The Official Kentucky Visitor's Guide - The Official Kentucky Visitor's Guide 2023
Performing Arts: Music, Theater & Dance
2022-12-20 09:57:07
A 1950s time capsule of summer stock theater. A craft brewery with its own historic theater offering concerts, circus shows, comedy and dance. An amphitheater that bursts to life in color, song and swirling hoopskirts. They all are part of a collage of only-in-Kentucky storytelling venues.
Kentucky’s oldest outdoor theater, Danville’s Pioneer Playhouse, is a wholly original experience of professional theater in a rustic setting, where a young John Travolta once came to learn the craft. A barbecue dinner with live music precedes the show. Stroll through the Antique Village and gift shop for children’s books by author Heather Henson, daughter of Playhouse founder Eben Henson.
Musicals, comedies, dramas and … occasional puppets? Paducah’s award-winning Market House Theatre has been serving up community entertainment for nearly 60 years from its historic downtown location. Headlining musicians, Broadway productions, holiday favorites and arts exhibitions are on the playbill at Bowling Green’s Southern Kentucky Performing Arts Center.
Lexington’s Lyric Theatre & Cultural Arts Center, originally opened in 1948 as a movie house, was an entertainment mecca that brought top Black entertainment featuring African American musicians and performers, including such marquee headliners as Ray Charles and Count Basie, to Black audiences. Today it presents “WoodSongs Old-Time Radio Hour,” live on Monday evenings.
In Louisville, the Kentucky Center for African American Heritage honors the history and cultural contributions of African Americans through live music and performances. Tucked away amidst Newport’s bustling streetscape is the Falcon Theatre, a true “storefront” theater offering extraordinary arts experiences in an intimate setting.
Mount Vernon’s Renfro Valley Entertainment Center is “Kentucky’s Country Music Capital” – an all-in-one entertainment destination with live concerts, a music store and RV park. Love to jam? Bring your acoustic instrument and join the bluegrass fun Thursday nights during Jammin’ on the Porch at the Historic Thomas House in Horse Cave.
Built during the silent movie era of a century ago, Somerset’s Virginia – a 1922 movie theater named for the designer’s daughter – hosts theater productions, musical concerts, comedy acts and more for a one-of-a-kind performing arts experience.
Catch family-friendly comedies and grand old opry, Kentucky-style, at Billie Jean Osborne’s Kentucky Opry at the Mountain Arts Center in Prestonsburg.
NOW PLAYING
National headliners jam at The Amp at Dant Crossing, an acoustically pristine venue in New Haven. Expect to see musicians from Kentucky and beyond, like pioneering country music singer/ songwriter Dwight Yoakam.
An Ohio River setting, the biggest names across all musical genres and state-of-the-art live concert spaces (including an indoor music hall, indoor club and outdoor amphitheater) make up Newport’s MegaCorp Pavilion.
In the rugged, rural farmland of Sharpsburg, The Barnyard Venue rocks with countryside concerts, comedy shows, a summer season of country and bluegrass performances, plus family fun.
Book a yurt or treehouse with Berea’s farmland funhouse, HomeGrown HideAways, during its “Holler in the Holler” summer concert series.
BIG STAGES
In a barn located at the site of Kentucky’s largest National Historic Landmark you’ll find the Chamber Music Festival of the Bluegrass. Held in May at Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill, it is a weekend with worldacclaimed chamber musicians.
Seventy-six trombones – and sometimes more – lead the big parade, while horns of every shape and size play in Danville’s Great American Brass Band Festival in June.
Hosted by the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame & Museum, Owensboro’s ROMP Festival is four days of live music, family fun, camping and more in June.
Name your music pleasure: blues, bluegrass, newgrass, jazz, progressive country, Americana. It’s all at the Master Musicians Festival in Somerset in July. Past headliners have included Willie Nelson, Counting Crows and the late John Prine.
KENTUCKY ON SPOTIFY
Find your dream mix of Kentucky music from a Spotify playlist that gathers the legends of the Bluegrass State, including the Everly Brothers’ “Bye Bye Love” and Bill Monroe crooning “Blue Moon of Kentucky.” Blending bluegrass, country and rock, it’s the ultimate Kentucky music experience featuring Chris Stapleton, My Morning Jacket and legions of homegrown talent.
KENTUCKY CREATOR
Martha Redbone, Vocalist/Songwriter (Harlan)
Award-winning Native and African American vocalist, songwriter, composer and educator Martha Redbone is known for her magnificent voice and mesmerizing stage presence. Having grown up with her grandparents in Harlan County, she brings the melodies of Kentucky into her music.
“I incorporate the sounds of music from Appalachia from the various styles of folk music that surrounded me as a child – blues, country, rock and R&B,” she says.
Her recent work “Bone Hill: The Concert” – in collaboration with her husband, composer/pianist/producer Aaron Whitby – is a mesmerizing work of interdisciplinary musical theater inspired by the lives of Martha’s family in the hills of coal-mining Appalachia.
Now based in New York City, Martha and her band perform across the country but make a point to play a few concerts in Kentucky every year.
No matter where Martha is, though, her music is alive with the sounds of the Bluegrass State.
“I believe our music transcends boundaries and tells the full story of Kentucky’s rich culture from all the people who I descend from. And it honors our rich ancestry of Native, European and African American roots, reminding us of how connected we have always been in and around Harlan County.”
©Kentucky. View All Articles.