Downey Symphony Guild hosting gala fundraiser Feb. 5
DOWNEY – Make your reservations now, while you still have the opportunity.
The Downey Symphony Guild is having its annual gala at 6:30 p.m. on Friday, Feb, 5, in the Rio Hondo Event Center. Celebrating the 58th consecutive year of the Downey Symphony Orchestra in Southern California, the Guild continues their efforts to financially support the orchestra and the “Music In The Schools” educational outreach program.
In addition to a delectable dinner and a silent and live auction, the entertainment for the evening is not to be missed!
If the name “Allan Sherman” does not bring any fond memories to mind, what about the words to a familiar song?
“Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh. Here I am at Camp Granada. Camp is very entertaining, and they say we’ll have some fun if it stops raining!” …so begins the Grammy Award-winning lamentation by Allan Sherman. In the early 1960’s Sherman became an instant celebrity when he sang and recorded his devilishly clever parody lyrics on the album “My Son, The Folk Singer.” His comic genius hit just the right nerve with the American public and his first three Warner Bros. albums shot to Number One.
In the featured entertainment at the Downey Symphony Guild’s annual Gala fundraiser, “Hello Again! The Songs of Allan Sherman,” singer / comedienne Linden Waddell performs a one-woman show of his wittiest ditties.
Directed and choreographed by award-winning director Janet Miller, with accompaniment by renowned musical director Marjorie Poe on piano, the concert delights Sherman fans and newcomers by presenting some of his best-known works and also includes lesser-known material, sure to enlighten even the most diehard Sherman enthusiast. But you don’t have to know this parodist’s work to enjoy this show.
Sung to the tune of That Old Black Magic:
“That old back scratcher has me in its spell, that old back scratcher like the Chinese sell. Your plastic fingers up and down my spine, the same old ‘itchcraft’ when your touch meets mine…”
These fun, silly, droll songs are presented in a zany and professional performance by Linden Waddell, former Downey resident. Linden attended Rio Hondo Elementary School and had to patiently wait until she turned 9 years of age to be able to audition for John Hume and participate in a very popular program that was going on in Downey at that time.
Successful with her audition, she went on to many roles in Downey Children’s Theatre and became the Queen of Storyland 1974-1975. Her education continued in Downey at Griffith’s Middle School and Warren High School. The Downey Children’s Theatre program ultimately evolved to a point where a permanent “performing arts” home was needed. A beautiful facility, now known as the Downey Civic Theatre, opened in 1970.
Linden is an alumna of the distinguished Los Angeles City College Theatre Academy and has gone on to perform in over 50 musicals and operas in California. She has graced the stages of the Los Angeles Shubert Theatre as the comedic opera cat Jellylorum/Griddlebone in CATS, as Kate in The Pirates of Penzance at the Ahmanson Theatre, and as several characters including the Poetess in A…My Name is Alice at the Center Theatre in Long Beach (earning the Robby Award Nomination).
As a member of The Colony Theatre for 13 years, Linden made her debut there in Working, earning a Theatre LA Ovation Award Nomination as Best Featured Actress in a Musical.
She serves on the Board of Directors for Hidden Valley Music Seminars, an Institute of the Arts in Carmel Valley, CA, and is a founding board member for the John Hume Performing Arts Foundation in Downey. Living in Silver Lake, producer, writer, actress, singer, and mom to two children, Linden is also wife to Paul Tzanetopoulos, an internationally recognized artist who provides the kinetic light installation for the LAX pylons.
Linden is currently presenting her original one-woman show in the Los Angeles area and is delighted to share her time and talent with the Downey Symphony Guild’s fundraising efforts for the Downey Symphony Orchestra. It is a performance of laughs and nostalgia featuring standards and musical theatre classics by Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, Richard Rodgers, Harold Arlen, Jerome Kern, George Gershwin and Henry Mancini, plus traditional folk and pop songs.
With inventive props, audience participation, variety, even a pre-show quiz handout, “Hello Again! The Songs of Allan Sherman” is a true crowd-pleaser for anyone who loves to laugh.
The cost, per person, for this festive evening of fabulous food and “first-rate” entertainment is $70. Funds raised at the event will cover costs and support the Downey Symphony Orchestra and “Music In The Schools” educational programs. The fun starts at 6:30 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 5, and takes place at the Rio Hondo Event Center.
Please make reservations by Jan. 29 by mailing your check (made out to Downey Symphony Guild) to Marie Eckstrom, 9700 Garnish Drive, Downey, CA 90240. For more information about this event, please phone (562) 861-8507.