For animation lovers, classical music often goes hand in hand with Looney Tunes classics. Whether it’s Bugs and Elmer Fudd acting out Rossini’s Barber of Seville, Bugs playing Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 on the piano in Rhapsody Rabbit, or the hilarious animated take on Ride of the Valkyries in What’s Opera, Doc?, these toons have introduced generations of fans to the charms of classical music. This weekend, fans of both Looney Tunes and classical music will have plenty to celebrate when Bugs Bunny at the Symphony takes over the iconic Hollywood Bowl (On Friday and Saturday, July 11 and 12). The special concert marks the Bugs Bunny’s 85th anniversary and the concert’s 35th year.
Conductor /co-creator George Daugherty will lead the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra as a record 17 spectacular classic Looney Tunes are projected on the Bowl’s big screens, while the dazzling and iconic original scores of Carl Stalling and Milt Franklyn, inspired by the great masters of classical music, are played live. Onscreen, Bugs is joined in his unforgettable musical exploits by cohorts Elmer Fudd, Daffy Duck, Wile E. Coyote, Road Runner, Michigan J. Frog, and many others.
In addition to the animation on the big screens, these festive performances will feature two special guest artists onstage, Looney Tunes voiceover actors Eric Bauza and Bob Bergen. Bauza has won three Emmy Awards and been nominated for 5 others, and his extensive voiceover work has received rave reviews and accolades, most recently for the Looney Tunes feature film The Day The Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie, and for Looney Tunes Cartoons. He most recently voiced several of the Looney Tunes characters in the wildly-anticipated soon-to-be-released feature Coyote vs. Acme. Five-time Emmy-nominated actor Bob Bergen announced to his parents when he was five that he wanted to be Porky Pig. He was determined, and it came to pass. Bergen has since voiced thousands of feature films, television episodes, commercials, video games, and more, in the voices of countless characters, but with a specialty as none other than Porky Pig.
Created by Primetime Emmy winners / multiple Emmy nominees Daugherty and David Ka Lik Wong, Bugs Bunny at the Symphony has been touring the world with major symphony orchestras and at iconic venues since 1990, when the production first sold-out Broadway’s Gershwin Theatre as Bugs Bunny On Broadway. It was one of the very first “film-and-live-orchestra” concerts to appear with world-class symphony orchestras, and was pivotal in helping create an entirely new concert genre. Since then, the concert has played to sold-out houses and rave reviews around the globe, to millions of fans with hundreds of orchestras and venues ranging from the Los Angeles Philharmonic to The New York Philharmonic to The Boston Pops to The Philadelphia Orchestra to The Royal Philharmonic . . . from the Hollywood Bowl to the Sydney Opera House to Royal Festival Hall to David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center. Bugs Bunny at the Symphony’s reach has far exceeded the U.S., with repeat/return appearances in Canada, Mexico, Europe, Asia, South America, and elsewhere.
This latest version of the concert pairs 17 brilliant, iconic Looney Tunes shorts projected on the big screen, including not only Long-Haired-Hare, but also What’s Opera, Doc?, The Rabbit of Seville, Baton Bunny, Zoom and Bored, Corny Concerto, High Note, Rhapsody Rabbit, One Froggy Evening, and other classic shorts set to Stalling’s and Franklyn’s brilliant full orchestra scores – the most-ever shorts to be included in the concert. Among the 17 titles of this new edition are animated shorts not ever seen before at the Bowl, including a brand-new Looney Tune celebrating Bugs Bunny’s 85th birthday, as well as Dynamite Dance and Wet Cement, (all three with new scores by composer Carl Johnson); and a trio of new CG-animated Wile E. Coyote / Road Runner shorts, with new scores by composer Christopher Lennertz.
“When we were all growing up and watching Looney Tunes on Saturday morning, we didn’t realize we were also getting a masterclass in classical music,” says Daugherty. “Bugs Bunny at the Symphony is the perfect opportunity to bring today’s kids to the symphony orchestra and introduce them to the beauty of classical music while getting a hilarious twist from Bugs Bunny and his cohorts. More importantly, it’s a chance for adults of all ages to rekindle their affection for these brilliantly animated shorts and relive a truly nostalgic and magical part of their own childhoods. We frequently see multi-generational families – children, parents, grandparents, even great-grandparents – all coming together to experience this concert. And that’s why I have been conducting it for so long, now for three and a half decades. This concert is completely unique in its ability to bring everyone together for two hours of dazzling animation and equally-dazzling music. What could be better?”
The Hollywood Bowl presentations of Bugs Bunny at the Symphony will also feature audience photo ops with Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck characters from Six Flags Magic Mountain, and pre-show/intermission animation art workstations and activities provided by Chuck Jones Center for Creativity. An Academy Award winner and multiple Oscar nominee, the late Chuck Jones directed most of the cartoons found in Bugs Bunny at the Symphony, and through his ongoing Center for Creativity, children of all ages can learn how the animation process works.
To buy tickets, visit hollywoodbowl.com
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