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Williamsport Community Concert Association bringing ‘In the Mood’ to CAC

With such a wide variety of music regularly playing on the radio in today’s world, it can be hard for some to image a time when the airwaves were dominated by a single genre. But some of those alive today can still remember back to the 1930s and 1940s, when the sound of jazz music infiltrated all aspects of American life and was the primary source of entertainment around the country.

The Williamsport Community Concert Association will take those in the area back to this point in time, when the organization hosts “In the Mood — A 1940s Musical Revue” at 7:30 p.m. March 28 at the Community Arts Center, 220 West Fourth St. The program, which is currently on its “Silver Anniversary Tour,” has been performed in 48 states around the country over its 25-year run. It will serve as the third and final show of the WCCA’s season.

“This show is a real gala and it was actually hard to book because of the demand,” said Cynthia Staiman Vosk, WCCA president.

A celebration of the swing era of American music, this program aims to show how the songs of big bands, vocal groups and soloists of the ’30s and ’40s kept up national morale during World War II. “In the Mood” features the powerful 13-piece String of Pearls Orchestra, as well as a group of stunning vocalists and energetic dancers. With musical arrangements, costumes and choreography that are true to the period, the show takes its audience back in time for two-plus hours.

“There is no story to ‘In the Mood’ — the story is the music and how it impacted the spirit and energy of the whole military during that era,” said Bud Forrest, show creator and producer. “There was no internet and no computers, but everybody was listening to records and going to dance halls. It was just the spirit of the times, and the songwriters got ahold of that and wrote countless songs that meant something to everybody.”

Though the production is now quite large, Forrest said the show began much more modestly. After starting things up with just three female vocalists and no instrumentalists back in 1988, the program slowly evolved over the next several years.

“I knew the music was part of our heritage and culture, but I didn’t wake up one morning and say ‘I’m going to write this show,'” Forrest said. “It just kept growing.”

In 1993, “In the Mood” got its first big break, when the show was performed on the steps of the National Archives to help commemorate the 50th anniversary of WWII in front of a crowd of 5,000 people. Some of those watching from the crowd were with the headquarters of the USO, and approached Forrest about taking his show on the road.

“We did that in 1994 and 1995, going across the United States,” said Forrest. “I never thought that in 2019 I would still be doing it.”

To date, “In the Mood” has been performed in every state in the country except Alaska and Vermont, and has also hit stages in Canada, New Zealand, the Netherlands and Australia.

Forrest feels there is a simple reason why audiences in the 21st century still enjoy a show focused around big band jazz.

“There is good melody and good rhythm, and the sound is timeless,” he said. “There were thousands of songs written and not all of them have made it through the test of time, but there is still quite a repertoire that have, and we can’t even begin to touch it with ‘In the Mood.’

“It is my job to pick out the songs that I think say something and that have meaning, and a message of why that feeling was there,” he added.

Through the decades, more than 500 people have worked on “In the Mood” as either a singer, dancer, instrumentalist or technical aid. Though most of the current members of the orchestra have been around a while, all of the current singers are brand new for this tour.

“I have to bring together people that I think are going to be capable of doing this,” Forrest said. “We also have a wonderful choreographer and director, Alex Sanchez, who is able to take someone born in 1994 and educate them on what it was like to be in the 1940s.”

Being as sentimental, romantic and jazzy as it is, Forrest said at times the show “feels like a three-ring circus.” He described it as “a family show that pulls on the heart strings.”

“There is something in this show for an 8-year-old and there is something in this show for a 98-year-old,” he said. “I think people should come out and have two-and-a-half hours of an emotional roller coaster — of love, peace and understanding — through music.”

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