Notes from the arts beat:
* For some of us, ahem, it seems as if the 1980s were just a flashdance away. For 23-year-old Courtney Washington, an ensemble member in the national tour of "The Wedding Singer," the decade of acid-washed jeans and saddle pants is a little more abstract."I wasn't alive in '85, but I hear it was great," she says.The show, which stops Tuesday and Wednesday at Fresno's Saroyan Theatre, is close in flavor and story line to the 1998 movie starring Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore on which it's based, Washington told me. (Unlike most of the Broadway musical titles that percolate down to Fresno, I haven't yet seen "The Wedding Singer," so this is relatively new territory for me.) The main character, who has a thriving business performing at New Jersey wedding receptions, gets left at the altar -- and tries to cope with his dejection.An interesting behind-the-scenes fact about this production: Jillian Nyhan Zygo and J. Michael Zygo, who play the romantic leads, are a real-life married couple."They have a certain kind of chemistry because they're married," Washington says. "They've managed to take these characters who are familiar and put their own stamp on them."I chatted with another ensemble member, Keith Patrick McCoy, who plays, among other things, a Mr. T impersonator. At age 33, he does remember the '80s, thank you very much -- especially the dancing. Remember "Solid Gold?" That dance TV show is one of the inspirations for "The Wedding Singer," which includes two choreographed numbers ("Saturday Night in the City" and "All About the Green") that run a whopping nine minutes each.The result, McCoy says, is an infectiously upbeat experience."It doesn't matter how you feel walking into the show -- it's like walking into a party for two and a half hours," he says.Tickets: $25-$45. Details: (559) 485-8497, ticketmaster.com.* Shifting musical gears, I had a chance to connect via e-mail with pianist Nikolaas Kende, who performs 7 p.m. tonight as part of the Philip Lorenz Memorial Keyboard Concerts series. On the program are selections by Beethoven, Schubert, Liszt and Kodály, whose energetic yet melancholic Hungarian-inspired music Kende loves.He's performed all over Europe, but this is only his second appearance in the U.S. -- the first being with the Waco Symphony Orchestra. I asked him one detail he could tell about himself that has absolutely nothing to do with piano. His reply:"I love pancakes. When I was in Waco, right next to my hotel there was an IHOP restaurant. I never heard of that, since in Europe I think it doesn't exist. So they told me what it meant and I couldn't believe it: 24-hours-a-day pancakes! So needless to say that I became a regular client there during my stay."For more of my interview, go to fresnobeehive.com/author/donald_ munro.Tickets: $18, $12 seniors, $5 students. Details: keyboardconcerts.com, (559) 278-2337.* Fresno is set to welcome a new theater company.The Organic Theater Factory opens its first production, the two-person musical "The Last 5 Years," by Jason Robert Brown, Thursday at the Star Palace at Warnors Theatre. It continues through Nov. 27.Artistic director Anthony Taylor and company founding member Peter Allwine conceived of the company over a Facebook chat window. "Our first concept was to do something really edgy and illegal ... like 'Rent' on the back of a flatbed truck while driving around River Park," Taylor writes on the company's new Web site (organictheater factory.com). "Over time that faded into the deep-seated desire to do something really cool. And legal. That was pretty key. So here we are."The production features Allwine and Ashley Taylor as a couple whose relationship unfolds in a novel way: one person travels backward in time, beginning the show at the end of the marriage, and the other travels forward, starting just after the couple first meet. Danielle Jorn directs.Tickets: $16, $10 students. Details: organictheater factory.com, (559) 274-2666.