Eat, drink and be merry - it's what the holidays are all about. What better way to kick them off than with the three best parts rolled into one big event? The Community Arts and Building Foundation is holding their inaugural dinner theater tonight at the Muncie Community Civic Center. The show is a trip back to the '50s and '60s with music legends the Coasters, the Drifters and the Marvelettes playing their biggest hits and classic holiday songs.
Although it has been over a decade since any of the groups have made a new recording, their chart-topping songs are familiar to people everywhere as some of the most recognizable Motown and rock and roll hits. The Coasters are best known for "Yakety Yac," "Charlie Brown" and "Love Potion #9." The Drifters' hits include "There Goes my Baby," "Under the Boardwalk" and "This Magic Moment". The Marvelettes stepped into the limelight with songs such as "Please, Mr. Postman" and "Don't Mess with Bill."
The Cornell Gunters' Coasters hit the spotlight in 1956 with "Down in Mexico" and were one of the first vocal groups inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The Drifters had a 25-year run, beginning in 1958, and had just under 30 songs make it on the Billboard charts. The group currently tours as the Elsbeary Hobbs' Drifters in memory of band member Hobbs who passed away in 1996. The Marvelettes are a Motown group that helped promote harmonic blues and sent eight songs to the Top Ten despite changing members several times over the years.
The event is an attempt by the Community Arts and Building Foundation to bring a family show to Muncie.
"It's an idea we have been playing with for a long time. It's been a wish to have this kind of thing in the building," Director of Communications Cassandra Price said. As the Coasters, the Drifters and the Marvelettes were currently touring Indiana it was a good opportunity for a concert that would attract not only people who grew up listening to the bands and their music, but also younger generations who are familiar with many of the hit songs.
The evening kicks off with a buffet dinner in the Colonnade Room Banquet Hall at 6 p.m., which will be catered by Pete's Duck Inn. The two-hour show begins at 8 p.m. in the Edmund Burke Ball Auditorium, and will include holiday tunes as well as the groups' hit songs. Following the show will be a reception where audience members may meet the artists and obtain autographs.
"It's going to be a more intimate show. We are going to have famous people in our venue, and it's going to be a neat thing for me to bring that opportunity to our guests and patrons," Director of Events Bonnie Jordan said.
Tickets to both the dinner and the show or just the show are available at the Community Arts and Building Foundation Box Office or by calling (765) 286-5347. Proceeds from the event support the non-for profit organization.
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