Beck Center 2012
SPONSORED: Leapin' Lizards! "Annie" Has Found a Home for the holidays at Beck Center for the Arts! Bring the entire gang to see one of the world's best-loved musicals Fri 12/7 – Sun 1/6 on the Mackey Main Stage. Tix on sale now: 216.521.2540 x10 or BeckCenter.org.
SPONSORED: You ready? Hell’s yeah! Beck Center for the Arts presents BLOODY BLOODY ANDREW JACKSON, an award-winning rock musical that reinvents the life of one of our nation's first political mavericks and founding rock stars, May 25-July 1, Studio Theater. Tickets on sale at BeckCenter.org. Recommended for audiences 17 and older.
SPONSORED: “Breathtakingly, outrageously brilliant!" said the NY Times. Experience Spring Awakening at Beck Center, Fri 2/3 thru Sun 3/4. This Tony Award-winning rock musical adaptation of the controversial 19th century German play explores with passion and poignancy the turbulent journey from adolescence to adulthood. Mature Content: adult language/nudity. BeckCenter.org or 216.521.2540.
SPONSORED: Most explosive four-letter word! Beck Center presents the regional premiere of Race, a riveting drama by Pulitzer Prize winner David Mamet, Fri 10/21 thjrough Sun 11/20. Three attorneys, two black and one white, must defend a white executive accused of raping a black woman. Race challenges our perceptions of race, power and betrayal. BeckCenter.org.
SPONSORED: How Marvelous! Beck Center for the Arts opens the 2011/2012 season with The Marvelous Wonderettes, a musical blast from the past, on the Mackey Main Stage Fri 9/16 through Sun 10/16. The Wonderettes will bring back fond memories of proms, reunions and first loves as they perform hits from the '50s and '60s. Tickets on sale at BeckCenter.org.
SPONSORED: Smart, Edgy and Hilarious New Season at Beck Center Subscriptions are available for Beck Center for the Arts' diverse 2011/2012 theater season. With six regional premiers, it's filled with edgy, thought-provoking productions like Spring Awakening and Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, and smash hit musicals The Marvelous Wonderettes and Legally Blonde. Visit BeckCenter.org for complete schedule.
SPONSORED: Big song, big dance, big HAIR! It's Hairspray at Beck Center, Fri 7/8 through Sun 8/14. Cheer on pleasantly plump Baltimore teen Tracy Turnblad as she pursues her dream to dance on the popular Corny Collins Show, finds true love, integrates the TV show - all while singing, dancing and never mussing her hair. You can't stop the beat! BeckCenter.org.
SPONSORED: Creative Camps for Kids! Join in the fun this summer at Beck Center. Register today for camps & classes in dance, music, theater, and visual arts - including camps especially for music lovers. There's even an arts sampler for kids who enjoy all art forms. Summer catalog online at BeckCenter.org or call 216.521.2540 x10.
SPONSORED: Check Out Steve Martin's Underpants Following up on the rousing success of Jerry Springer: The Opera, Beck Center for the Arts presents The Underpants, comedian Steve Martin's farcical send-up of middle-class snobbery and conformity, based on Carl Sternheim's controversial early 20th-century satire, running Fri 4/1 through Sat 4/23 on the Mackey Main Stage. The NY Times calls it, "Laugh-out-loud funny!" BeckCenter.org
Beck Center Under Attack Again
Lakewood's Beck Center is under attack once more from religious fundamentalists organized by the group America Needs Fatima, a family-run operation based in Kansas and Pennsylvania. Protests during the opening weekend of the production of the award-winning farce Jerry Springer: The Opera, resulted in sold-out performances (see Cool Cleveland video here), and The Beck Center deciding to extend the run of the show, much to the delight of area fans and supporters. Remaining tickets available here: www.BeckCenter.org.
Using a cynical campaign of disinformation, intimidation and, in some cases, outright lies, the protesters, none of whom have admitted to seeing the show, have been attacking The Beck Center for the Arts not simply as an expression of their free speech, but as a way to raise their own funds, increase membership and sell trinkets (see Online Store here) to support their $7 million per year operation (see IRS 990 here).
Conversely, The Beck Center for the Arts is a 78-year-old non-profit cultural arts organization serving tens of thousands of children annually with classes in theatre, music, dance and visual arts, plus a Creative Arts Therapies department that serves thousands of special needs individuals per week. Overall, 100,000 children, adults and seniors are served throughout Cuyahoga, Lorain, Lake and Summit Counties on a budget of $2.5 million, supported by grants, donations and theatre ticket sales.
Beck Center director Cindy Einhouse has fielded thousands of emails and phone calls complaining about the Jerry Springer production, while theatre patrons who have actually seen the show have raved about the production's humor, satire and and its "critique of hypocrisy, entitlement and intolerance..." (see reviews here: CoolCleveland.com, Cleveland.com). The Beck Center's response to this manufactured outrage has taken up valuable and precious time and resources, including polite responses to many people who have contacted The Beck Center (see Beck Center statement here).
Protests are gearing up again for the Sunday, March 13 performance. Anyone interested in supporting the Beck Center and becoming part of the counter-protest should start assembling at the Beck Center, 17801 Detroit Avenue in Lakewood (map here) between 5-6PM. No reason to let the cynical out-of-towners raise all the noise and have all the fun. http://www.BeckCenter.org
SPONSORED: Strippers, cheating spouses, tap-dancing KKK members. Just another episode of America's favorite lurid TV talk show, The Jerry Springer Show. Come see what happens when Jerry and his show end up in Satan's world in the shocking, irresistibly funny Jerry Springer: The Opera, running Fri 2/18 through Sun 3/27 at the Beck Center for the Arts BeckCenter.org
SPONSORED: A colorful holiday musical, and we promise... not one carol! Beck Center presents Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Fri 12/3 through Sun 1/2/11. Dazzle your entire family with its brilliant light show, splashy costumes, rousing children's chorus, and musical stylings for all tastes-- from reggae to country western to an Elvis-channeling pharaoh. BeckCenter.org
SPONSORED: Buying local this holiday season? Give a gift that doesn't end up at the bottom of a toy box or the returns counter. Purchase a Beck Center gift card, good for theater productions and more than 140 classes in dance, music, theater, and visual arts. The arts... a gift for a lifetime. BeckCenter.org