Va. Arts Fest 2009 lineup includes drama queens, musical high notes, dancing stars

They say the neon lights are bright on Broadway. They’ll be Broadway bright for next season’s Virginia Arts Festival, too.

Two of the highlights for the festival’s 13th season are Liza Minnelli and Patti LuPone.  The schedule for the festival, which runs from April 14 to May 31, was to be released today .

Minnelli has excelled in every facet of entertainment, winning an Oscar, three Tonys, two Golden Globes, a Grammy and an Emmy.

LuPone has long been a stage star and this year won Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle awards for best actress in a musical for her portrayal of Rose in “Gypsy.”

Do these bookings mean the festival, designed to bring the world’s finest performing artists to Hampton Roads, along with arts tourists, is heading toward pop?

No, said Rob Cross, festival director, it’s just a happy coincidence.

“We’ve been waiting to get them for a while,” Cross said, “and they both happened to fall in this season. We’re trying to present the best of the best, so we have to be flexible.”

He points to the dance offerings this season, calling it “one of the most in-depth presentations we’ve had.” One of the highlights in that segment is the Mark Morris Dance Group’s presentation of “Romeo & Juliet.”

It’s one of the most popular ballets of the 20th century, but few people realize it wasn’t being performed with the ending Prokofiev originally wrote. The Soviet rulers forced him to change his original score, which had a happier ending for the tragic tale.

Choreographer Morris – co-commissioned by the arts festival, the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and other groups – has reworked the ballet for the original score.

The presentation fulfills the festival’s goal of not just presenting great art but helping to create it, Cross said. Other highlights for the season include the Virginia International Tattoo, Simply Ballroom with Debbie Reynolds, the Czech National Theatre Ballet, pianist Gabriela Montero, percussionist Evelyn Glennie, country singer Emmylou Harris and Ravi Shankar with his daughter, Anoushka.

The tattoo will not kick off the festival as it has done in the past. A scheduling conflict is pushing the Scope event to May 1-3.

The first event will be the April 14 concert by Montero, who includes improvisations in her classical music performances.

Other changes for this year include a new drum festival May 15-17. The festival will kick off with the May 15 performance by world music percussionist Glennie at the Sandler Center for the Performing Arts in Virginia Beach. The rest of the weekend will be free performances at the Oceanfront, but the acts haven’t been determined, said Cross, who also is principal percussionist with the Virginia Symphony Orchestra.

Glennie, who is profoundly deaf, is a solo percussionist who plays a seemingly limitless range of instruments to create symphonies of sound. She is a dynamic performer who, reviewers say, plays each note as if it were her last.

Despite concern about the economy, funding has been consistent, Cross said.

“We are trying to be conservative, trying to save money, but not have it affect programming.”   

Cross said he has tightened up on staff travel, travel expenses in general and hirings, but not on the performances.

Series tickets go on sale to the public Monday. Patrons create their own subscriptions, called “Festival Select,” by choosing four or more events from the lineup. Patrons get a 15 percent discount by subscribing, and only subscribers can guarantee tickets to the Minnelli and LuPone performances.

For more information, visit www.vafest.com or the festival box office at MacArthur Center in Norfolk or call (757) 282-2822. Single tickets are scheduled to go on sale Feb. 8.

Last spring, the festival’s 82 performances and events from April 18 to June 1 drew 82,407 patrons. Events were held in 10 localities in Hampton Roads and drew visitors from 41 states and six countries. The festival brought artists from 14 countries to 29 local venues.

Festival education events included special student matinees, in-school performances and master classes by artists such as drummers and pipers from the tattoo, dancers from Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, and the musicians of the Artus Brass Quintet and the Moet Piano Trio. More than 37,538 local students were reached by festival artists.

Dan Duke, (757) 446-2546, dan.duke@pilotonline.com