Blast II: Music in Xtreme

[euro_euph06]

From DCI.org and riverparkcenter.org

 

 

BLAST2: M.I.X. will have its world premiere weekend on Thursday, June 22, at 7pm, Friday, June 23 at 9pm, and Saturday, June 24 at 2pm at the RiverPark Center, prior to an extensive five-month tour of Japan. The original Blast! performed throughout the world, including the U.S. and U.K., both on Broadway and in London.

 

Blast!, which won a special Best Musical Tony Award, performed for three successive summers in Japan, 2003, 2004 and 2005, to consistently sold-out houses. As a result of it?s enormous popularity, this brand new production, makes history by being the first Broadway show ever, to be totally financed by a Japanese company and be built and premiered in the U.S. prior to the Tokyo opening.

 

Born more than 20 years ago from enthusiasm and vision of Southern & Central Indiana?s Bill Cook and James Mason, a collaboration of Indiana men created a drum and bugle corps that evolved into a stage ensemble that went on to become a Tony and Emmy winning full Broadway/London musical extravaganza. Using powerful instrumental music and precise, often acrobatic choreography to reinterpret everything from Broadway and popular movie musicals numbers to classical music compositions, the creators of Blast! assembled a new American kind of stage show that appealed to international audiences of all ages.

 

From the very first explosive beginning, Mason (later, Tony winning Producer/Director) and his colleagues expanded the fresh concept with more colorful lights and staging, they enhanced special effects and costumes, they developed new, more powerful arrangements and in December of 1999, they stormed the famed London Apollo Theatre stage with Blast!

 

This new ?all American? presentation overwhelmed London audiences unfamiliar with the demanding performance skills of drum & bugle corps with its stunning, innovative show. That event was followed by Blast?s arrival on Broadway and the winning of the 2001 Tony Award for the Most Innovative Musical of the year.

 

Now, just five years later, Mason and the artistic creators of Blast! have designed a new thrill for audiences worldwide. Blast II: Music in Xtreme ? a production nearly twice as large as the original ? will launch more fireworks beginning in Owensboro, Kentucky. The new production, with more than 50 cast members, requires each performer to act, dance and play at least one musical instrument. Acrobatic ability is preferred!

 

The new Japanese financed musical will leave RiverPark Center and shoot across the globe to Japan for a 5-month non-stop mega-musical tour of Tokyo, Osaka, Matsumoto, Fukuoka, Sendai, Sapporo, Niigata, Matsuyama and Hiroshima.

 

Blast II/MIX is expected to return to North America for a 2- year tour.

 

Blast marks the third Owensboro to Tokyo American musical in less than two years. The Who?s Tommy and 42nd Street, were also recently ?Made in RiverPark?.

Owensboro is known in Japanese theatrical circles as ?THE TOKYO EXPRESS!?

 

Tickets go on sale Tuesday, June 1. Tickets can be purchased at the RiverPark Center box office at (270) 687-2787, or by visiting www.riverparkcenter.org. Group reservations are available NOW by calling Kimberly Johnson at (270) 687-2770.

 

Presented by TOYOTA, co-presented by 5/3 Bank and Daviess County Fiscal Court and sponsored in part by RiverPark Center, Owensboro Medical Health System, Friday After Five, Executive Inn, Kentucky Arts Council, City of Owensboro, 14 WFIE, and Messenger-Inquirer.

 

 

 

Wow...interesting to say the least.

Edited June 1, 2006 by euro_euph06

[Brian Ngo]

My private lesson teacher actually left to play sax for the Blast Tour II

[Dynasty]

I assume you mean Shockwave, as there are no woodwinds in the original Blast!. I thought Shockwave was Blast! 2? Oh well.

[Brian Ngo]

I meant Blast. It's called Blast II: Remix or something like that and now they incorporated woodwinds. I know they have 2 sax players because my lesson teacher and his friend from UH left to be a part of the show.