ENTERTAINMENT: Marsalis, orchestra coming to Fayetteville | The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

MUSIC

Jazz at WAC

The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis, 15 soloists and ensemble players, performs at 7 p.m. Monday at Fayetteville’s Walton Arts Center, 495 W. Dickson St. Their repertoire includes compositions and arrangements by Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Fletcher Henderson, Thelonious Monk, Mary Lou Williams, Dizzy Gillespie, Benny Goodman and Charles Mingus, plus new music from the group’s collection of composers and arrangers. Tickets are $63.25-$113.85. Call (479) 443-5600 or visit waltonartscenter.org.

THEATER

‘Frozen’ at Murry’s

“Frozen: The Musical” (music and lyrics by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez, book by Jennifer Lee, based on the Disney animated film) opens Wednesday and runs through Dec. 31 at Murry’s Dinner Playhouse, 6323 Colonel Glenn Road, Little Rock. Show times are 7:30 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday (but 12:30 p.m. Wednesday matinees only Nov. 12, 19 and 26), 12:45 and 6:30 p.m. Sunday. Buffet opens 90 minutes before curtain. Dinner and show tickets are $43-$47, $33 for children 15 and younger and for show-only. Call (501) 562-3131 or visit murrysdp.com.

Meanwhile, Murry’s has announced its 2026 season schedule, opening with “The Second-to-Last Chance Ladies League,” a new work by the comedy playwrighting team of Jessie Jones, Nicholas Hope and Jamie Wooten, Jan. 14-Feb. 7.

The rest of the lineup:

◼️ Feb. 11-March 7: “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” (music and lyrics by William Finn, book by Rachel Sheinkin)

◼️ March 18-April 18: “Butterflies Are Free” by Leonard Gershe

◼️ April 22-May 23: “Ken Ludwig’s Baskerville,” Ludwig’s comedy-thriller adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes mystery “The Hound of the Baskervilles”

◼️ May 27-June 27: “Tuna Does Vegas” by Ed Howard, Joe Sears and Jaston Williams, the latest “Greater Tuna” installment sending the characters from the “third smallest town in Texas” to Sin City

◼️ July 8-Aug. 15: “Footloose the Musical” (music by Tom Snow, lyrics by Dean Pitchford, book by Pitchford and Walter Bobbie, based on Pitchford’s screenplay for the 1984 film, with additional music by Eric Carmen, Sammy Hagar, Kenny Loggins and Jim Steinman)

◼️ Aug. 19-Sept. 12: “The Bunco Squad Rolls Again” by Jim Hesselman, the sequel to “The Bunco Squad,” which Murry’s staged in August

◼️ Sept. 16-Oct. 10: “Drinking Habits” by Tom Smith

◼️ Oct. 14-Nov. 14, 2026: “A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder” (music and lyrics by Steven Lutvak, book and lyrics by Robert L. Freedman)

◼️ Nov. 18-Dec. 31, 2026: “Scrooge! The Musical” (book, music and lyrics by Leslie Bricusse, based on the Charles Dickens classic)

Travis Ledoyt, “the World’s Best Elvis,” returns to the Murry’s stage for four shows, March 11-14.

Tickets (subject to change, including dinner and the show) are $43-$47, $33 for children 15 and younger and for show only. Call (501) 562-3131 or visit murrysdp.com.

HEAR, HERE

Clinton Center events

Lawrence Jackson, who photographs captured “monumental and intimate moments” with Vice President Kamala Harris, former President Barack Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, will offer a program titled “Portraits from a Vice Presidency with Lawrence Jackson,” 6 p.m. Tuesday at the Clinton Presidential Center, 1200 President Clinton Ave., Little Rock. It’s in conjunction with the “Portraits From a Presidency” exhibit, which features more than 50 portraits of the Clinton Family (but which is currently closed due to the ongoing government shutdown).

And at noon Friday, Ernie Dumas, a writer for the Arkansas Times; John Deering, the chief editorial cartoonist for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette; and John Davis, executive director of the David and Barbara Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History, will explore political cartoons and cartoonists in Arkansas for “A Serious Look at Political Cartoonists of Arkansas.”

Admission to both events is free. Visit clintonfoundation.org/events.

History talk

Kristin Mann, professor of history at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, will give a lecture titled “Selling America on Independence: The 1950 Savings Bond Drive and its Replica Liberty Bells,” 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in the Ottenheimer Auditorium at Little Rock’s Historic Arkansas Museum, 200 E. Third St. The talk, part of the university’s Evenings with History series, will explore the U.S. Treasury Department’s Independence Bond Drive of 1950 use of patriotic symbols, including newly cast exact-replica Liberty Bells, to promote savings bonds and American ideals. (Arkansas’ replica Liberty Bell later became part of the Bicentennial Memorial at the state Capitol in 1975.)

Admission is free; light refreshments will be served at 7 p.m. Visit ualr.edu/history/history-institute.

Artist and advocate

Artist, educator and advocate for artists Sharon Louden is in residence Tuesday-Thursday at the University of Central Arkansas in Conway as part of her national book tour for an essay collection titled “Last Artist Standing: Living and Sustaining a Creative Life Over 50.”

The residency invites students and the public to consider the integration of the disciplines of arts and health sciences. In addition to meeting with students in the college’s nursing program to discuss care for older adults and those with cognitive decline, Loudon will take part in a panel discussion involving members of the Central Arkansas Art Collective and sign books, 6:30-8 p.m. Wednesday at The Studio Downtown, 1100 Oak St., Conway. Admission is free.

Email [email protected] or visit uca.edu/go/artistsinresidence.

Poet and essayist

Poet, essayist and U.S. Army veteran Brian Turner will read from his work, take part in a question-and-answer session and sign books, 2-3 p.m. Friday in Gallery 1 of the Fine Arts Building at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, 2801 S. University Ave., Little Rock. It’s part of the School of Literary and Performing Arts Visiting Writers Series. Turner, founding director of the University of Nevada, Reno Low-Residency Master of Fine Arts program in Creative Writing, will also meet with creative writing students.

Turner is the author of five collections of poetry (including “Here, Bullet” and “The Wild Delight of Wild Things”) and a memoir (“My Life as a Foreign Country”), and is the editor of “The Kiss” and co-editor of “The Strangest of Theatres” anthologies. Sponsor is the Cooper Honors in English Program. Admission is free. Call (501) 916-3296 or email [email protected] or [email protected].