Beaver Falls concert series announces '22-'23 season

Beach Boys, Jersey boys, Kenny Rogers, Jackie Wilson and Broadway.

Classic sounds and songs from famed musical acts will be recreated in the five-show Beaver Valley Community Concert Association's 2022-23 season.

"We are expecting another stellar season," Rhonda Ficca, co-president and spokeswoman for the Beaver Valley Community Concert said. "One of our shows will be a makeup due to COVID rescheduling, so it will be another five shows this year when it is normally four."

As always, shows take place at Beaver Falls Middle School Auditorium.

Announced this week, the 2022-23 season includes:

*Sept. 20: Atlantic City Boys.

*Oct. 8: Nic + Desi, Broadway Song, Dance & Romance.

*Nov. 17: Sail On! The Beach Boys Tribute.

*April 20: Chester Gregory, Tribute to Jackie Wilson & Friends.

*May 3: Through The Years, with the Kenny Rogers Band.

Showtimes are always 7:30 p.m.

Subscription prices are $60. Purchase by calling Peggy McCullough, BVCCA membership chairwoman, at 724-846-3203 or online at bvcommunityconcert.org

Tickets for individual shows cost $25 ($5 for students.)

"We are so excited to kick off our season with the Atlantic City Boys," Ficca said. "Their '50s and '60s (style) will thrill all. Nick and Desi will entertain us next, with song and dance and romance, a theatrical group that tours the world with music and many dances. The Beach Boys tribute is show No. 3. With lots of sun and fun, they’ll pay homage to the iconic band.

"Chester Gregory's tribute to Jackie Wilson and Through the Years (Chippewa Township native Don Gatlin and Kenny Rogers' Band) is how we’ll end our season spanning many decades of awesome songs with incredible imitations."

The Nashville-based Through The Years says in its bio, "We’re really not a tribute band, we ARE the band…. who toured with Kenny Rogers for over 40 years, and more than 5,000-plus shows worldwide. What we are offering, is not only the sound that backed Kenny over the years, but in addition, we offer firsthand stories of being on the road with Kenny as well as a viewpoint of Kenny’s music that can’t be proffered by anyone else. In addition, we feature a section of the show, we call the 'Kenny Speed Round' … where we ask the audience to call out their favorite song that they haven’t yet heard in the show that night, and since we’ve been Kenny’s band for so long − we know them all − and will do a portion of the song for the fans right then and there. This has been an 'over the top' success and favorite portion of the show because the fans really feel a part of the performance… and of course it keeps us on our toes, too."

The performance of Rogers classics like "The Gambler" and "Lucille" features vocalist Gatlin, who along with his brother Darryl Gatlin, were national recording artists from Beaver County in the early 1990s.

Atlantic City Boys do a setlist that includes hits by Frankie Valli, The Drifters, The Five Satins, Neil Diamond and more.

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Nic and Desi sing, dance and share their love story in a celebration of classic and contemporary Broadway. Following star turns on Broadway and in numerous nationally touring musicals, theatrical power couple Nicolas Dromard and Desireé Davar created this new duo act to share their love of song and dance. Song selections include favorites fromGreat American Songbook standards (“Shall We Dance,” “Cheek to Cheek,” “I Won’t Dance”) to hits from their favorite roles in Broadway’s "Jersey Boys," "West Side Story," "Oklahoma!" and "Wicked."Gregory is a multi-award-winning actor and singer who played the lead role in the critically acclaimed stage play "The Jackie Wilson Story," which had a three-year run at the Black Ensemble Theatre in Chicago and culminated at New York's legendary Apollo Theater, receiving rave reviews from the New York Times. In 2003, Gregory’s award-winning depiction of Wilson, a soul music pioneer whose string of 1950s and '60s hits included "(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me)Higher and Higher" gave him the opportunity to perform for the famed Michael Jackson, who gave Gregory a standing ovation. That same week, Gregory made his Broadway debut as Seaweed in the Tony Award-winning "Hairspray," and he went on to originate and star in many Broadway musicals including "Tarzan," "Cry-Baby," "Sister Act" and August Wilson’s "Fences" and "Two Trains Running."

They get around

Based in Nashville, Sail On plays the music of The Beach Boys at over 80 shows a year, bringing one of pop music's greatest legacies to audiences everywhere, in the quest of "Fun, Fun, Fun."

Scott Tady is entertainment editor at The Times, and easy to reach at stady@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Beaver County Times: Beaver Falls concert series announces '22-'23 season