Center’s Free Movie Mondays are Back – Bigger and Better Than Ever
2010 summer movie line-up includes five films:
- The Wizard of Oz – July 12
- Some Like it Hot – July 19
- Oliver! – July 26 with media sponsor KCRW
- Dirty Dancing – August 2
- Mad Hot Ballroom – August 9
The Orange County Performing Arts Center’s Free for All series continues this summer with the enormously popular and eagerly awaited return of free Movie Mondays on the community plaza. This year’s line-up will be the biggest and best ever with five great movies: the timeless classic The Wizard of Oz with Judy Garland; the screwball comedy Some Like it Hot starring Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon; the Dickensian musical Oliver! being presented in partnership with public radio station KCRW-Santa Monica (89.9 FM and www.KCRW.com); the coming-of-age story Dirty Dancing featuring Jennifer Grey and Patrick Swayze; and the inspiring documentary about New York City school students learning to dance in Mad Hot Ballroom, which was chosen in an audience poll last summer. The Center has always been “the place” in Orange County to experience Broadway’s best and brightest, and Movie Mondays offers audiences the most fun and exciting musical and dance films under the stars and all for free.
The alfresco Movie Mondays series is held on the Center’s inviting 46,000-square-foot community plaza with the films projected on the side of Segerstrom Hall. Guests are encouraged to bring beach chairs or other easily portable seating items. Set-up begins at 5:30 p.m. with the movie starting at dusk (approximately 8 p.m.). In a continuing partnership with the Newport Beach Film Festival, a selection of the best animated short films from this year’s festival will be shown prior to the main feature. Last summer, one of the films screened at Movie Mondays, Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty, received an Oscar nomination. Guests may bring their own snacks and picnic suppers. Patina Catering will have assorted snacks and beverages available for purchase. Barbecues and similar food preparation will not be permitted.
This will be the fourth year of free Movie Mondays. Over the last few summers, Movie Mondays has grown to attract thousands of families and movie fans from all over the Southland. This special film series allows guests to experience the Center in new ways and is a great opportunity for families to spend time together – all at no cost.
July 12 – The Wizard of Oz
One of the best known films of all time, The Wizard of Oz has been a cherished favorite of young and old for more than 70 years. The movie’s music, images, characters and dialogue have become indelibly embedded in American culture. There’s hardly anyone who doesn’t immediately think of the film upon hearing the words, “Dorothy,” “Toto,” “there’s no place like home,” “ruby slippers,” “yellow brick road” and “your little dog too!” – or the lines to the song “Over the Rainbow.” Adapted from L. Frank Baum’s beloved children’s book, the movie features the memorable songs “Follow the Yellow Brick Road, “We’re Off to See the Wizard” and “If I Only Had a Brain.” Since its release, more than one billion people have experienced the story of Dorothy and friends in the Land of Oz. Center audiences will have the opportunity to see the untold story of the witches of Oz when Broadway’s biggest blockbuster Wicked returns to Orange County March 9 – April 3, 2011. Rated G, 1939, 1 hour and 41 minutes
July 19 – Some Like it Hot
This hilarious movie finds Marilyn Monroe in her one of her most shining roles and Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon giving some of the best comedic performances of their careers. When two musicians, Curtis and Lemmon’s characters, witness a mob hit, they flee the state in an all-female band disguised as women, but complications set in. While donning dresses and wigs one of the fellows falls for a band member, but can’t tell her his gender, and the other has a rich suitor who will not take “no” for an answer. Monroe is featured singing the songs “Running Wild,” “I’m Through With Love” her classic “boop-boop-a-doop” and signature song, “I Wanna Be Loved by You.” Many consider Some Like it Hot to be a groundbreaking movie, especially for the 1950s with its cross-dressing and gender-bending roles. Rated PG-13, 1959, 2 hours
July 26 – Oliver!
Orange County listeners make up a significant part of the audience for public radio station KCRW-Santa Monica (KCRW.com). Once again, KCRW partners with this summer’s Movie Mondays and presents the 1968 musical Oliver! about a young orphan’s misadventures in the slums of 19th century London. Matt Holzman, host of “Matt’s Movies”—KCRW’s preview screening club—selected Oliver!, and will join us to get the fun-filled evening going. Based on Charles Dickens’ famous novel, Oliver Twist, the movie follows the story of a boy who runs away from an orphanage and hooks up with a group of pickpockets and an elderly mentor. Also adapted for Broadway, the stage production was nominated for 10 Tony Awards and won three. The movie garnered six Academy® Awards including Best Picture and Best Director, and includes several musical standards, including “Food, Glorious Food”, “Consider Yourself,” “As Long as He Needs Me,” “You’ve Got to Pick a Pocket or Two,” “Oom-Pah-Pah” and “Where is Love?”. Rated G, 1968, 2 hours and 33 minutes
August 2 – Dirty Dancing
Set to the pulsating rock and roll songs of the early 1960s, Dirty Dancing is a romantic story about an awkward yet endearing 17-year-old girl who slips into womanhood during an eye-opening family vacation at a Catskill lodge in 1963. Caught up in the music and rhythm of the period, she falls in love with a working-class dance instructor who introduces her to the excitement of dirty dancing. Choreographed by Kenny Ortega, the movie features a best-selling soundtrack with songs such as the Ronettes’ “Be My Baby,” the Zodiacs’ “Stay,” and the Five Satins’ “In the Still of the Night.” It also includes Swayze’s “She’s Like the Wind,” Eric Carmen’s “Hungry Eyes” and the Jennifer Warnes/Bill Medley duet “(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life,” which won the Best Original Song Oscar. The film spawned a 2004 prequel, Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights, as well as a stage version which has had sellout performances in Australia, Europe and North America. Rated PG-13, 1987, 1 hour, 40 minutes
August 9 – Mad Hot Ballroom
Mad Hot Ballroom is a documentary that looks inside the lives of fifth-graders in the New York City public school system as they journey into the world of ballroom dancing. Told from the students’ perspectives, they reveal aspects of themselves during the 10-week dance program which culminates in a final citywide competition. The film highlights the students’ zeal for their ballroom dancing lessons and follows their progress in mastering the Tango, foxtrot, swing, rumba and merengue. Mad Hot Ballroom celebrates the lives of these students and reminds audiences of their own childhoods when anything was possible. Living with the complexities of life, these kids take on something unfamiliar and rise to the occasion. Filled with emotion and triumph, this documentary captures the essence of growing up in America and the transformative power of the arts. Rated PG, 2005, 1 hour and 45 minutes
Orange County Performing Arts Center
The Orange County Performing Arts Center presents a wide variety of the most significant national and international productions of music, dance and theater to the people of Southern California. It is committed to supporting artistic excellence on all of its stages and offering unsurpassed experiences, engaging the entire community in new and exciting ways through the unique power of live performance and an array of inspiring programs.
As Orange County’s largest non-profit arts organization, the Center owns and operates the 3,000-seat Segerstrom Hall and intimate 250-seat Founders Hall, which opened in 1986, and the 2,000-seat Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall, which opened in 2006 and also houses the 500-seat Samueli Theater, and the Lawrence and Kristina Dodge Education Center’s studio performance space and Boeing Education Lab. These state-of-the-art facilities are united by a community arts plaza.
The Center’s Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall and community plaza, along with facilities of the adjacent Tony® Award-winning South Coast Repertory and a site designated as the new home of the Orange County Museum of Art, are located at Segerstrom Center for the Arts.
The Orange County Performing Arts Center presents a broad range of programming each season for audiences of all ages from throughout Orange County, and beyond, including international ballet and dance, national tours of top Broadway shows, intimate performances of jazz and cabaret, contemporary artists, classical music performed by renowned chamber orchestras and ensembles, family-friendly programming, free performances open to the public from outdoor movie screenings to dancing on the plaza and many other special events.
It offers many education programs designed to inspire young people through the arts. These programs reach hundreds of thousands of students of all ages with vital arts-in-education programs, enhancing their studies and enriching their lives well into the future.
The Orange County Performing Arts Center is proud to serve as the artistic home to the region’s major performing arts organizations: Pacific Symphony, the Philharmonic Society of Orange County and the Pacific Chorale.
For more information, visit OCPAC.org. The Center can also be found online at Blogger, YouTube, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and Flickr.
Information provided is accurate at the time of printing, but is subject to change. Orange County Performing Arts Center is a private, non-profit organization. “Orange County Performing Arts Center” is a registered trademark.
