‘Janis Joplin’ comes to Keith-Albee

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Marshall Artist Series

Broadway musical “A Night with Janis Joplin” will come to the Keith-Albee Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. The musical features Joplin’s most famous songs like “Me and Bobby McGee” and “Cry Baby.”

Buffy Six, Reporter

The Keith-Albee will present a blast from the past with “A Night with Janis Joplin,” the Broadway musical Tuesday.

Kelly McIntyre, who plays Janis Joplin, will be continuing with the cast for the second year on the road. McIntyre joined the team for the First National Tour in 2016 right after graduating from The Hartt School of Music.

“I was on a conventional theater track for a while, but I still loved rock and pop music and I was a songwriter,” McIntyre said. “I loved singing with a live band, so I was always looking for edgier fusions of rock music and theater.”

McIntyre said she hopes the audience will learn more about Joplin and who she was. She said she hopes the production will “bash any preconceived notions.” The show focuses on Joplin’s upbringing and her siblings and parents, then how she got out of Texas and into the music scene.

“I think this show sheds a human light on Janis, instead of the normal conversations about the drugs and rock and roll that people usually have,” McIntyre said.

McIntyre said she is lucky that she lives in the age of YouTube in preparing to play Joplin.

“She had a very iconic way of moving, the way she dressed, the way she talked, the way she laughed,” said McIntyre. “I did a lot of research and watched every minute of footage that is out there.”

McIntyre said it is both exhilarating and intimidating to play Janis Joplin.

“We have all heard people say, ‘no one can ever sound like Janis,’ or ‘no one can ever be like Janis,’” McIntyre said. “But I try.”

The show incorporates some of Joplin’s most famous songs like “Me and Bobby McGee,” “Piece of my Heart” and “Cry Baby.”

The show is at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday. Students can get one free ticket with a student ID.

Buffy Six can be contacted at [email protected].