Audio By Carbonatix
We Love You, Conrad Let’s overlook the fact that Justin Bieber is Canadian and that the draft is not currently a thing, and imagine what would happen if he was being forced into the Army. Scratch that. They would never take him. Taylor Swift, perhaps? A legion of crying teenage girls would post their tributes to YouTube as sweet Taylor was forced to wipe off her lipstick and give the drill instructor 200 sit-ups. It would be a shitstorm. Such was the atmosphere when Elvis Presley was drafted in 1957, minus the videos and woeful Twitter posts (and lipstick), but with plenty of tissue-wringing kids and a full-on media circus. Bye Bye Birdie, the stage musical by Michael Stewart, Lee Adams, and Charles Strouse, is based on those events: fictional teen heartthrob Conrad Birdie is drafted, and his publicity team cooks up a stunt that sees him in a final pre-Army performance, giving a kiss to a lucky fan club member from a small town in Ohio. Chaos, romance, and spontaneous singing ensue in this send-up of teen culture that still rings pretty true, 55 years after its first production. Theatre Three, 2800 Routh, will give the classic musical a whirl at 7 p.m. Thursday through Saturday and at 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Tickets are $10 to $15 at theatre3dallas.com.
Fridays, Saturdays, 7 p.m.; Sundays, 2 p.m. Starts: May 1. Continues through May 3, 2015
