The Cape Symphony presents The Roaring ‘20s on Saturday, February 11 at 7:30 PM and Sunday, February 12 at 3:00 PM at the Barnstable Performing Arts Center.
Guest Artists
Drew Zaremba & Kyle Gordon, Hosts & Conductors
Adam Spencer & Angel Fox, Dancers
Tatiana "LadyMay" Mayfield, Vocalist
Download a printable version of the Show Notes.
Table of Contents
Program
Act 1
FANFARE & OVERTURE
CHARLESTON
SPEAKEASY
IT HAD TO BE YOU
“THE IMMIGRANT”
Intermission
Act 2
TECHNICOLOR
TARZAN RADIO DRAMA
JAZZ MEDLEY
L IS FOR LOVE
“ONE WEEK”
About Today’s Program
Drew Zaremba and Kyle Gordon are so passionate about the Roaring ‘20s, they developed a high-energy variety show for orchestras about the age of speakeasies, the rise of Hollywood royalty, and the birth of jazz. These enormously talented composers and conductors will delight Cape Symphony audiences with the culture and entertainment of the 1920s; it’ll feel like you jumped in a time machine!
The stage becomes a speakeasy, where dancers Adam Spencer and Angel Fox of Adam in Chatham Dance Studio will join the orchestra to do the Charleston. Well-known local performers and instructors Adam and Angel bring their love of all genres of dance into this tribute to the Jazz Age.
Award-winning jazz vocalist Tatiana “LadyMay” Mayfield, whose voice has been described by critics as having a “joyful spirit,” will perform the classic “It Had To Be You.” Did you know that this popular song, featured in movies from Casablanca to When Harry Met Sally, was composed in 1924 and spent five weeks of that year as the number one record in the United States?
The first of two short silent films from the 1920s with new scores written by Drew and Kyle is “The Immigrant,” written and directed by Charlie Chaplin. Chaplin stars as his Little Tramp character on a voyage to America, who meets a young woman on board. Later, he finds a coin on the street and goes to a New York restaurant, where he runs into the woman and treats her to dinner, not realizing that the coin fell out of a hole in his pocket. Many silly events ensue!
The orchestra will perform a Tarzan radio drama of the kind that riveted listeners back in the day. Based on the popular Tarzan book series by Edgar Rice Burroughs, the story centers around Lord Greystoke, a baby when his parents died while lost in the African jungle. Adopted by a female ape, he is raised without knowing that he’s human. He eventually meets a lost young woman named Jane. “Me Tarzan, you Jane” became a cultural touchstone that can be found in memes today. In our drama, Tarzan is trapped in quicksand. Will Jane be able to save him? Tune in to find out…
Adam, Angel, and LadyMay will return to the stage for a medley of two ‘20s jazz favorites: “Poor Butterfly” and “Sweet Georgia Brown.” “Poor Butterfly” was actually inspired by Giacomo Puccini’s opera “Madame Butterfly,” and has been recorded by everyone from Julie Andrews to Benny Goodman, Frank Sinatra to Sarah Vaughan. And of course, “Sweet Georgia Brown” is one of the twentieth century’s most popular and well-known songs, performed and recorded repeatedly for nearly a hundred years. You may associate it with the Harlem Globetrotters! The 1949 recording by Brother Bones and His Shadows became the Globetrotters theme song in 1952. Bing Crosby had a #2 hit with “Sweet Georgia Brown” in 1932. The Beatles recorded it with an additional verse: "In Liverpool she even dares/to criticize the Beatles' hair/with their whole fan club standing there/oh Sweet Georgia Brown." Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, Nancy Sinatra, Jerry Lee Lewis, A Tribe Called Quest, and Roberta Flack are among the many others who recorded this American standard.
“One Week,” written and directed by Buster Keaton, is another memorable silent comedy of the era, in which Buster’s character and his new bride receive a build-it-yourself house as a wedding present. The house is supposed to be easily built in one week, but an old boyfriend of Buster’s wife renumbers the packing crates. The walls revolve, doors go nowhere, and in one of the most famous scenes in silent film history, the house falls down around Buster!
Download the song lyrics for "The Roaring '20s."
Enjoy “The Romantics”
Join the Cape Symphony for The Roaring ‘20s on Saturday, February 11 at 7:30 PM and Sunday, February 12 at 3:00 PM at the Barnstable Performing Arts Center, 744 West Main Street, Hyannis MA 02601. To purchase tickets for The Roaring ‘20s, visit capesymphony.org, call the Box Office at 508-362-1111, email
With thanks to Wikipedia.