From Kansas City to Topeka, the music is Irish

Topeka Capital-Journal, The, Mar 2, 2003 by Bill Blankenship Capital-Journal

Submitted

"Michael Flatley's Lord of the Dance" returns to Topeka for a single performance Thursday at the Topeka Performing Arts Center.

Celtic music: 'Lord of the Dance' comes to TPAC, with Irish concerts slated for Lawrence and Kansas City

By Bill Blankenship

The Capital-Journal

Fans of Celtic dance and song can step-dance their way from Topeka to Kansas City, Mo., this week with a smile never leaving their Irish eyes.

One of the national tours of "Michael Flatley's Lord of the Dance" returns to Topeka for an 8 p.m. Thursday performance at the Topeka Performing Arts Center.

The show was last here on Feb. 7, 1999, when about 5,200 people saw it at the Kansas Expocentre's Landon Arena.

Although playing smaller venues, such as the 2,500-seat TPAC, the dance extravaganza created in 1996 by American-born world Irish dance champion Flatley hasn't disappeared.

In addition to the tour stopping in Topeka, another cast is crisscrossing Europe while a third production has an indefinite run in Las Vegas.

The domestic tour of "Lord of the Dance" sold out shows Dec. 10 and 11 at The Lied Center of Kansas in Lawrence.

About one of those performances, Capital-Journal reviewer Chuck Berg described the production this way, "Take the ensemble precision of the Radio City Music Hall Rockettes, the gaudy stagecraft of Andrew Lloyd Webber, the chest-thumbing oomph of arena rock shows and liberal doses of Irish pixie dust, and what one finds is 'Lord of the Dance.' "

Tickets for "Lord of the Dance" are $42.50, $38.50 and $32.50 and on sale at the TPAC box office or through Ticketmaster, 234-4545, and all of its outlets.

The next opportunity for some Irish music will come Friday when West Side Folk presents bohola, a traditional Irish trio from Chicago, at 7:30 p.m. Friday at St. Margaret's Episcopal Church, 5700 W. 6th, Lawrence.

The trio --- accordion master Jimmy Keane, fiddler Sean Cleland and singer and dordan and bouzouki player Pat Broaders --- was described by The Irish Voice as "an acoustic power trio for the new century, a group whose instrumental virtuosity, strong vocals and stunning arrangements place them at the leading edge of today's traditional music scene."

The Irish American News said, "Bohola is hot. Hot. HOT!" while the Chicago Tribune says bohola "plays 300-year-old jigs and reels as if they were trying to tear the house down."

Tickets for bohola's show are $15 ($12 for students) and can be purchased at the door or in advance at Mass St. Music, 1347 Massachusetts, Lawrence. For more information, call (785) 865-FOLK or go to www.westsidefolk.org.

The eastward trek of Irish music continues into Kansas City, Mo., where the Missouri Valley Folklife Society will present Dervish, a traditional band from Ireland, at 7 p.m. March 9 at Community Christian Church, 4601 Main St.

While singer Cathy Jordan's masterful stage presence often commands attention with her warm, strong vocals, the core of Dervish remains its instrumentalists: Liam Kelly, flute; Tom Morrow, fiddle and viola; Jordan, bodhran and bones; Shane Mitchell, accordion; Michael Holmes, bouzouki; Seamus O'Dowd, guitar, fiddle and harmonica; and Brian McDonagh, mandola and mandolin.

Since 1989 the band has recorded five albums, including "Playing with fire," which stayed at the top of the Irish Folk Music Chart for months and "Live in Palma," recorded in Spain, which won the group the Irish Music magazine's Best Overall Traditional/Folk Band Award in 1997.

Tickets for Dervish are $20 and can be purchased at Sheehan's Irish Imports, 1412 Westport Road, Kansas City, Mo.; Bloomsday Books, 301 W. 55th, Kansas City, Mo.; Mountain Music Shoppe, 11200 Johnson Drive, Overland Park; and at the door. For telephone credit card orders, call the KC Arts Initiative at (816) 960-4636.

Bill Blankenship can be reached at (785) 295-1284 or bblankenship@cjonline.com.