After an 18-month hiatus, the Lexington Theatre Company returns to live theatre. 'Concert with the Stars' is Saturday night at 8:00 at the Lexington Opera House. For ticket information listen or read the transcript below.
KCzar: Good afternoon and thank you for joining us for today's special feature on 91.3 WUKY. We’re joined by Lyndy Franklin Smith, the founder and Artistic Director at the Lexington Theater Company. Hi, Lyndy Thanks for being here.
LFS: Karyn. It is so good to be here. So good to hear your voice. Thank you so much for having me.
KCzar: You have an incredible event that is returning to the Opera House stage. A little bit different time period than we're used to, but it is happening and performers will be live on stage this weekend. Tell us about it.
LFS: Oh, we are so excited for our first live in-person production since the pandemic. And, you know, we're coming back the way we began. We thought it would be a very fitting way to come back with our signature Concert with the Stars. This is the event that celebrates our mission. And this year is super special because we have Darian Sanders, one of our Lex Fam, our alumni, who was in our very first Concert with the Stars as one of the next generation of theater artists. And he is back as one of our headlining stars after his debut and the Broadway national tour of Lion King is just going to be magic. I can't wait.
KCzar: I love that you brought that up because I actually met Darian through The Lex. We were in a show together a couple of years ago. I think Music Man was our first show together. The next show we did, he announced that he would be touring with ‘The Lion King.’ And I'm like, oh my gosh, talk about full circle of life. It's like, I want to break into song right there.
LFS: Totally full circle. And I know you were there that day and you were part of that incredible moment. You know, we always start our Lex rehearsals with what we call the Lex Circle. We all stand, the whole company and the stage managers and musicians. We all stand in a circle and share a little bit about where we're from and what we're excited about. And Darian announced to the whole company in that moment that he was going to be making his national tour debut. It was one of the most incredible moments watching everyone being so happy for him because they'd watched his journey and how he fell in love with musical theater. He worked so hard, you know, kind of went after this dream. And then to watch it all unfold for him has just been so rewarding, not just for me and for all of us, you know, in the leadership team, but for everybody I know, Lexington is just so proud of him.
KCzar: And he got started a little bit later with his dream and he accomplished it in a short matter of time. And it was so cool to watch the young artists, who were in college who that is their dream see that anything can happen.
LFS: Absolutely. Absolutely. You know, we had Darian on our podcast Beyond the Fourth Wall. We actually recorded it a year ago. But he talks about that beginner's mindset and not being afraid to sort of jump into a brand new career. You know, post-college, he was already establishing himself in a whole other career field and then to just sort of as he says, you know, get bitten by the theater bug and really dove into what would it mean to sort of change directions? It's so inspiring. And I think he has inspired so many. The other thing that is so neat about Darian is literally moments after he told the company of our ‘Disney's Newsies’ about this news, he pulled me aside and said, you know, how can I pay this forward? What can I do? Where do you want me? What classes can I talk to? You know, that sort of thing. So it's just you're right, he is such a beautiful representation of the mission here at the Lex. And I just am so enjoying watching him fully stepping into this full-circle moment, enjoying it and sharing it forward, paying it forward. It's it's just gorgeous.
KCzar: And Darian won't be the only star who's on stage this weekend. What else can we expect?
LFS: Yeah, so he's going to be joined by two other Broadway stars who also have ties to our region. So, Noah J Ricketts is from Louisville, Kentucky. And you might have seen him most recently on Broadway playing Christoph in Frozen. And then we also have Kimber Elayne Sprawl, who is from Cincinnati. And when Broadway returns in the fall, she will be starring in ‘Girl from the North Country', a fabulous new musical. So they are going to be here sort of in their home area, getting to celebrate and sing together before they go back to New York and back out on the road. It's just going to be tremendous. And the other cool thing that we got to do this time around, this is a smaller version of Concert with the stars. Obviously, it's our first in-person performance back. We were kind of keeping a smaller cast. So our next generation of artists, while they're not with us on stage in this production, they have been with us virtually for the last two weeks. We've been doing a free online workshop. They've gotten to hear from Noah and Kimber and Darian, as well as a host of other Broadway talent industry pros, The Lex team. It's been a really enriching time. So we're so thrilled that we've been able to find new and different ways to continue to deliver the mission in this sort of new normal.
KCzar: And not just this recent event that you're talking about. You have found a way to make The Lex flourish pretty much soon after the onset of the pandemic over a year ago.
LFS: Well, you know, Karyn, I have to say it was all about staying true to our mission. And we sort of looked at each other, and we were like, all right, we can't produce shows right now. So that's one part of our mission. The other part of our mission is training the next generation of theater artists. So let's lean really hard into that for this year. And so we really developed our education program. We brought on a new team member and started an outreach program, Joseph Wrightson, who is doing our ‘Adventures in Casa’ series and our ‘Story Cycle’ program. So we have these beautiful three sort of departments now of the Lexington Theater Company. And what I'm so excited about is how they are going to intertwine now as we bring the productions back. We're going to see this sort of beautiful layering of all of the parts of this mission coming together as we come back to our twenty, twenty-two season.
KCzar: And it's so exciting to return to the live theater. How is everyone feeling behind the scenes and what challenges lie ahead?
LFS: Oh, my goodness. I have to tell you, we got the band back together. The Lexington Theater Company trio is incredible. They’ve been with us since the very first concert with the stars. And I was a little emotional hearing them playing together again live for the first time in 18 months. And, well, they've been together. I haven't necessarily been with them, but it's just been so, so incredibly emotional, so exciting to come back, of course, where we want to keep everybody safe. We want to take our time and do things carefully and slowly. But we are just ecstatic to be able to get to come back together for this shared experience that we hold so dear.
KCzar: Lyndy, how do we go about getting tickets?
LFS: So tickets are available on our website, www.lexingtontheatrecompany.org, or at the Central Bank Center Ticket Office, which is 859-233-3535. We're just so excited to come back. Thank you for helping us share the story, Karyn, and so excited to get back to theater on stage, live and in person. It's going to be amazing.
KCzar: My thanks to Linda Franklin Smith with the Lexington Theater Company. She is the co-founder and artistic director of the company. Concert with the Stars is Saturday night at eight o'clock at the Lexington Opera House. I'm Karyn Czar. You're listening to 91.3 WUKY.