By Kellye Crocker
Catch performances by jazz crooner Max Wellman with Tina Haase Findlay, Ballet Des Moines and the soon-to-be-legendary “Synchro Studs,” a male synchronized swimming troupe, at the Junior League of Des Moines’ (JLDM) Follies, March 28 at Hoyt Sherman Place. With emcees Nick Renkoski, Des Moines Metro Opera marketing director, and Sabrina Ahmed, a WOI-TV reporter, “Capital City Celebrities” promises an evening of music, dance and comedy from local talents, including dsm’s social blogger Wicker Van Orsdel, the show’s creative director.
JLDM members also take the stage, including Liz Lidgett, Lauren Burt, Liz Proctor, Lindsey Mollenhauer, Emily Toribio and Erin Bailey, who will channel their inner femme fatales in a scorching “Cell Block Tango” from “Chicago.” A group dance to The Pointer Sisters’ “Jump (For My Love)” is a crowd-pleasing holdover from the 1996 Follies, the last time JLDM high-kicked for a good cause. Today’s high school seniors were in diapers then, and you’d have to go back to the Reagan years for the one Follies before that. Just saying: An opportunity like this doesn’t hit Des Moines as often as the Iowa caucuses. Besides, the show benefits Lighthouse Host Homes, a Youth & Shelter Services program.
The Follies are co-chaired by Mollenhauer and Erica Axiotis. Buy tickets at the Hoyt Sherman box office or through Ticketmaster here ($30 or $75 VIP, includes post-show reception and preferred parking).
