25th annual Broadway at Baker features two nostalgic musicals

Baker University and Music Theatre Kansas City have partnered to bring the 25th edition of Broadway at Baker to the Baldwin City campus. During this theater camp for teenage actors, students are cast in, rehearse, and perform a full-scale Broadway musical in just one week.

Rehearsals are in full swing this week for “State Fair,” as students hone their stage skills during this professional preparatory training program that culminates in a performance at 2:30 p.m., Sunday, July 16, at Rice Auditorium.

“State Fair” is a musical based on a novel and its musical movie adaptation in 1945. It debuted on Broadway in 1996. The play is set in 1946 Des Moines, Iowa, and follows the everyday life of a farming family, the Frakes, during the three days of the Iowa State Fair. During the fair, the parents are focused on winning a few blue ribbons, while the kids are focused on finding romance. Set to an Academy Award–winning score and augmented by other titles from the Rodgers and Hammerstein songbook, “State Fair” is the kind of warm-hearted family entertainment Rodgers and Hammerstein are known for.

The second session of Broadway at Baker, “All Shook Up,” will be held the week of July 24. This musical is inspired by and features the songs of Elvis Presley. It’s 1955, and into a square little town in a square little state rides a guitar-playing roustabout who changes everything and everyone he meets in this hip-swiveling, lip-curling musical fantasy that’ll have you jumping out of your blue suede shoes. The musical will be performed at 2:30 p.m., Sunday, July 30. Cary Danielson Pandzik, executive director for Music Theatre Kansas City, will direct both shows.

Admission for each show is $10 at the door, $5 for seniors and children under 12. Questions can be directed to Ronda Stiefel at (785) 594-8478.