Walton Arts Center's 35th season is about to begin with music, speakers, family shows, Grammy winners and more. A 35th anniversary season preview and open house is set for Aug. 27. Then, the season officially opens with "The Outsiders," the first national Broadway tour, opening on Sept. 1, and we previewed that Broadway season when it was announced in the spring. You can find that conversation here.
To preview all the rest, we invited Jennifer Ross, vice president of programming, and Curt Owens, director of programming, back to our Carver Center for Public Radio to highlight some of the approaching performances. Curt Owens says the 35th season is a mix of returning favorites and artists that are new to the venue.
Owens: One of the things that we've tried to do this season is bring in new artists and new shows that Northwest Arkansas hasn't seen, but also kind of hearken back to the history of the last 35 years of Walton Arts Center. So "Stomp" is back and Lyle Lovett. Lyle Lovett is back. The War and Treaty, who sold out Starr Theater last season, is back. David Sedaris, who has been here a number of times, is back. So we're really excited about the new stuff and everyone who's returning.
Kellams: All right, let's talk about — we're going to hit a lot. We're not going to hit them all. Waltonartscenter.org will give you all the seasons, all the series, all the performances. And we've talked about the Broadway season as a whole earlier this year. But I also want to bring up "Hadestown."
Ross: Yes, it's like a bonus bonus Broadway show. "Hadestown" is coming back. It's going to be on our Night Out season, our Night Out series, and we just had the opportunity to add it sort of after we'd already announced all the Broadway. So Curt and I decided it hasn't been that long since we've had it, but it's such a great show and not everybody got to see it last time. A lot of people continue to ask us to bring it back.
And it's such a wonderful story and it's so well set. The music is absolutely fantastic. And hopefully people saw it in the movie theater just last week because there was a live action shot of that show taken, and it was all the original actors, and it was just so good. So I hope that that will bring some more people out to see it too, in February.
Kellams: February. All right. The Great American Songbook will be celebrated in the Songbook Salon. This is something new, right?
Owens: It is. It's a brand new series in Starr Theater celebrating the work of the Great American Songbook. We have three performances, three shows. The first one coming up fairly soon is Isabella Isherwood. She's a really incredible young vocalist, followed by Champian Fulton, who has been here before, who helped reopen the atrium, right? Ten years ago, is bringing her show once again, called "Flying High: Big Band Canaries Who Soared." And she's also the artistic director of the series, so she's putting all of this together. And then we close the season with "Let's Be Frank," starring Sachal Vasandani, and I'm probably messing up his name, but it's a tribute to Frank Sinatra.
Ross: Champian is such a dynamic jazz pianist and vocalist. And we all fell in love with her a little bit when she was here 10 years ago to help us reopen the season. And she's been back to Fayetteville a couple of times since then, and we've always wanted to work with her a little bit more. And then the opportunity to create this new Songbook Salon sort of popped up out of nowhere, and Champian was really excited about it because she has her thumb on the pulse of what's happening with young performers in New York City. And so we're going to have this salon of a lot of young people singing all these old songs, and it's going to be tremendous.
Kellams: Classic songs. Yeah, yeah. Family shows, that's returning. It is series.
Ross: Yes. We have the Pringles Family Fun Series, and we've got everything from Jim Henson's "Fraggle Rock" to "Cirque Dreams Holidaze" by the makers of Cirque du Soleil. SoNA and WAC are presenting "The Snowman" again, and we all love that show. It sells out every year. Dr. Seuss, "Cat in the Hat" live on stage. And then we've got two smaller shows in our Starr Theater, Tall Stories, "The Gruffalo" and Tutti Frutti, "The Boy Who Cried Wolf."
Kellams: Yeah, you mentioned Lyle Lovett. I think the last time he was here, he was with John Hiatt. Maybe.
Ross: The last, I mean, the last time. Maybe a couple of times ago.
Kellams: OK. Always a great show. Is that part of a greater series?
Owens: It's part of our concert series. We're welcoming back several artists who have been here before. We are kicking off the 50th anniversary tour of Trout Fishing in America.
Kellams: Yes.
Owens: Who have performed at WAC in the Botanical Gardens and are big favorites of Northwest Arkansas. So we're really excited to kick off their 50th anniversary tour.
Kellams: What's the date for that? September?
Owens: That is Sept. 24.
Kellams: Sept. 24. OK.
Owens: Following that, in early October, we have The War and Treaty, who were here and just blew the roof off of Starr Theater as part of our West Street Live series last year. And when I was there, there was just a really cool feeling in the atrium of people excited for the show. So we're excited to bring them back.
Kellams: That sold out pretty quickly.
Owens: It sold out in Starr Theater. And they were just really, really terrific performers. So we're excited to have them back. Neko Case is new to Walton Arts Center, but there's a lot of excitement around her as well. You mentioned Lyle in a Small Large Band. We'll also have Tony winner Leslie Odom Jr. Star of "Hamilton." Won a Tony Award for "Hamilton," bringing his Christmas tour in early December. Another returning favorite who was here on our jazz series right around the time that she won her Grammy Award is Samara Joy.
Kellams: Yeah.
Owens: So we've been wanting to bring her back the last couple of years and we finally got the opportunity. And then we have John Pizzarelli and Catherine Russell returning with their salute to Ella Fitzgerald, Joe Pass and Oscar Peterson.
Kellams: Ooh, that's going to be a heck of a show.
Ross: Absolutely delighted to be able to bring Samara Joy back for a big hall concert.
Kellams: Yeah. Because she was in Starrlight. She was in Starr Theater.
Ross: Starr Theater. I mean, Robert Ginsburg, our jazz curator, has been trying to bring her back. And literally right after she played here, she won her Grammy and just smoked it to the sky. I mean, it was just an amazing rise. She's such an incredibly talented performer. We can't wait to have her.
Kellams: As you mentioned, she won her Grammy for jazz. There is more jazz on the season, right?
Ross: There is, a full set of Starrlight Jazz Club shows featuring Matthew Whitaker Trio, Simon Moullier Trio with Alex Claffy and Steve Pruitt. The Huntertones are coming back, Noah Preminger Quartet and the Edward Simon Trio. And Ed Simon has been here numerous times, and Robert follows him and really likes to bring him back when he has a new project. And so this will be a new project of Ed's. And we just love to bring him back.
Kellams: Bringing back David Sedaris.
Ross: We are.
Kellams: Beloved voice.
Owens: Absolutely. We're bringing back David Sedaris. We're bringing back "Stomp" for three performances, and then we've got a couple of other fun shows in our Off Dickson series, "The Unauthorized Hallmark(ish) Parody Musical," which — Hallmark(ish), which tells you exactly what it is. And we'll be here right before the holidays, as well as the Carpenters Songbook Live celebration. We had the Simon and Garfunkel tribute here this past season and it sold out very quickly. And this is from the same creators of that show. So we're excited to bring those back.
Kellams: West Street Live.
Ross: Yeah. And we actually added a show right after we sent the subscription renewals. And so if you're a subscriber to West Street Live and you didn't buy the extra show, you might want to do that. But our West Street Live lineup is the Henhouse Prowlers, Carlene Carter, Adam Hood, he was the extra, Victor Wooten and the Wooten Brothers. I know. In Starr Theater. Davina and the Vagabonds, they're coming back. And the Nashville songwriters, they are also a return.
Kellams: These are the songwriters. These aren't necessarily household names if you don't follow the songwriting or licensing world. As I mentioned, you can see everything in this season at waltonartscenter.org. What are one or two others that I haven't brought up that you'd like to?
Owens: Well, our 10x10 series, which is a fan favorite, we have 10 shows. They're $10 each. It kind of runs the gamut of all sorts of different genres and performances, complementing the "Buena Vista Social Club." In December, we have Mariachi Herencia de México bringing a mariachi Christmas. They were here two or three years ago. We were happy to have them back. Piano Battle is returning. Chanticleer is coming. Parsons Dance, as well as Aquila Theatre, is bringing "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." They've been here several times with other shows, and this year they're bringing "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde."
Kellams: All right. And there's nothing else. Nothing else will be added, right? I mean, this sounds like the...
Owens: Never say never, Kyle.
Kellams: Never say never.
Ross: OK. We have offers out for two or three things now that are just sort of little add-ons to the season.
Kellams: You know, I'm just saying this for no reason, but Susanna Hoffs just released a new LP.
Ross: OK.
Kellams: So I mean, if that happens.
Ross: I'll take that under advisement.
Kellams: Yes.
Owens: Done.
Kellams: That's bold. Thank you both for coming in.
Curt Owens is director of programming at Walton Arts Center. Jennifer Ross, vice president of programming there. They discussed the upcoming 35th season with me earlier this month in the Anthony and Susan Hui News Studio. Single tickets for all performances in the season now available.
Ozarks at Large transcripts are created on a rush deadline and edited for length and clarity. Copy editors utilize AI tools to review work. KUAF does not publish content created by AI. Please reach out to kuafinfo@uark.edu to report an issue. The audio version is the authoritative record of KUAF programming.
