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HUNTINGTON -- It's big, it's brash, it's blues, it's Kool, it follows the yellow brick road and it's got lots of Broadway from the classics to the cutting-edge.

The 72nd annual Marshall Artists Series has just been announced and is packed from October to April with unique touring shows that include world-renowned Brazilian artist Sergio Mendes, a funk-filled Kool and the Gang Dance Extravaganza, "Nunsense" with Sally Struthers, comedian Jim Gaffigan, and a whole slew of Broadway from a new tour of the classic, "Wizard of Oz," to straight drama from the one-woman show, "Golda's Balcony," to the campy, cutting-edge with "Sweeney Todd."

Booking a series that's equally appealing to the Tri-State community and Marshall students, Penny Watkins, executive director of the Marshall Artists Series, said the new season brings art, culture and fun to the downtown.

"The Marshall Artists Series' 72nd season guarantees to both stretch one's intellectual soul and flip to the other extreme with pure entertainment," Watkins said.

Watkins said the base of the Artists Series is Broadway-built as series patrons have fallen in love with seeing classic, and the latest touring Broadway shows inside the opulent and expanded Keith-Albee Performing Arts Center.

Angela Jones, marketing director for the series, said the upsurge in Broadway shows is by request after folks asked for more Broadway shows on a series survey a couple year ago.

The Artists Series has gladly complied.

"That's a pretty big Broadway season this year," Jones said. "I think people love it because we don't get that much of it. I think for so many years it was the same tours out, but now they're taking out these big shows, and different shows out on the road. I also think getting to see a show in the expanded Keith too is a big draw."

Last season, the Artists Series packed the Keith-Albee with Billy Joel's "Moving Out," and the rip-roaring season closer, "Hairspray."

This year, there are six big blasts of Broadway, including "Nunsense," starring Sally Struthers on Wednesday, Oct. 22, "Oliver," on Wednesday, Nov. 12, "Wizard of Oz," on Tuesday, Dec. 9, "Sweeney Todd," on Thursday, Feb. 5, "Golda's Balcony," on Saturday, March 7 and "Putnam County Spelling Bee," on Tuesday, April 28.

Jones said the Artists Series is excited about the Broadway shows. For example, "Wizard of Oz" is a new Broadway touring production of the iconic dream-filled story written by L. Frank Baum.

Add to that new touring productions of new musicals, "Sweeney Todd," and "Putnam County Spelling Bee," and Jones thinks they've got some nice magnets for Marshall students to get downtown and enjoy the series.

"We're filling a niche and maybe a void," Jones said. "I think the series has a lot to do with making Marshall University appealing to students as well. Students see that 'Sweeney Todd' and 'Putnam County Spelling Bee' are coming and they have something to look forward to in the season."

As always, the Artists Series, which officially kicks off Wednesday, Oct. 1, with comedian Jim Gaffigan, is stacked with some eclectic slices of live music.

Getting the Series' "Celebration" started is Kool and the Gang's Dance Party Extravaganza that will turn the Big Sandy Superstore Arena into a boogie wonderland on Friday, Nov. 7.

Jones said not unlike special series' shows where they transformed Veteran's Memorial Field House into a blues juke joint with the help of Mountain Stage in seasons' past, this show, turns the arena into a multi-stage dance hall with D.C.-based hip hop dancers, Cultureshock, followed by Jim Quick and Coastal Carolina, a shag-inducing beach band, and topped off with a horn-juiced throw down with Kool and the Gang. Kool and the Gang has sold more than 70 million albums, and kept the dance floor popping with such songs as "Ladies Night," "Get Down On it," and "Celebration."

Watkins said the idea is to create a one-night, new-kind-of-dance club for a wide range of people.

"It's always a lot of fun anytime the Artists Series does a show that we can turn into an event," Jones said. "It's always something people look forward to. You may be used to going to the arena, but we're re-purposing it for a different type of event that makes it new and exciting. We're hoping people will come away with some new moves and still get to do their tried-and-true disco finger-pointing."

The Artists Series also has a touch of blues, Latin jazz and classical as well.

Coming Jan. 31, and in conjunction with the 40th anniversary of the Marshall University Winter Jazz Festival is Brazilian/jazz music legend, Sergio Mendes, the Grammy Award-winning pianist, band-leader and composer.

Mendes' latest CD, "Encanto," (produced with will.i.am of the Black-Eyed Peas), charted as high as No. 6 on the Billboard Top 200 charts and is still in the Top 100 after 60 weeks on the chart.

"What's really cool about this performance is that like we did with Arturo Sandoval a few years ago, we're teaming up with the Marshall Jazz Festival," Jones said. "Sergio Mendes will be part of the 40th Anniversary MU Winter Jazz Festival that will honor J.D. Folsom who started the festival."

The Artists Series also presents its sixth tour of the prestigious Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.

The Kennedy Center's new show, "Blues Journey," tells the history of the blues, its roots in slavery's field hollers, and its links to segregation, the Civil Rights Movement, Elvis and hip hop. That show will be here Monday, March 9.

Jones said they're all excited too about the youth-infused classical show, "The 5 Browns," an April 22 show that puts on stage the five, dynamic Brown siblings, who made history by being all enrolled at the prestigious Julliard School of Music at the same time.

The five-piano-playing siblings have gone on to create top-selling CDs, including their latest, "No Boundaries," which spent 21 weeks at the No. 1 spot on Billboard's Classical charts.

"People really respond to what they're doing," Jones said. "It's something to see. They'll be five Steinways on stage when they perform. We did the ballet last year with the full orchestra and we felt like this brought in classical music with a youthful vibe."

The Herald-Dispatch

Scene from stage production of "The Wizard of Oz."

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