OC Weekly Picks Reggie Watts as One of 2013's Best

It was hip, it was happening and it was in the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall during the Center’s Off Center Festival last January. OC Weekly picked Reggie Watts’ concert that helped to open the Center’s second Festival as one of Orange County’s top concerts of 2013. That’s just the kind of high voltage place the concert hall is – from Andre Watts to Reggie Watts – as the late acoustician Russell Johnson said of his design, the Renée and Henry should work for everything. 

Reggie Watts at the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall for the 2013 Off Center Festival.
Photos by Doug Gifford.

“As he stood underneath the glaring spotlight on the massive stage at the Segerstrom Hall for the Arts for the 2nd annual Off Center Festival, Reggie Watts was instantly struck by the size and grandeur of the nearly 2,000-seat capacity concert hall, one befitting of its illustrious founder...Bob Seger. Well, that's how Watt's described it anyway after walking onstage to a fiery applause from a decent crowd of giggly twentysomethings. Many of them, like us, had been smiling as they walked up to one of OC's classiest venues to see a man who's coined such trademark songs as "Fuck Shit Stack" and "What About Blowjobs." (Nate Jackson – OC Weekly)

The 2014 Off Center Festival Opens on January 23. Click here for more information.

85 Birthday Wishes for Barbara Cook

Send your personalized birthday wish to Broadway legend Barbara Cook! 

Segerstrom Center is creating a large Happy Birthday card that will be presented to Ms. Cook during her performance on April 13 in the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall. The first 85 wishes will be included on this special keepsake. 

To enter your message, please visit SCFTA.org/Happy85th. The deadline for submission is April 11 at noon. Be sure to check back after April 13 to see Ms. Cook and her card. 

For more details about the Barbara Cook’s 85th Birthday Concert and to purchase tickets, please visit SCFTA.org. 

 

2013 - 2014 Season Announcement

The Center is proud to announce its 2013 – 2014 Season, featuring the very best in performing arts across dance, Broadway, jazz, cabaret, classical music, enriching family entertainment and more.

Information for renewing season ticket holders for the upcoming season will be sent to current subscribers, with new priority order for new season tickets available soon. Single tickets will go on sale approximately six weeks prior to individual engagements.

For more information and detailed descriptions, please click the respective series titles or visit SCFTA.org.

International Dance Series

• Diana Vishneva: On the Edge (November 6, 7, 9 & 10, 2013)

• Natalia Osipova and Ivan Vasiliev (January 24 – 26, 2014)
• Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo: Swan Lake (February 27 – March 2, 2014)
• Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (March 27 – 30, 2014)


Broadway Series

• EVITA (December 10 – 22, 2013)

• The Wizard of Oz (February 11 – 23, 2014)
• The Book of Mormon (May 13 – 25, 2014)
• Jersey Boys (June 24 – July 13, 2014)
• Ghost The Musical (July 22 – August 3, 2014)
• ONCE (August 19 – 31, 2014)


Curtain Call Series
• Priscilla Queen of the Desert (October 22 – 27, 2013)
• CHICAGO (January 28 – February 2, 2014)
• I Love Lucy® Live On Stage (March 18 – 23, 2014)


Special Bonus Productions






• Disney’s Beauty and the Beast (January 14 – 19, 2014)
• Mamma Mia! (April 8 – 13, 2014)


Jazz Series

• Orquesta Buena Vista Social Club® featuring Omara Portuondo, Eliades Ochoa, Guajiro Mirabal & Barbarito Torres with special guest Roberto Fonseca (September 17, 2013)

• ACS: Geri Allen, Terri Lyne Carrington and Esperanza Spalding (October 25 & 26, 2013)
• McCoy Tyner and Joe Lovano (December 13 & 14, 2013)
• Dr. Lonnie Smith (February 21 & 22, 2014)
• Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and Wynton Marsalis (March 14, 2014)
• Fred Hersch Trio (May 2 & 3, 2014)


Cabaret Series 
• Bernadette Peters (October 11, 2013)
• Marilyn Maye and Clint Holmes (November 14 – 16, 2013)
• Peter Gallagher (February 13 – 15, 2014)
• Patti LuPone (March 22, 2014)
• Jimmy Webb and Maureen McGovern (April 11- 13, 2014)


Concert Series

• Pacifica Quartet with Marc-André Hamelin (November 12, 2013)

• Jeffrey Kahane, Joseph Swensen and Carter Brey (December 12, 2013)
• Emerson String Quartet (January 10, 2014)
• St. Lawrence String Quartet (February 20, 2014)
• Philharmonia Baroque Chamber Players (March 16, 2014)


Family: Discovery Series
• The Okee Dokee Brothers (December 7 & 8, 2013)
• Still Awake Still! (February 8 & 9, 2014)
• Cre8tion: Fluff (April 5 & 6, 2014)
• Bristol Riverside Theatre: The Little Prince (April 26 & 27, 2014)
• Lightwire Theater: The Ugly Duckling and The Tortoise and The Hare (May 17 & 18, 2014)


Family: Explorer Series

• Perth Theatre Company: The Adventures of Alvin Sputnik: Deep Sea Explorer (October 18 – 20, 2013)

• The Intergalactic Nemesis Book Two: Robot Planet Rising (November 9 & 10, 2013)
• Disney’s Beauty and the Beast (January 17 – 19, 2014) – Explorer Series subscribers have a unique and special opportunity to see the full production of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast in Segerstrom Hall as a part of their subscription package.


Opera Series






• LA OPERA In Concert: Falstaff (November 26, 2013)
• LA OPERA In Concert: Thaïs (May 27, 2014) – previously announced for May 22, 2014

Off Center Festival Off to a Great Start

The Car Plays © Steve Dawson

The Off Center Festival is giving Southern California music, dance and theater fans a lot to enjoy and to think about. The Car Plays has vehicles lined up on the Arts Plaza for series of 10-minute plays within the vehicles themselves – each with audiences of just two.

Doug Varone and Dancers in "Dressed" © Steve Dawson

Doug Varone and Dancers began their program discussing and demonstrating the creative process of their featured work in “Stripped” and return to perform the finished work in costumes and theater lighting for part two, “Dressed.” 

Minsk, 2011: A Reply to Kathy Acker © Steve Dawson

Belarus Free Theatre performed its politically powerful and thought-provoking Minsk, 2011: A Reply to Kathy Acker. This festival of innovative contemporary entertainment and culturally significant works continues January 28 through February 2 with indie bands Sea Wolf and The Donnies The Amys, Fleur Elise Noble’s 2 Dimensional Life of Her, Marc Bamuthi Joseph’s Word Becomes Flesh and more of The Car Plays. 

The Off Center Lounge © Steve Dawson

Every evening ends with audiences and artists gathering at the Off Center Lounge in Leatherby’s Cafe Rouge. 

Reggie Watts Adds High Voltage to Off Center Festival

© Doug Gifford

Reggie Watts returned to the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall (explaining how the name morphed from Bob Seger to Segerstorm to Segerstrom) and gave the Off Center Festival a real surge of power. It’s difficult to list all that Watts brings to his audiences – he sings, philosophizes, jokes, composes, muses, confuses and amazes. This was just day two of the two-week Off Center Festival. Upcoming are Belarus Free Theatre, The Car Plays, Doug Varone and Dancers, Fleur Elise Noble, Sea Wolf with The Donnies The Amys, and Marc Bamuthi’s The Living Word Project. 

© Doug Gifford

Each night, the Festival ends with audiences, artists and the creative teams mixing and mingling in the Off Center Lounge at Leatherby’s Cafe Rouge, located in the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall. Watts seen here with some of his fans! Enjoy libations and the late night menu. 

For more information, please visit http://www.scfta.org/offcenter.

© Doug Gifford

© Doug Gifford

© Doug Gifford

© Doug Gifford

Downbeat Magazine

Left: Ahmad Jamal 
Right: Esperanza Spalding © Johann Sauty

Downbeat Magazine has just released its top picks and Annual Readers Poll. High on the lists are many artists familiar to Center audiences through the Jazz Series and special engagements. Diana Krall was named Downbeat's Female Artist of the Year. Esperanza Spalding is there for No. 1 Jazz Artists and Jazz Album. No. 2 album is Blue Moon, by Ahmad Jamal, who just last weekend performed in the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall. Also in the top 10 are other series veterans including Tony Bennett, Brad Mehldau, Arturo Sandoval, Sonny Rollins and Chick Corea.

Note: As Ahmad Jamal was leaving the concert hall, greeting guests and encouraging enthusiastic young fans and musicians, the Center's Senior Director, Music Programming Aaron Egigian asked him if he had enjoyed playing in the Renée and Henry. His response was immediate, "Oh yes, this is a wonderful hall, one of the five best halls in the world."

Segerstrom Center's Concert Hall Acoustician Praised

Interior of Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall © Cris Costea

British culture commentator Norman Lebrecht recently called Symphony Hall in Birmingham, England that nation’s finest concert hall. “Symphony Hall was an acoustic revelation, a marvel of transparency and flexibility, as well as a space that felt infinitely warm and welcoming. It was, at the time, the most exciting modern hall in Europe and it remains one of the three or four most pleasing.” The venue was built 21 years ago.

Why is this important to Orange County? Because Birmingham’s hall happens to be an acoustical sister to the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall, with acoustical design by the late Russell Johnson of Artec Consultants in New York. Since its opening in 2006, the Center’s concert hall has been honored with similar praise from critics and audiences.