Skylight Music Theatre to Present THINGS THAT GO DING, 4/27-5/6

Skylight Music Theatre will present Things That Go Ding!, described as "a musical theatre spectacle like no other, featuring an unbelievable collection of vintage, vaudeville percussion novelties known as Ding's Dynasty. Highbrow meets lowbrow in this zany and highly entertaining show."

Things That Go Ding! is the creation of Michael "Ding" Lorenz along with Jamie Johns and Ray Jivoff. Ding, a life long collector of percussion instruments, has amassed one of the largest collections of modern and vintage instruments in the country. This, combined with his experience as a professional musician and performer of a multitude of different musical styles, and his admiration for artists such as Spike Jones, Victor Borge and PDQ Bach, inspired Ding to create a show that would feature his massive collection by combining music and comedy. 

A few years ago at an Open House at Skylight's home, the Broadway Theatre Center, Ding's performance of "The Habanera" from Carmen on tuned taxi horns, along with the piano accompaniment of Jamie Johns, brought the house down. Out of that performance, and with the addition of Skylight funny man Ray Jivoff, grew a wildly successful cabaret show that was featured in Skylight's free Cabaret series in the Skylight Bar & Bistro. The current incarnation of the "Ding!" show has been dramatically expanded into a full-length production for Skylight's Studio Theatre series. 

The newly composed show will pack the Studio Theatre stage with every percussion instrument imaginable including xylophones, marimbas, bells, gongs, timpani, chimes, industrial sound effects, whistles, cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, maracas, tambourines and many, many more. In addition, it will include music from the "1812 Overture" to the "Can Can", Oscar Hammerstein, Gilbert and Sullivan, and even a little Mozart opera. One of the highlights of the show will be the recreation of the Silent Movie Era with a 1931 cartoon to which Ding and Jamie Johns will perform live musical accompaniment and sound effects.