Bristol Riverside Theatre closes its summer-long trip down memory lane featuring popular songs of the 1950s and 1960s in Those Were the Days: From Motown to Malibu, the third installment of BRT’s Summer Musicale Series running August 2-12, 2007, at the theatre, 120 Radcliffe Street, in Historic Bristol Borough.

Baby Boomers were teens, Ike and Jack sat in the Oval Office, and the Jukebox played Rock and Country, Doo-Wop and Motown when the songs of this two hour concert were written. Those Were the Days takes audiences back to a time when the Billboard charts were populated by Frankie Valli and Frankie Avalon, Marvin Gaye and Aretha Franklin, The Beach Boys and Elvis. Oldies like “Respect,” “By the Time I Get To Phoenix,” “Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You,” “Help Me Rhonda,” and “I Heard It Through the Grapevine.”

BRT Artistic Director Edward Keith Baker who creates, writes and directs the production has a cast of five including four BRT Musicale veterans; Demetria Joyce Bailey, Anthony D’Amato, Val Moranto and Keith Spencer will be joined by newcomer Laura Catlaw, and backed by a five member band.

BRT annually presents three Summer Musicales (musicale, defined by Webster as “a social affair featuring a musical program”). This year’s series covers over 50 years of popular American music from the 1920s to the 1970s. The style of the programs fall between a concert and a musical revue, and generally feature three to seven singers with a three to five piece band, depending on the musical style presented. Each Musicale is based around a theme, whether Broadway or Hollywood songs, the music of specific composers like Andrew Lloyd Webber or Leonard Bernstein, or a past era, such as the 1930s or 1940s.

Performances of Those Were the Days are Thursday, August 2 through Saturday, August 4 at 8:00pm, Sunday, August 5 at 3:00pm, Wednesday, August 8 at 2:00pm, Friday and Saturday, August 10 and 11 at 8:00pm and Sunday, August 12 at 3:00pm. Tickets for all shows are available online at www.BRTstage.org, to walk-up customers at the BRT Box Office, or by calling at 215-785-0100. Discounts are available for groups of 10 or more by calling Meaghan Crawford at 215-785-6664.