Mountain Laurel Center Unveils
2007 Summer Season
The Allman Brothers Band, Bob Weir and RatDog, The Goo Goo Dolls, and Steve Miller Band Spotlight Center’s Focus on Top Rock Acts
Jazz Icon Wynton Marsalis, Tot-Friendly The Laurie Berkner Band, Legendary Vocalist Linda Ronstadt, Acclaimed Singer/Songwriter Lucinda Williams, Retro-Cool Crooner Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons Add to Season’s Diversity
Boston Pops Will Appeal to Symphonic Music Fans and 100 Years of Broadway Brings a Musical Theater Revue to MLCPA
BUSHKILL, PA —- Mountain Laurel Center for the Performing Arts today unveiled the lineup for its 2007 summer season, which opens on Saturday, June 16 with the previously announced Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra with Yacub Addy and Odadaa! Featured headliners include rock favorites the Steve Miller Band, The Goo Goo Dolls, and The Allman Brothers Band, Bob Weir and RatDog; pop stars Linda Ronstadt and Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons; alt-country icon Lucinda Williams; children’s pop sensation The Laurie Berkner Band; the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra with Keith Lockhart conducting; and Neil Berg’s 100 Years of Broadway, a concert revue featuring some of Broadway’s biggest hit songs. More shows are expected to be added and will be announced soon.
“The 2007 season promises to be Mountain Laurel Center’s best yet,” said Richard T. Bryant, President & CEO of the center. “Our new collaboration with John Scher and Metropolitan Talent Presents further enables us to attract top-of-the-line rock and pop acts, with the results being outstanding headliners such as The Goo Goo Dolls, Steve Miller Band, The Allman Brothers Band, and others. We are proud to bring these remarkable bands to our audiences, and to continue our mission to bring a diverse array of arts to the Pocono Mountains. For jazz fans, we have Wynton Marsalis and his great Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra; for symphonic music fans, the one-and-only Boston Pops with Keith Lockhart on the podium; for kids and families, The Laurie Berkner Band; for those who love pop music at its best, Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons and Linda Ronstadt; for alt-country rockers we have Lucinda Williams; and for musical-theater aficionados, 100 Years of Broadway. There’s a lot to enjoy this summer as Mountain Laurel Center broadens its claim as the region’s leading performing arts organization, and a customer-friendly destination for top-flight music and summer fun.”
Individual tickets go on sale Saturday, April 28 at 10 a.m. through Ticketmaster phones, online, and at all Ticketmaster outlets. Ticket prices and more information are available at www.mountainlaurelcenter.com or by calling Ticketmaster at 570.693.4100 (or your own local Ticketmaster phone number).
This year, the center announced that its membership program would be re-named Harry’s Club in honor of its founding chairman, the late Harry Kiesendahl. Harry’s Club members receive a 10 percent discount on all ticket purchases, preferred seating for performances, and other perks. Information on joining Harry’s Club is available at mountainlaurelcenter.com or by calling 570.426.2080.
MOUNTAIN LAUREL CENTER 2007 PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE
All events will be presented in the Tom Ridge Pavilion.
SATURDAY, JUNE 16, 8 p.m.
WYNTON MARSALIS and the JAZZ AT LINCOLN CENTER ORCHESTRA
With master drummer Yacub Addy and Odadaa!
Celebrated jazz Trumpeter and bandleader Wynton Marsalis, the world’s leading exponent of American jazz, and master drummer Yacub Addy bring their new composition “Congo Square” to Mountain Laurel Center’s stage. Performed by the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra and Odadaa!, a nine-piece Ghanian dumming and chanting troupe, “Congo Square” is a contemporary take on the festive, soulful rhythms that inspired today’s jazz.
Inside reserved seating: $37-$52. Lawn seating: $22.
SATURDAY, JUNE 30, 8 p.m.
FRANKIE VALLI & THE FOUR SEASONS
A true American pop music icon, Frankie Valli’s incredible career as a solo artist and with The Four Seasons has produced 19 Top Ten hits and sold more than 100 million records worldwide. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990 and named longevity champ of the rock era by Billboard Magazine. With chart-toppers including “Sherry,” “Can’t Take My Eyes Off Of You,” “My Eyes Adored You,” “December ‘63 (Oh, What a Night),” “Swearin’ to God,” “Our Day Will Come” and “Grease,” Valli has entertained audiences around the world for more than four decades. Most recently, his music sparked the hit Broadway musical Jersey Boys, which is modeled after the remarkable lives of Valli & the Four Seasons.
Inside reserved seating: $32-$52. Lawn seating: $22.
SATURDAY, JULY 7, 8 p.m.
STEVE MILLER BAND
The best always make it seem easy, and so it is with Steve Miller. His band has always performed a soundtrack for our era, music that Rolling Stone says “virtually defined good-time American AOR rock” - bluesy, melodic and rich with history, yet fully tuned to the contemporary pulse. With such enduring hits as “Fly Like an Eagle,” “Abracadabra,” “Take the Money and Run,” “The Joker,” “Livin’ in the USA” and “Who Do You Love,” and with their Greatest Hits 1974-1978 album racking up a mind-boggling 13-times platinum sales status, the Steve Miller Band’s legacy rolls on, and their landmark concerts continue to draw sellout crowds.
Inside reserved seating: $45-$65. Lawn seating: $25.
WEDNESDAY, JULY 18, 7:30 p.m.
THE GOO GOO DOLLS
plus special guests LIFEHOUSE
From underground buzz band to rock ‘n’ roll superstars, Goo Goo Dolls hit the international radar in a huge way in the late ’90s, amassing multi-platinum sales and achieving global acclaim with their “Dizzy Up the Girl” album and their smash tracks “Slide” and “Iris,” the landmark power ballad recorded for the City of Angels soundtrack. Since forming in 1986 in Buffalo, New York, the Dolls, fronted by guitarist/vocalist Johnny Rzeznik and bassist/vocalist Robby Takac, have not only survived but thrived for more than two decades. One mark of their enduring appeal: the Dolls’ affecting single “Better Days,” from their most recent album, “Let Love In,” became CNN’s anthem during broadcasts of recovery efforts following Hurricane Katrina. This is rock with feeling, perspective, intelligence and allure.
Inside reserved seating: $37-$47. Lawn seating: $22.
TUESDAY, JULY 24, 7:30 p.m.
LUCINDA WILLIAMS
Three-time Grammy winner Lucinda Williams has been named “America’s best songwriter” by no less than Time Magazine. The eclectic, truly original musician — a triple-threat singer-guitarist-composer — broke through to the mainstream in 1998 with her hit album Car Wheels on a Gravel Road, featuring “Still I Long for Your Kiss” from the movie “The Horse Whisperer.” Her newest album, West, released in February, contains 27 autobiographical songs and has sparked the best reviews of her auspicious career — Vanity Fair raved, “Lucinda Williams has made the record of a lifetime!”
Inside reserved seating: $25-$45. Lawn seating: $20.
SATURDAY, AUGUST 4, 8 p.m.
LINDA RONSTADT
Idolized as one of the greatest voices of our time, Linda Ronstadt has enjoyed a bold, risk-taking, genre-jumping career — and she’s still out there taking chances. Beginning in the 1970s as a female superstar, she earned a string of platinum-selling albums and Top 40 hits, including “You’re No Good,” “When Will I Be Loved,” “Blue Bayou,” “Somewhere Out There” and “Tracks of My Tears.” The ten-time Grammy winner has since expanded her horizons by recording with Elvis Costello, country with Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris, pop standards with Nelson Riddle, and a number of highly-regarded Latin albums saluting her Mexican-American heritage. Her latest album, Adieu False Heart, explores traditional Cajun melodies in duets with Ann Savoy.
Inside reserved seating: $32-$52. Lawn seating: $22.
SATURDAY, AUGUST 11, 11 a.m.
THE LAURIE BERKNER BAND with Susie Lampert & Adam Bernstein
Now hailed as the “Pied Piper of the Preschool Set,” Laurie Berkner’s amazing success as a children’s artist was a surprise to her. Working as a preschool music specialist, she created a recording that encouraged young kids to move, sing and participate. The hugely positive response encouraged her to release a second recording, 1998’s Buzz Buzz, on her own label. Laurie’s intelligent yet accessible songwriting, warm, captivating vocals, and infectious melodies have garnered frequent appearances on “Jack’s Big Music Show,” one of Nick Jr.’s most popular series on NOGGIN. The hits kept coming, as well as a mass of awards, rave reviews and TV appearances. The band’s 2006 DVD We Are…The Laurie Berkner Band — the first kids’ title co-released by Starbucks — entered Billboard’s Music Videos chart at #1 and went multi-platinum. Today the band tours nationally and internationally, performing everywhere from the White House to prestigious children’s festivals.
Inside reserved seating: $25-$35.
SATURDAY, AUGUST 18, 7:30 p.m.
THE ALLMAN BROTHERS BAND
BOB WEIR AND RATDOG
When The Allman Brothers Band first appeared in 1969, they mixed blues-drenched jazz with guitar-driven rock and laid the groundwork for what became known as the Southern Rock movement. More than three decades later, Rolling Stone magazine ranked them among its 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. The band’s Live at Fillmore East is generally accepted as the greatest live recording in the history of rock, and Eat a Peach is an all-time classic. But to see the venerable Rock & Roll Hall of Famers in concert is to see them at their finest. They share the bill with fellow Rock & Roll Hall of Famer inductees Grateful Dead guitarist Bob Weir and his acclaimed band RatDog, which he founded in 1995. Since then, what began as a laid-back blues ensemble has developed into a top-notch, six member rock sensation that performs both original and familiar songs. The band’s propensity for exploration and improvisation makes every night a unique show.
Inside reserved seating: $45-$65. Lawn seating: $25.
MONDAY, AUGUST 20, 8 p.m.
BOSTON POPS ESPLANADE ORCHESTRA
Keith Lockhart, Conductor
America’s most-recorded and most-televised orchestra returns for a third visit to the Mountain Laurel Center under the baton of charismatic conductor Keith Lockhart. Founded in 1885 when a group of Boston Symphony musicians presented a concert of “light music of the best class,” the Boston Pops present familiar classical and pop tunes that all ages can enjoy. This year’s program includes husband-and-wife Broadway megastars Marin Mazzie and Jason Danieley as they reprise their magnificent performances from last season, joining the Pops to highlight the best music of Broadway and Hollywood.
Inside reserved seating: $45-$65. Lawn seating: $25.
SATURDAY, AUGUST 25, 8 p.m.
Neil Berg’s 100 YEARS OF BROADWAY
Anyone who loves Broadway musicals is in for a treat as this powerhouse group of Broadway veteran singers hits the stage for a tribute to a century of great tunes from the Great White Way. It’s a jubilant revue of Broadway’s biggest numbers presented in concert form by the actual stars of such shows as The Phantom of the Opera, Les Miserables, Aida, Jesus Christ Superstar and Jekyll & Hyde. 100 Years of Broadway spotlights Broadway’s most beloved songs, including treasures from Jerome Kern, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Kander and Ebb, Cole Porter, Stephen Sondheim and Andrew Lloyd Webber.
Inside reserved seating: $25-$45. Lawn seating: $20.
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Mountain Laurel Center’s 2007 Summer Season is made possible, in part, by, The Wolfington Companies, Pocono Mountain Visitors Bureau, Pocono Produce Company, Lee Oakes, Nancy Kiesendahl Bloch, Virginia Kirkwood, Thomas Wilkins, and the ongoing participation and support of the center’s patrons and friends.
Officers of the Mountain Laurel Center are Andrew Forte, Chairman; Richard T. Bryant, President & CEO; Rosemary Driebe Olofsson, Vice-Chair; Howard J. Grossman, Secretary; and Thomas R. Wilkins, Treasurer. Board members include: W. Peter Ahnert, Anna Cervenak, Davis R. Chant, Nancy Kiesendahl Bloch, Virginia P. Kirkwood, Lee Oakes, Paul Olsen, John Duke Schneider, Marc A. Troutman, John Wolfington, Andy Worthington, and Robert Uguccioni (Ex-Officio).
Mountain Laurel Center for the Performing Arts is a nonprofit performing arts center serving the Pocono Mountains and beyond. Its principal venue, the Tom Ridge Pavilion, offers 2,500 covered seats and room under the stars for thousands more on its comfortable lawn. MLCPA is dedicated to serving the region by providing world-class artists and entertainers through an ongoing series of performances and educational programming. For additional information about the Mountain Laurel Center, please call 570-426-2080 or visit mountainlaurelcenter.com.
Mountain Laurel Center is conveniently located in the Pocono Mountains, easily accessible from both I-80 and I-84, and is closer than you may think. Only 90 miles from New York City, 119 miles from Philadelphia, and 66 miles from Wilkes-Barre, PA, you can enjoy any of our high-quality performances and still be close to home.
For ticket prices, ordering, Harry’s Club membership and general information, the public can visit www.mountainlaurelcenter.com or call 570.426.2080.
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Contact:
CJ McKenna
Development Manager
Direct: 570.426.2080 x5007
Email: cmckenna@mlcpa.org
Mountain Laurel Center for the Performing Arts
Bushkill Falls Road P.O. Box 1233
Bushkill, PA 18324
Administration: 570.426.2080
Fax: 570.588.5211
mountainlaurelcenter.com
