Segerstrom Center for the Arts has announced that live performances on the Julianne and George Argyros Plaza are returning, starting this month with three-time Emmy® Award-winning comedienne Louie Anderson helping the Center to celebrate Thanksgiving on November 27, followed by Tony® Award, Drama Desk Award and Drama League Award nominee Megan Hilty kicking off the Holiday Season on December 11 and Grammy Award winner Steve Tyrell on ringing in the New Year on December 29 and 30.
Many familiar Plaza events are also returning, including Movie Nights: Mary Poppins (November 20), Sister Act (November 21), Elf (December 18), Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Frosty the Snowman (December 19); Wellness Classes (November 18, December 2, 9 & 16), and the annual Holidays Around the World (December 5 &6).
Center President Casey Reitz said, “We are thrilled to be able to welcome people back to the Center, safely distanced and protected with our new protocols, for cultural celebrations by many of our audience-favorite artists and special events on the Argyros Plaza. Each honors one of the great art forms that we have all shared here: Broadway, jazz, cabaret, motion pictures and the diversity of cultural traditions. And this is just a start.”
JULIANNE AND GEORGE ARGYROS PLAZA PROGRAMMING NOVEMBER AND DECEMBER
Concerts & Special Events: Louie Anderson Nov. 27 at 4 & 7 pm
Megan Hilty Dec. 11 at 4 & 7 pm
Steve Tyrell Dec. 29 & 30 at 4 & 7 pm
Wellness Classes: Nov. 18, Dec. 2, 9 & 16 from 4-5 pm
Reduce stress and prepare to enjoy the holidays in full Zen. Each person has their own safe space.
Movie Nights: Mary Poppins Nov. 20 at 6:30 pm
Sister Act Nov. 21 at 6:30 pm
Elf Dec 18 at 6:30 pm
Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer &
Frosty the Snowman Dec 19 at 6:30 pm.
Holidays Around the World: Dec. 5 & 6 from 1 – 3 pm
The Center’s annual multi-cultural holiday celebration returns for two consecutive nights. Enjoy entertainment, music and safe, socially distanced fun with family and friends. And be advised – no matter what the weather is, snowfall is predicted. That’s the magic of the holidays!
Tickets for Wellness Classes are $15 per pod/one person per pod. Tickets for Holidays Around the World are $15 per pod, accommodating up to six people per pod. Tickets for Movie Nights are $30 per pod, accommodating up to six people per pod. Tickets for Louie Anderson are $240 per pod; Megan Hilty $450 per pod; Steve Tyrell $480 per pod, with each pod accommodating up to six people. To purchase tickets now through special pre-sale access, please call the Center Box Office directly at 714-556-2787 Monday-Friday between the hours of 10 am and 2 pm. Starting Thursday, November 19, tickets will be available also through the Center’s website at www.SCFTA.org. The Box Office is currently closed for walk-up service.
KEEPING YOU SAFE AT THE CENTER
The Center’s outdoor presentations on the Argyros Plaza comply with government recommendations for Orange County’s current tier status. Masks must be worn by all guests upon check-in and until they arrive at their assigned space. Contactless check-in will include wellness and touchless temperature checks. Hand sanitizer stations will be accessible throughout the Argyros Plaza. Chairs will not be provided for Movie Nights. Guests are invited to bring folding lawn or beach chairs, blankets and dinners and beverages. Barbecues and grills are not permitted.
The safety and confidence of patrons, artists and crews, volunteers and staff are among our primary concerns. Guided by the Board of Directors’ ad hoc Re-opening and Medical Advisory committees and members of senior leadership, the Center has engaged in exhaustive research, focusing on a strategy and operational plans that would allow it to welcome the community back as soon as state and local governments gave the green light.
The Center has collaborated with colleagues here in Orange County and across the county, each bringing their experience, expertise and knowledge to the task. The Center has also engaged the finest consultants in industrial hygiene and security. The resulting policies and guidelines exceed government prescribed practices. These include, but are not limited to:
- Clearly marked social distancing and safe practices signage.
- Hands-free check-in.
- Hands-free temperature taking and brief health questionnaires for all people coming to the Center for performances or on business.
- 150 hand-sanitizing stations are installed throughout the campus.
- Hands-free restroom fixtures and reduced occupancy.
- High traffic areas, frequently touched surfaces like doorknobs, railings, elevator buttons, and restrooms are sanitized with increased frequency
- Shield guards have been installed in areas where guests and concessions staff come into close contact.
For events on the Argyros Plaza, seating is restricted to a limited number of clearly marked personal pods with eight feet of distance from neighboring spaces and guests. All spaces and Center-provided chairs are sanitized between performances.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Louie Anderson
Iconic comedian Louie Anderson, the three-time Emmy Award® winner, is one of the country’s most recognized and adored comics; named by Comedy Central as “One of 100 Greatest Stand-Up Comedians of All Time.” His career has spanned more than 30 years. He is a best-selling author, star of his own standup specials and sitcoms and he continues to tour the country performing to standing-room-only crowds worldwide.
In 2016 Anderson was cast to co-star along with Zach Galifianakis and Martha Kelly in the hit FX comedy series Baskets. Anderson plays the extraordinary role of Christine, the matriarch of the Baskets clan. He based the character on his mother and his five sisters who were all a major presence in his life. Anderson won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series for his role as Christine Baskets in 2016.
“I’m not as nice in the character as my mom was as a person. It really is an extension of my mom, Anderson says, adding that he always aims to make his performance “as real as possible” without “affecting or cartooning it up. It felt like it was divine intervention when I got the call to be on the show, that somehow my mom, from the great beyond, was finally getting herself into show business where she truly belonged in the first place.”
As a standup, he shares the ups and downs of his childhood experiences as one of eleven children in Minnesota, Louie crafted comedy routines that rang true for his early club audiences while reducing them to helpless fits of laughter, routines that led him from his career as a counselor to troubled children to his national television debut on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson in 1984.
The rest is history. Leno, Letterman, The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Comic Relief, Showtime, HBO and CMT specials followed, including hosting the legendary game show, Family Feud, making Louie a household name and opening doors for him as an actor.
He has guest starred in sitcoms like Grace Under Fire and dramas like Touched by an Angel and Chicago Hope, and he has had memorable featured roles in film comedies like Coming to America, opposite of Eddie Murphy, and the classic Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.
Megan Hilty
Megan Hilty is most recognizable for her portrayal of seasoned triple-threat Ivy Lynn in NBC’s musical drama Smash. She followed up the series with a starring role on the NBC comedy Sean Saves the World. Additional television credits include recurring roles on Girlfriends Guide to Divorce, The Good Wife, Braindead, and Louie, among many others. Hilty received critical acclaim for her role of Brooke Ashton in the Roundabout Theater Company’s revival of Noises Off. She earned nominations for a Tony Award, Drama Desk Award and Drama League Award and won a Broadway.com Audience Award for Favorite Featured Actress in a Play.
Hilty regularly performs with orchestras and symphonies across the country. Her solo show – including her sold-out Carnegie Hall debut – has received critical acclaim. She recently released an album of songs recorded live during her recent concert tour, titled “Megan Hilty Live at the Café Carlyle” and a Christmas album titled “A Merry Little Christmas with Megan Hilty.” A native of Seattle, Hilty moved to New York City after graduating from the prestigious Carnegie Mellon University, and quickly made her Broadway debut as Glinda in Wicked. She went on to perform the role in both the national tour and in Los Angeles.
Steve Tyrell
Ever since his glorious surprise version of “The Way You Look Tonight” in the 1991 film “Father of The Bride” paved the way for his extraordinary second career as a Grammy Award winning vocalist/producer, Steve Tyrell has been setting A New Standard (the title of his 1999 debut album) for interpreting the Great American Songbook – most notably on Songs of Sinatra (which reached #5 on the Billboard Jazz Albums chart) and his most recent Concord Records release, It’s Magic: The Songs of Sammy Cahn (#2). On his 11th album, That Lovin’ Feeling, he celebrates what he calls “the Great American Songbook 2; the next generation of the Songbook,” recording seminal rock era classics penned by legendary songwriters (many renowned for hits penned at New York’s famed Brill Building) who are also cherished longtime friends.
While sharing the enduring magic of timeless songs by the songwriting teams of Carole King and Gerry Goffin, Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, Barry Mann & Cynthia Weil and Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich as well as Burt Bacharach, Neil Sedaka, Toni Wine and Carole Bayer Sager, That Lovin’ Feeling sets itself apart from most tribute recordings with spirited guest vocal appearances by Mann, B.J. Thomas, Neil Sedaka and Bill Medley in addition to renowned backup singer Judith Hill (featured in the Oscar winning documentary “20 Feet From Stardom”) and Tyrell’s daughter Lauryn Tyrell. The set also includes key instrumental contributions by Stoller, keyboardist Chuck Leavell, saxophonist Dave Koz and even playful hand claps by Jeff Barry.
Though the singer has ventured beyond the classic Sinatra era at times to bring his charismatic gravelly charm to projects celebrating the music of Disney and Burt Bacharach, That Lovin’ Feeling is a unique, highly personal project. The generous 15-track set is an intimate, decidedly jazzy, window into Tyrell’s storied roots in the music business, dating back to the 60’s when the Houston native, still in his late teens, moved to New York and began working in multiple capacities (A&R, promotions man, artist producer) at Florence Greenberg’s Scepter Records.
During that era, Tyrell worked with and/or became close friends with Burt Bacharach and Hal David and worked with Carole King/Gerry Goffin, Barry Mann & Cynthia Weil, Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich and Neil Sedaka. Putting his own natural, charismatic flair on some of their best loved works, Tyrell produced the collection with Jon Allen, using arrangements by co-producer Bob Mann.
Tyrell’s rich history with Barry Mann includes being the singer/songwriter’s artist manager, producing a solo recording for Scepter and later forming a company that included publishing and music supervising services. Tyrell’s joyful immersion into the Mann & Weil catalog includes the lush Dusty Springfield originated ballad “Just A Little Lovin’” featuring Judith Hill; “Rock & Roll Lullaby,” a poignant story song about a child growing up with a teenage mother, performed as a duet with its original artist, B.J. Thomas; “On Broadway” (co-written by Mann & Weil and Leiber and Stoller), performed as a conversational, strutting pop-blues duet with Barry Mann; and “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’,” ranked by BMI as the most played song of the 20th Century, in soul stirring tandem with Bill Medley of The Righteous Brothers.
Tyrell has enjoyed a multi-faceted five decade career that has included producing everyone from B.J. Thomas, Rod Stewart, Diana Ross and Bonnie Raitt to Linda Ronstadt, Aaron Neville, James Ingram, Dolly Parton, Chris Botti, Stevie Wonder and Ray Charles; working as a music supervisor for films by Steven Spielberg, Steven Soderbergh, Nancy Meyers and Charles Shyer; penning the #1 pop hit “How Do You Talk To An Angel”; and performing with symphony orchestras all across America. Most of his previous solo albums have gone Top Five on the Billboard Jazz Albums chart. But as he says in his colorful liner notes to That Lovin’ Feeling, “This is the most fun album I have recorded to date…and it’s the closest to the real me.”
JULIANNE AND GEORGE ARGYROS PLAZA PROGRAMMING NOVEMBER & DECEMBER 2020
Segerstrom Center for the Arts
600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa, CA
Wellness Classes: Nov. 18, Dec. 2, 9 & 16 at 4 pm
$10 per person
Movie Nights: Mary Poppins Nov. 20 at 6:30 pm
Sister Act Nov. 21 at 6:30 pm
Elf Dec 18 at 6:30 pm
Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer &
Frosty the Snowman Dec 19 at 6:30 pm.
5:30 pm check-in, 6:30 pm movie start time
$30 per pod; maximum six people per pod.
Louie Anderson: Nov. 27 at 4 & 7 pm
$240 per pod; maximum six people per pod.
Megan Hilty: Dec. 11 at 4 & 7 pm
$450 per pod; maximum six people per pod
Steve Tyrell: Dec. 29 & 30 at 4 & 7 pm
$480 per pod; maximum six people per pod
Holidays Around the World: Dec. 5 & 6 from 1-3 pm
$15 per pod; maximum six people per pod
Tickets – See individual events for ticket prices.
Phone – (714) 556-2787, Open 10 am – 2 pm, Monday-Friday
Website – www.SCFTA.org
