Former theater director takes on musical theater

LEISURE WORLD ORCHESTRA

by William Thompson

LW contributor

Aformer college theater professor will showcase his Broadway vocal talents during the Leisure World Orchestra’s March 7 concert.

Mutual 5 resident Brian Tivnan, who ran Assumption College’s theater department in Worcester, Massachusetts, for 13 years, will be accompanied by the orchestra as he sings works from two Tony-winning musicals, “Fiddler on the Roof ” and “Man of La Mancha.”

Tivnan comes to Leisure World with a sizeable resume. Between his college work and Worcester’s Forum Theater, which he founded in the early 1980s, Tivnan produced or directed over 150 shows. While he was the Forum’s artistic director, a CBS’s “60 Minutes” segment featured a theater training program Tivnan developed that was targeted at inner-city youths.

Tivnan’s March 7 selections, “If I Were a Rich Man” and “The Impossible Dream,” were parts of musicals that together were performed nearly 5,600 times during their initial Broadway runs.

Tivnan’s performance will be part of a program that includes another Broadway piece, Gershwin’s “Walking the Dog” from 1937’s “Shall We Dance,” with clarinetist Mark Fronke as soloist. The orchestra will also play two Russian works, by Rimsky-Korsakov and Reinhold Glière, a Max Bruch cello concerto, and Latin-influenced dances. A brass quintet and violin quartet led by LWO members will perform Bach and Telemann among their selections.

The orchestra, under the baton of Linda DeRungs, will perform in Clubhouse 2, 13681 El Dorado Drive. The March 7 concert will be at 1 p.m. Admission is free.