’” she said. “Watching the writer make changes to his work as he fights to stay true to himself invites you to remember that you are the hero of your own story and life. This story is so interesting and captivating, only to be intensified by beautiful lights, staging, music and direction. You will not want to miss seeing this incredible piece of art.”
