The Younes and Soraya Nazarian Center for the Performing Arts (The Soraya) presents Frankie Avalon in concert on Thursday, November 21 at 8:00pm. The original "Teenage Idol" (and "Teen Angel" in Grease), Frankie Avalon comes to the Valley for the very first time, bringing a feel-good evening of pop favorites to The Soraya - with music and stories of his long career in show business.
Avalon's career spans three generations of music, TV, and films. He was a child prodigy who made appearances on the
Perry Como and
Jackie Gleason shows. In 1959, he had Billboard Chart #1s -- "Venus" and "Why," and a slew of top 10 hits including "Just Ask Your Heart," "Bobby Socks to Stockings," "Ginger Bread," and "A Boy Without a Girl." There were thirty-one Billboard charted singles altogether.
He, with
Annette Funicello, were the stars of films that were a national craze: Beach Party, Muscle Beach Party, Pajama Party, Bikini Beach, and Beach Blanket Bingo. He also appeared in I'll Take Sweden, How to Stuff a Wild Bikini, Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine, the infamous Skidoo (directed by
Otto Preminger and co-starring
Carol Channing,
Jackie Gleason,
Frank Gorshin,
Peter Lawford,
Burgess Meredith,
George Raft,
Mickey Rooney and
Groucho Marx), and Christmas at Pee Wee's Playhouse.
He had memorable roles in The Dark, The Alamo, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Guns of the Timberland, The Idolmaker, The Take, and very famously Grease.
As a nightclub act, Avalon has played iconic venues such as the Fontainebleau in Miami Beach and the Copacabana in New York, and he remains today one of the busiest nightclub performers, headlining top Las Vegas venues.
Even after his long career, Avalon isn't slowing down. In a recent interview he explained, "I've been doing this so long and I still enjoy it very much. And it gives me an opportunity to get out there and say hello to a lot of folks that have been part of my career for so many years. They keep asking and I keep doing it."
Tickets (starting at $36) for the one-night-only performance of
Frankie Avalon are currently on sale at The Soraya, (818) 677-3000 and at TheSoraya.org.
Comments
To post a comment, you must
register and
login.
