Mardi Gras At MCCC: Vaud And The Villains Set To Play La-Z-Boy Center

Vaudville Dancers MONROE, Mich. – The most popular time to visit New Orleans is the extended weekend before Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday), which is the final day of revelry before Ash Wednesday when Lent begins.

But for those who can’t make it down to Louisiana, Monroe County Community College’s La-Z-Boy Center has planned the next best thing.

On Saturday, March 2, two days before Mardis Gras, the La-Z-Boy Center will host a 1930s New Orleans musical show – Vaud and the Villains Orchestra and Cabaret – complete with a pre-party straight off Bourbon Street.

According to its website, Vaud and the Villains was “born out of whimsical dreams, glitter and boa feathers.”  The show is a 19-piece orchestra and cabaret and an originally voiced “genre-bending spectacle” commonly described as Americana Noir meets Moulin Rouge.

The band was founded in 2008 by a husband and wife – tenor saxophonist Andy Comeau and singer Dawn Lewis – who are known in the show as Vaud Overstreet and Peaches Mahoney.  

“Imagine a Baptist tent-show revival with rock and roll, theatrics, vintage costume finery and an overlay of some ripping NOLA street music,” wrote the San Diego Reader in 2017.  “Festival-circuit favorites, the whole experience, dated as it may be, is a bit like having a circus side show at a rock concert.  Indeed, in the beginning, according to the band’s bio, Vaud and the Villains played in a circus.”
The show’s stolen motto is “Every Saint Has a Past, Every Sinner Has a Future.”  It features a hearty collection of ragtime hits from the 1880s through the 1920s.

“Ragtime music is as decorative as a wedding cake and has a set of rules that are lenient,” according to the Reader.  “This is how Vaud and the Villains are able to insinuate musical quotes from Parliament Funkadelic, etc., into their banjo-scrubbing retinue.  But as good as the music is, it’s just not the same without the flaming tuba. Must be seen to be appreciated.”

The show begins at 7:30 p.m., but the fun starts way earlier than that.  The Mardis Gras Pre-Party will begin at 5 p.m. in the atrium of the La-Z-Boy Center.  It will feature Louisiana-inspired food, Mardi Gras cocktails, festive dance, wild décor and New Orleans-influenced tunes by Atlas Jazz, led by saxophone player and founder Paul Devee.  Atlas Jazz covers a wide range of material from straight jazz to R&B and rock.  

Tickets are $20 for reserved seating for the show and the pre-party, which will include a cash bar.  VIP seating is $30 and includes balcony seating, and includes munchies and a cash bar during he show.

Tickets can be purchased on the Web at www.monroeccc.edu/theater, in person at the Cashier’s Office in the Warrick Student Services/Administration Building or via phone by calling the MCCC Ticket Hotline at (734) 384-4272.  

Group rates, rooms and catering are available in conjunction with the concert.  For more information, contact Tom Ryder at (734) 384-4201 or tryder@monroeccc.edu.   

The 2018-19 MCCC Season of Events sponsors are the DTE Energy Foundation, Monroe Bank & Trust, La-Z-Boy Incorporated, and The Foundation at MCCC.

Marketing & Communications

CONTACT: 
Joe Verkennes
Director of Marketing and Communications
Monroe County Community College
1555 S. Raisinville Rd., Monroe, MI  48161

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