Shrek coming to Fayetteville

FAYETTEVILLE — While relishing the success of the Million Dollar Quartet, a highlight of the Walton Arts Center’s 2011-12 Broadway season, president and CEO Peter Lane hinted at one of the shows to be included in the 2012-13 Broadway season — Shrek.

The rest of the six-show season, he said, would be rolled out during an invitation-only event for Broadway season subscribers on March 3.

To better-educate the patrons about the upcoming shows, Walton Arts Center officials have commissioned Sirius/XM Broadway expert, musician and actor Seth Rudetsky to write and perform a piece that will help explain each show in the 2012-13 lineup. (Think of that long opening number that the host of the Academy Awards usually does at the beginning of the Oscars — humorous and informative, but with perhaps a bit of bite.)

“He’ll give his take on things,” said Jill Holcombe, WAC’s marketing director. “And it gives a little cache to the shows,” since Rudetsky’s long been considered New York’s authority on Broadway. He shares his knowledge of Broadway theater, triva and more on his radio show, Seth’s Big Fat Broadway, airing Sirius/XM’s On Broadway Channel.

He’ll sing, play the piano and is likely to incorporate videos into his performance piece demonstrating WAC’s next Broadway season, Holcombe added. Admission is free, though reservations are recommended.

“Several thousand” people have been invited, she said.

At 8 p.m. that night, Rudetsky will perform his own comedy act, Seth’s Big Fat Broadway for a crowd of 150 or so in WAC’s Starr Theater. The latter is a ticketed event.

Lane’s mention of Shrek came during a Broadway Breakfast event held Wednesday morning (Feb. 22) in the arts center’s Cynthia H. Coughlin Gallery Lobby. Invitees included all 1,200 of the center’s “Friends” giving group, those who give $25 and up. About 50 people showed up.

They ate typical Southern breakfast fare, such as biscuits and gravy, and later participated in a Q&A facilitated by the Walton Arts Center’s Lydia Seifritz with two of the cast’s stars of The Million Dollar Quarter: Cody Slaughter (Elvis) and Christopher Ryan Grant (Sam Phillips). The musical is centered around one night — Dec. 4, 1956 — the one and only time Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash recorded together in Sam Phillips’ recording studio in Memphis.

Lane asked the feedback from those in the breakfast audience who had seen it open the night before. There were a few “woots” from the crowd, a lot of clapping and some positive chatter.

Dean Dade and his wife, Patsy, said they found the music energizing. “I”d pay to see it again if I could,” Dean said.