Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Wilmington, N.C. - Cape Fear Jazz Society, WHQR 91.3 FM and the University of North Carolina Wilmington's Department of Creative Writing, Department of Music and Office of Cultural Arts present Bewitched: A Tribute to Rodgers & Hart at 8 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 15 in Kenan Auditorium.

The fabulous Banu Gibson, who appeared in the 2005 tribute to Cole Porter, now brings her incomparable vocal talent and sass to Kenan Auditorium to pay homage to one of America's greatest writing teams. Gibson, who recently appeared on Garrison Keillor's A Prairie Home Companion and at Symphony Hall for the Boston Pops millennium celebration, will be joined by her acclaimed jazz trio and UNCW Department of Music chair Frank Bongiorno (saxophone).

Written and narrated by UNCW's Philip Furia, Bewitched weaves together the stories, images and music of Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart to create a historical, musical and pictorial review of the songwriting team that raised the standards for the Broadway musical. Highlighting the productive, yet ultimately troubled, partnership between Rodgers and Hart, the performance moves from earlier hits like "Manhattan" and "Thou Swell" to later standards such as "My Funny Valentine" and "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered."

A pictorial history, by UNCW's Laurie Patterson, combines with Furia's entertaining storytelling and Gibson's show-stopping performance to reveal the dramatic history of a partnership that has been cast in the shadow of Rodgers' later ventures with Oscar Hammerstein.

Tickets for Bewitched: A Tribute to Rodgers & Hart are $25 for the general public, $22 for senior citizens and $12 for students (UNCW students free with a valid ID). Tickets and information are available at the Kenan Auditorium Box Office Monday-Friday, 10am-6pm at 910.962.3500 or 800.732.3643.

For more information, please visit www.uncw.edu/arts.

Media contact:

Courtney Reilly, UNCW Office of Cultural Arts, 910.962.2082 or reillyce@uncw.edu