Preview and Giveaway: Queenie Pie at the Butler Opera Center

image courtesy UT Performing Arts Center

Queenie Pie
April 17-26
McCullough Theatre (2350 Robert Deadman Dr.)
Fri/Sat at 8:00 p.m., Sun at 7:00 p.m., $10-$20
[info] | [tickets]

You say: Jazz!

We say: Dead wrong!

Well, maybe not totally-and-completely-no-resurrection dead wrong, since Duke Ellington is one of the most famous and influential jazz musicians of all time. But as one of his very last works, Ellington also wrote an opera called Queenie Pie. So right now, when we say Duke Ellington, you say: "Opera about a beautician living in Harlem who goes on a spiritual journey to an uncharted island!" It's a mouthful, but it's nothing compared to what opera divas have to belt out, so we're sure you can handle it.

Queenie Pie, a remarkable musical theater-jazz-opera combination, will be produced here in town by Austin's very own Butler School of Music, Butler Opera Center and Huston-Tillotson University, so this ain't no out of town roadshow, though the play promises to be out of this world. Renowned jazz vocalist Carmen Bradford stars in the show.

If you're a musical theater-jazz-opera combo fan--or you think this sounds like it could definitely turn you into one--enter your email address after the jump for a chance to win a pair of tickets to the show.