The Limestone City will be in the entertainment spotlight this coming weekend.
The Kingston Symphony Orchestra is presenting the North American premiere of Gene Kelly: A Life in Music.
Gene Kelly was a multi-talented performer — dancer, singer, actor as well as a producer and choreographer. He was perhaps best known for his 1950s classic, Singing in the Rain.
And although he passed away in the mid-’90s, his legacy lived on. The Grand Theatre will host two shows, which will include clips of Kelly shown on a big screen accompanied live by the Kingston Symphony.
“When you’re accompanying a singer or a tap dancer as it happens on film, you really have to have razor-sharp precision,” said Evan Mitchell, Kingston Symphony musical director.
“The focus has to be so tight on making sure you’re properly accompanying the film, so there’s so much to think about. We’re going to be focused entirely on that.”
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Performances are scheduled for Feb. 9 and 10.
“He was a great singer, he was a great dancer, he was an excellent actor,” said Blaine Allan, professor in film and media studies at Queen’s University. “There were a few occasions when he actually got a chance to act outside of musicals in Inherit the Wind. He was an all-a-rounder and he represented what Hollywood could do best in the middle of the 20th century.”
The show is written by Gene Kelly’s wife and biographer Patricia Ward Kelly, who is scheduled to be in attendance in Kingston.
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