By Chip Chandler — Digital Content Producer
In this roundup of the latest arts news: A one-night-only visit from Janis Joplin, plus holiday tours at Harrington House, First Friday and Vietnam flashbacks at AMoA.
A Night with Janis Joplin
One of the most electrifying singers of the '60s returns in a musical-theater production.
The indelible Janis Joplin's life story is told in the Tony Award-nominated musical A Night with Janis Joplin, to be staged at 7:30 p.m. Jan. 28 in the Amarillo Civic Center Complex Auditorium, 401 S. Buchanan St. in a new add-on to Civic Amarillo and Celebrity Attractions' Broadway Spotlight Series.
Tickets go on sale at noon Nov. 17 (Nov. 6 for Broadway Spotlight Series season-ticket holders) at PanhandleTickets.com, by phone at 806-378-3096 and in person at the Civic Center Box Office and United Supermarkets in Amarillo and the area.
A Night with Janis Joplin traces not only Joplin's too-short career but also features some of her musical influences, including Aretha Franklin, Etta James, Odetta, Nina Simone and Bessie Smith. A Texas native, Joplin burst onto the music scene in 1967 with hits like "Piece of My Heart," "Cry Baby," "Me and Bobby McGee" before her death at 27 in 1970.
Kelly McIntyre, who played the role in the 2016 national tour, will star as Joplin.
Tickets are $50, $45 and $40, plus fees.
The Broadway Spotlight Series will feature Stomp on Nov. 14 and 15, The Wizard of Oz on Feb. 14 and 15, Dirty Dancing: The Classic Story on Stage on March 7 and 8, and Chicago on April 30 and May 1, plus Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer: The Musical on Dec. 19.
Harrington House Holiday Exhibit
Midcentury Christmas decorations and more will be on view beginning Thursday at Harrington House Historic Home in downtown Amarillo.
The home, located at 1600 S. Polk St., was built in 1914 by cattlemen John and Pat Landergin, then purchased by oilman Don Harrington in 1940. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1977 and opened to the public in 1985.
Decorations by New York designer Helen Cole adorn the house for the season, as they did when Cole designed them for the Harringtons in the 1950s. Among the highlights: Edgerton bone china, Steuben and German stemware, vermeil accent pieces and silver candlesticks.
Several of Sybil B. Harrington's designer holiday gowns (from such couturiers as Bill Mackie, Hattie Carnegie, Galanos, Geoffrey Beane and Christian Dior) also will be on view. Harrington was named to the International Best Dressed List Hall of Fame in 1988.
Free tours, limited to four people ages 14 and older, are by appointment only on the half hour between 10 and 11:30 a.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays. The holiday tours will run through Dec. 19.
Call 806-374-5490.
First Friday Art Walk
The monthly First Friday Art Walk through The Galleries at Sunset Center will run from 5 to 9 p.m. Friday at the galleries, 3701 Plains Blvd.
This month's new shows include Natural Abstractions, a 30th-anniversary show by artist Scott Hyde at The Object Gallery, and 3 Amigos, a group show featuring Rod Getman, Charles Firestone and Ken High at Panhandle Art Center, among others.
The walk is free. Call 806-352-2706.
AMoA Vietnam Exhibitions
A pair of upcoming events will continue to explore the breadth of Amarillo Museum of Art's ongoing focus on the Vietnam War and its aftermath.
On Veterans Day, the museum will host a screening of MIAs on Tiger Mountain, a documentary by Norman Lloyd about a quest to find six soldiers lost in a battle at A Shau Valley in Vietnam.
Lloyd covered the war as a CBS News cameraman and learned of Lt. Mike Sprayberry, who led a volunteer night patrol in April 1968 to rescue members of his company who were cut off and surrounded by North Vietnamese troops.
The rescue operation extracted all of the survivors of the ambush, and Sprayberry was awarded the Medal of Honor for his leadership under fire. But over the four subsequent decades, Spraybery was determined to recover the bodies of the six men lost during the battle and bring them home. Lloyd followed Sprayberry and others back to the A Shau Valley in their continuing effort to find peace for their fallen brethern.
The film will screen at 2 p.m. Nov. 11 at the museum, 2200 S. Van Buren St. The event is free.
Then, on Nov. 16, photographer Lawrence D'Attilio will speak about his work, which examines the modern state of Vietnam.
D'Attilio is featured in the museum's ongoing Vietnam exhibitions, which also include A Shared Experience by Vietnamese immigrants Du Chau and Anh-Thuy Nguyen, and Remember Me by photographer Larry R. Collins. The exhibition was inspired by Panhandle PBS's recent broadcast of The Vietnam War by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick.
D'Attilio will speak at 7 p.m. Nov. 16 following a 6:30 p.m. reception. The event is free.
Call 806-371-5050.
Chip Chandler is a digital content producer for Panhandle PBS. He can be contacted at Chip.Chandler@actx.edu, at @chipchandler1 on Twitter and on Facebook.
