'Funny Girl' opens Corn Stock's summer tent under the tent

Katie McLuckie admits to feeling a little intimidated about the role she is about play at Corn Stock Theatre. But she also is confident she will do the role great justice for audiences of “Funny Girl,” Corn Stock’s 2014 summer season opener starting Friday, May 30.

“I mean ‘Funny Girl’ is Barbra Streisand and everybody knows it. So playing Fanny Brice is kind of intimidating, but it is also exciting. I am so honored to get to do it,” McLuckie said.

“Everybody remembers Barbra, but I am trying to break free from that. I am not trying to do a Barbra Streisand impersonation. I am not playing Barbra Streisand playing Fanny Brice. I am playing Fanny Brice and I can’t wait to get in front of an audience with this show,” she said.

If you didn’t know or haven’t guessed, “Funny Girl” tells the story of legendary Broadway performer Fanny Brice and her life at the time she made it big in the Ziegfeld Follies and the trials she had to endure, including a tumultuous marriage to Nick Arnstein.

While it was a Broadway hit, it was the 1968 film by the same way that became best known and made Streisand a superstar.

Directed by Eldon Beever, “Funny Girl” opens at 7:30 p.m. on Friday and continues each night at 7:30 p.m. through Saturday, June 7 at Corn Stock’s tent in Upper Bradley Park. Tickets are on sale now for $18 for adults and $12 for students and they can be reserved by calling (309) 676-2196 or online at www.cornstocktheatre.com.

Beever said he wanted to direct “Funny Girl” for a couple reasons, including that it was a well-known but not often performed show. In fact, this will be the first time it has been done at Corn Stock.

“It’s not one of the big warhorse musicals out there that get done repeatedly, but it has a name that people know, mostly because of the movie. Still, Corn Stock had never done it and it hasn’t been performed a lot around here,” he said.

Beever speculated one reason for that is because unlike most musicals, “Funny Girl” doesn’t have an all-is-well happy ending. “It is not a happy musical, really. It has a lot of comedy in it but the end is kind of a downer. The most dramatic part of the show is at the end,” he said.

But it also is a show filled with songs people know, including People, Sadie Sadie and Don’t Rain on My Parade.”

It is also a star vehicle for whomever gets cast as Fanny, Beever said. He is thrilled with McLuckie holding that role for this production. “The role really is a tour-de-force. Without the character of Fanny Brice there is no show because she is in almost every scene. And Katie handles it beautifully. Her talent is remarkable,” he said.

As Nick Arnstein, Aaron Humphreys brings a sophistication to the stage to balance McLuckie’s Brice in their scenes together.

Other leading players are Cheri Beever as Fanny’s mother, Mrs. Brice, Larry Stratton as Flo Ziegfeld and Trev Neff as Eddie.

Choreography, a big part of “Funny Girl” with its four production numbers, is directed by Erica Franken. Gina Wright is music director and conductor of the 10 or 11 piece orchestra, including the cornet players who take the stage in one of the numbers. The many costumes are designed by Paula Graves and Jill Barr.

The 61^st Season: Something for everybody

The 61^st season at Corn Stock “is well-balanced, with something for everybody,” said Cindy Hoey, theatre manager. “We have two big musicals from the golden age of Broadway, a really sweet show that will surprise a lot of people, a new, big blockbuster making its area debut and one of finest comedies written. You really can’t go wrong with this one,” she added.

The comedy to which she referred is the Neil Simon classic “Lost in Yonkers.” Winner of the Pulitzer Prize in Drama in 1991 and the Tony Award for Best Play that same year, it is considered by many as the finest play written by the prolific Simon.

Directed by Amy Williams, “Lost in Yonkers” will be performed June 20 – June 28. Tickets will go on sale June 9 and, since it is a non-musical they cost $12 for adults and $10 for students. Tickets are $18 and $12 for musicals.

The third show of the season will be “Guys and Dolls,” the 1955 musical written by Frank Loesser, Abe Burrows and Jo Swerling. The show was selected for the 1951 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, but the prize was taken away because of Abe Burrows’ troubles with Joe McCarthy and the House Un-American Activities Committee. It did win the 1951 Tony Award for Best Musical.

Directed by Chip Joyce, “Guys and Dolls” will be performed July 11 through July 19. Individual tickets will go on sale starting Monday June 30.

The fourth show will be “A Year with Frog and Toad,” which Hoey said is “a really sweet show” that will appeal to all audiences. Written by Robert and Willie Reale and based on the Frog and Toad children’s stories by Arnold Lobel, it was nominated for a Tony Award in 2003.

Directed by Nate Downs, the show will be performed Aug. 1 through Aug. 9. Tickets will go on sale Monday, July 21.

The final show of the 2014 season will be the regional premiere of the Broadway blockbuster “Monty Python’s Spamalot.” The show, which calls itself a “musical lovingly ripped off from the motion picture Monty Python and the Holy Grail,” was written by Monty Python veterans Eric Idle, John DuPrez and Neil Innes. It won the Tony Award for Best Musical in 2005.

Directed by Tim Wyman, “Spamalot” will be performed Aug. 22 through Aug. 30. Individual tickets will go on sale Monday, Aug. 11.

Season tickets on sale; still a bargain

Season tickets are still $66, Hoey said, and are on sale now at the theatre. They can be ordered online, as well.

“This is the type of season people will enjoy every show and they will remember them. Corn Stock is already such a wonderful experience and on the nights the weather is good and the show is good there is nothing better than an evening of theatre at the tent. The way the tent is set up makes it a much more intimate experience. People can enjoy the show and watch everybody else enjoying it, as well,” she said.

Hoey said Corn Stock is always looking for volunteers, especially during the season. She said they are many places a person can help with little or no experiences, such as sitting a ramp for a show or in the box office or back stage. “If anyone is interested, just give us a call and tell us what you’d like to do. We’ll find a place for you,” she said.

Mortgage rates continue declining; now at their lowest since last Halloween

Mortgage rates retreated for the fourth week in a row, and sixth time in the past seven weeks, with the benchmark 30-year fixed mortgage rate pulling back to 4.29 percent, according to Bankrate.com's weekly national survey.

The average 30-year fixed mortgage has an average of 0.36 discount and origination points.

To see mortgage rates in your area, go to http://www.bankrate.com/funnel/mortgages/.

The average 15-year fixed mortgage rate slumped to 3.38 percent, while the larger jumbo 30-year fixed mortgage rate stepped back to 4.31 percent. Adjustable rate mortgages were lower also, with the 5-year ARM and 7-year ARM each sliding to an 11-month low of 3.21 percent and 3.45 percent, respectively.   

Mortgage rates have been on the downswing as the possibility of a low interest rate environment persisting longer than expected is drawing increased consideration from investors. The Federal Reserve remains concerned about inflation being too low, readings on the housing market have been disappointing of late – both of which lead to uncertain conclusions about the U.S. economy - and the European Central Bank is widely expected to begin their own round of bond purchases in the coming months. Each of these argues for interest rates, including mortgage rates, remaining lower than expected, longer than what had been expected just a few months ago.

As 2013 came to a close, the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate was 4.69 percent. At that time, a$200,000 loan would have carried a monthly payment of$1,036.07. After drifting lower for much of the first five months of 2014, the average rate is now 4.29 percent, and the monthly payment for the same size loan would be$988.57, a savings of nearly$50per month for anyone that waited.

SURVEY RESULTS

30-year fixed: 4.29% -- down from 4.33% last week (avg. points: 0.36)

15-year fixed: 3.38% -- down from 3.42% last week (avg. points: 0.2)

5/1 ARM: 3.21% -- down from 3.31% last week (avg. points: 0.21)

Bankrate's national weekly mortgage survey is conducted each Wednesday from data provided by the top 10 banks and thrifts in the top 10 markets.

For a full analysis of this week's move in mortgage rates, go to http://www.bankrate.com/mortgagerates.

The survey is complemented by Bankrate's weekly Rate Trend Index, in which a panel of mortgage experts predicts which way the rates are headed over the next seven days. Panelists aren't expecting much change in the upcoming week, with a whopping 89 percent predicting mortgage rates will remain more or less unchanged. Just 11 percent expect mortgage rates to fall further in the coming week, while the no one forecast in increase in mortgage rates over the next seven days.

For the full mortgage Rate Trend Index, go to http://www.bankrate.com/news/rate-trends/mortgage.aspx.

To download the Bankrate Mortgage Calculator & Mortgage Rates iPhone App 2.0 go to
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/bankrate-mortgage-calculator/id551454062?mt=8.

Flextime policies: Do they work? Is there a schedule bias?

In a new study of flexible work policies, researchers at theUniversity of Washington Foster School of Business have found that people who elect to work an early shift are perceived by their bosses to be better employees than those who work a later shift.

The study, co-authored by Foster School doctoral student Kai Chi (Sam) Yam and assistant professors of management Ryan Fehr and Christopher Barnes, is the first to document such a bias in the modern workplace.

"In three separate studies, we found evidence of a natural morning bias at work," says Yam. "Compared to people who choose to work earlier in the day, people who choose to work later in the day are implicitly assumed to be less conscientious and less effective in their jobs."

Today, nearly 80 percent of American businesses offer some kind of non-traditional work schedule. These include compressed work weeks, job shares and, most frequently, flextime—a policy allowing employees to begin and end their work day within a range of acceptable hours.

Such schedules have proven to be popular with employees. Flextime makes it easier to meet family and other non-work commitments. It also accommodates an employee's personal work style.

And because employees love the programs, firms are learning to love them, too. Research shows that flexible work practices generally lead to increased productivity, higher job satisfaction and decreased turnover intentions.

Yet a serious question lurks beneath this trend toward scheduling latitude: Do employees who take advantage of flexible work policies incur career penalties for doing so?

Yam, Fehr and Barnes designed three studies to test for managerial bias in flextime situations.

The first established that, on average, people make a greater natural implicit—that is, non-conscious—association between the concepts of "morning" and "conscientiousness" than between the concepts of "evening" and "conscientiousness."

A field study explored the impact of this bias in actual work settings and on ratings provided by real supervisors. Even after statistically controlling for total work hours, employees who started work earlier in the day were rated by their supervisors as more conscientious, and thus received higher performance ratings.

A final laboratory experiment confirmed the bias. Participants acting the part of supervisors were asked to rate fictitious employees whose performance was identical—the only difference was their work schedule. The acting managers perceived the employees who worked from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. to be more conscientious and higher performing than their counterparts who worked from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.

The findings suggest that some employees are experiencing a deduction in their performance ratings that is not based on anything having to do with actual performance. This could lead to less frequent pay raises and promotions.

Yam suggests that senior managers should educate supervisors to make them aware of their tendency to stereotype night owls as less productive than early birds. And they should implement performance ratings based on objective standards that do not allow implicit prejudices—such as a morning bias—to color their assessments.

And for flextime-loving employees? Yam acknowledges that workers might be better served when using flextime by moving their schedules earlier rather than later in the day. But rather than give in to the morning bias, he suggests that employees raise the subject of hours and timing with their supervisors to make explicit the understanding that start time is immaterial.

"One way or another, team leaders must come to accept that the people who use flextime to start their day late are not necessarily lazier than their early-bird colleagues," Yam says. "Otherwise, flextime policies that might serve both employees and employers well will become known, and avoided, as routes to dead-end careers."

"Morning employees are better employees: Employees' start times influence supervisor performance ratings" is forthcoming in the Journal of Applied Psychology.

Leading Economic Index increases third consecutive month

The Conference Board Leading Economic Index® (LEI) for the United States increased 0.4 percent in April to 101.4 (2004 = 100), following a 1.0 percent increase in March, and a 0.5 percent increase in February.

"The LEI rose for the third consecutive month, driven largely by improving housing and financial market conditions," said Ataman Ozyildirim, economist at The Conference Board. "This latest report suggests the economy will continue to expand, and may even pick up steam through the second half of the year."

"Despite a brutal winter which brought the economy to a halt, the overall trend in the leading economic index has remained positive," said Ken Goldstein, economist at The Conference Board. "If consumers continue to spend, and businesses pick up the pace of investment, the industrial core of the economy will benefit and GDP growth could move closer towards the 3 percent range."

The Conference Board also announced its Coincident Economic Index® (CEI) for the U.S. increased 0.1 percent in April to 108.5 (2004 = 100), following a 0.3 percent increase in March, and a 0.3 percent increase in February.

The Conference Board Lagging Economic Index® (LAG) for the U.S. increased 0.2 percent in April to 123.3 (2004 = 100), following a 0.7 percent increase in March, and a 0.2 percent increase in February.

The composite economic indexes are the key elements in an analytic system designed to signal peaks and troughs in the business cycle. The leading, coincident, and lagging economic indexes are essentially composite averages of several individual leading, coincident, or lagging indicators. They are constructed to summarize and reveal common turning point patterns in economic data in a clearer and more convincing manner than any individual component – primarily because they smooth out some of the volatility of individual components.

The ten components of The Conference Board Leading Economic Index^® for the U.S. include:

$1·         Average weekly hours, manufacturing

$1·         Average weekly initial claims for unemployment insurance

$1·         Manufacturers' new orders, consumer goods and materials

$1·         ISM® Index of New Orders 

$1·         Manufacturers' new orders, nondefense capital goods excluding aircraft orders

$1·         Building permits, new private housing units

$1·         Stock prices, 500 common stocks

$1·         Leading Credit Index™

$1·         Interest rate spread, 10-year Treasury bonds less federal funds

$1·         Average consumer expectations for business conditions

For more information about The Conference Board global business cycle indicators visit
http://www.conference-board.org/data/bci.cfm

The Conference Board is a global, independent business membership and research association working in the public interest. Its mission is to provide the world's leading organizations with the practical knowledge they need to improve their performance and better serve society.