Branson, Missouri
Everybody knows Branson, Missouri, as a music mecca that boasts big-name concerts, world-renowned shows and long-standing theaters.
But not everyone knows how Branson came to be the musical magnet it is today. In the late 1950s, Branson was a destination known for its lakes, its camping and its fishing. But in 1959, the Mabe brothers launched their twice-weekly show in a skating rink on the Lake Taneycomo waterfront. Today that show is known as the Baldknobbers Jamboree and is still performed by third- and fourth-generation Mabes, said Lynn Berry director of communications for the Branson/Lakes Area Chamber of Commerce and Convention and Visitors Bureau.
In 1967, the Presley family built the first live-music theater in Branson, and two years later, the Mabe brothers built a permanent theater on Highway 76, making it Branson’s oldest-running show. Branson now has more than 40 active year-round theaters that boast more than 50,000 seats — more than the combined seats found on Broadway, Berry said.
Although the city is home to long-running shows such as Baldknobbers Jamboree and Presleys’ Country Jubilee, shows are constantly rotating, so there is always something new. Opening in June is “Million Dollar Quartet,” a Tony Award-winning Broadway musical that tells the true story of the night when Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins recorded together at Sun Studios in Memphis, Tennessee. The show runs through December at the Welk Resort Theatre and is expected to run again in 2016, Berry said.
The Jim Stafford Theatre was sold early this year and is undergoing renovations that should be complete for the 2015 summer season. King’s Castle Theatre, which was damaged by a 2012 tornado, also recently completed extensive renovations and is opening two dance shows this year, “Spirit of the Dance” and “Puttin’ on the Ritz.”
Abilene, Kansas
There aren’t many places where you can don a hoop skirt and dance a waltz, but Abilene is one. The city is home to the Kansas Statehood Ball, an annual dance that re-creates and celebrates 1861, the year Kansas became a state.
Each year for the past 20 years, a couple hundred people dress in period costume to learn dances from the 1860s during the ball. A band and a piano player provide live music while the social director teaches the dances, leads the ball and instructs the crowd on ballroom etiquette. The evening usually begins with the traditional Grand March followed by a waltz. Groups are welcome, and neither period dress nor dancing is mandatory.
“It’s really grand; it’s really fun to watch,” said Glenda Purkis, director of the Abilene Convention and Visitors Bureau.
Abilene is also home to the Great Plains Theatre, a professional theater company that was housed in an 1880s stone church until a July 2014 fire destroyed the building. Although the company lost its venue and its sets, props and costumes, the theater company’s fall season continued with productions at various locations around town, among them area high schools, the civic center and the Eisenhower Presidential Library. For the upcoming year, the company has scheduled most of its shows at Abilene High School, she said.
“It was devastating to lose a historic building and the venue, not to mention all their equipment, but the show must go on,” Purkis said. “The show is going on.”
City officials recently learned that for the first time, Abilene will host the 2015 National Cowboy Poetry Rodeo, which had been held in Utah for 18 years. Kansas rancher and cowboy poet Geff Dawson took the reins when the event’s founder retired, and Dawson decided to bring the event to Abilene. International cowboy poets will perform and compete July 30 to August 1. The event will coincide with the Wild Bill Hickok Rodeo and Central Kansas Free Fair.
