Shelley Cooper in “Jenny Lind Presents P.T. Barnum" at the Black Box Theatre -- August 11 through 13.
Friday, August 11, through Sunday, August 13
Black Box Theatre, 1623 Fifth Avenue, Moline IL
An official selection for July's IUGTE 20th Anniversary event in Austria and next month's Fort Worth Fringe Festival, Shelley Cooper's one-woman musical Jenny Lind Presents P.T. Barnum enjoys a three-performance run at Moline's Black Box Theatre from August 11 through 13, its creator/star's previous solo productions in the area including popular presentations of Mary & Ethel: How I Learned to Sing and La Divina: The Last Interview of Maria Callas.
An operatic soprano often called the "Swedish Nightingale," Jenny Lind (1820-1887) was one of the most highly regarded singers of the 19th century. She performed soprano roles in Sweden and across Europe, and undertook an extraordinarily popular concert tour of the United States beginning in 1850. A member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music from 1840, Lind became famous after her performance in Der Freischütz in Sweden in 1838, but within a few years, she had suffered vocal damage. Singing teacher Manuel García managed to help save her voice, and Lind went on to be in great demand in opera roles throughout Sweden and northern Europe during the 1840s. After two acclaimed seasons in London, she announced her retirement from opera at the age of 29. But in 1850, Lind went to America at the invitation of the showman P. T. Barnum, and was given 93 large-scale concerts by him before continuing to tour under her own management.
When Lind came to America to tour with “The Greatest Showman," Barnum, she witnessed a nation torn apart over slavery, and consequently embarked on a headline-grabbing tour that shared the spotlight with a political maelstrom. Jenny Lind Presents P.T. Barnum fact-checks the real reason Lind quit the tour, uncomfortable as she was with Barnum’s relentless marketing of her and his questionable moral compass, or lack thereof. Audiences are invited to eavesdrop on Lind's final, brave confrontation of PT Barnum and enjoy some operatic gems from Jenny Lind’s concert tour in this stage piece made possible by an Augustana College Wallenberg Grant, and which enjoyed its premiere at the Whitefire Theatre in Los Angeles as an official selection for Solofest.
An Augustana College assistant professor of theatre arts, Cooper recently portrayed the title role of Dolly Levi in the Black Box's Hello, Dolly!, and in addition to Mary & Ethel and La Davina, she previously enjoyed roles in Opera Quad Cities' The Pirates of Penzance and the Mississippi Bend Players' A Green River. Cooper also helmed the Black Box's 2022 production of the musical Ride the Cyclone, as well as Augustana presentations of Cabaret, The Threepenny Opera, and Into the Woods. Luke Tyler serves as Cooper's piano accompanist for Jenny Lind, with the stage direction courtesy of Augustana music professor Michelle Crouch, who helmed Pirates as well as the college's 2020 presentation of The Marriage of Figaro.
Jenny Lind Presents P.T. Barnum will be presented in Moline August 11 through 13, with performances on Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. Admission is $16, and more information and tickets are available by calling (563)284-2350 and visiting TheBlackBoxTheatre.com.
