Disney Junior, Story Pirates and 98 Degrees Come to MPAC in September

MPAC presents two events for families with children in September. Disney Junior Live: Costume Palooza, featuring popular characters from Disney Junior shows, takes the stage for two shows on Saturday, September 16.  Story Pirates: The Amazing Adventure Tour, based on the popular podcast in which actors create stories based on children’s ideas, performs two shows on Sunday, September 24.

Tickets for Disney Junior Live are $39-$69. This event is geared toward children ages 2-6. Tickets for Story Pirates are $19-$49. Story Pirates is geared toward children 4 and up.

Disney Junior Live:

In Disney Junior Live On Tour: Costume Palooza, Mickey, Minnie and their pals are getting ready to throw a huge costume party, but mysterious weather keeps interrupting the fun. Can Team Spidey help save the Costume Palooza? Come join the party and see Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Doc McStuffins, the Puppy Dog Pals, Bo from Firebuds, Ginny from SuperKitties, and Marvel’s Spidey and his Amazing Friends LIVE on stage.

The show is geared toward Disney Junior's most beloved super fans and offers an immersive, interactive concert experience that includes singing, dancing, 3D special effects and acrobatics with cirque-style performances including incredible trampoline routines from renowned acrobatic director John Brady.  The live show is written and directed by Amy Tinkham and produced by Jonathan Shank of Terrapin Station Entertainment.

Disney Junior Live On Tour: Costume Palooza features songs from several popular Disney Junior series and the original song "Green Gobby Party," written by "Marvel's Spidey and his Amazing Friends" composer/songwriter Patrick Stump (Fall Out Boy). "Green Gobby Party" and the full playlist from "Disney Junior Live On Tour: Costume Palooza" can be found here.

Story Pirates:

Get ready for Story Pirates: The Amazing Adventure Tour, featuring fan-favorite songs from the multi-award winning The Story Pirates Podcast and improvised sketch comedy based on ideas from kids in the audience. The Story Pirates believe that all kids are creative geniuses, and they’re ready to prove it with their fast-paced, hilarious and inspiring show for the whole family. Featuring Eric from The Story Pirates Podcast, plus a cast of the funniest Story Pirate actors, singers and comedians around.

The Story Pirates, best known for their flagship podcast with more than 70 million downloads, are a family media company that amplifies the words and ideas of kids. The award-winning The Story Pirates Podcast takes stories submitted by kids and turns them into sketch comedy and songs with help from celebrity guests like Kristen Bell, John Oliver, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Sara Bareilles, Seth Meyers, and more. Story Pirates have also produced the Looney Tunes podcast and co-created Game On, a sports podcast for families, with Stephen Curry’s Unanimous Media. In addition to podcasts, the Story Pirates have released three critically acclaimed middle grade books and five award-winning albums. In partnership with Story Pirates Changemakers, their non-profit arm that brings life-changing arts and literacy tools to under-resourced schools and communities, Story Pirates produce the PBS show The Story Pirates Present: SPTV. For more on the Story Pirates, please visit storypirates.com

You can find The Story Pirates Podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen.

98°

Sunday, Sept. 17 at 7:30 pm

 

 Popular 1990s boy band 98° perform their hits at Mayo Performing Arts Center on Sunday, September 17 at 7:30 pm. Tickets are $79-$129.

In five short years — from 1997 to 2002 — 98° sold a staggering 10 million records, scored a chart-topping single, “Thank God I Found You,” with Mariah Carey and Joe, and collaborated with their collective idol, Stevie Wonder, on “True to Your Heart,” for the 1998 animated Disney film, Mulan. Their four-million-selling album, 98° and Rising (1998, Motown), spawned the top-5 favorites “Because of You,” “I Do,” and “The Hardest Thing,” while 2000’s Revelation (Universal Records), which sold two million copies, peaked at number 2 on the Billboard 200 and yielded a trio of hits, “Give Me Just One Night (Una Noche),” “My Everything” and “The Way You Want Me To.”

The group emerged at a time when teen-oriented acts such as the Spice Girls, The Backstreet Boys and NSYNC were just hitting the top of the charts around the world. They differentiated themselves from many of the other teen bands at the time as they wrote much of their own material, which reflected their own R&B influences.

By September 10, 2001, the frequent Total Request Live champions had reached the pinnacle of their career. That was the night the male-harmony group, which includes Jeff Timmons, Justin Jeffre and brothers Nick and Drew Lachey, performed in front of a sold-out crowd at Madison Square Garden in New York City as part of the Michael Jackson: 30th Anniversary Celebration. A star-studded salute marking the icon’s three-decade run as a solo entertainer, it was the kind of achievement that should have taken 98° to the next level.

But not 12 hours later, the 9-11 attacks changed the world forever.  At that point, the all-Ohio-raised quartet decided to take a break. Save for a one-off performance on a TV special in 2004, it would be more than a decade before the four friends in 98° would sing together again.

The group tested the waters with a one-time appearance at the Mixtape Festival in Hershey, Penn. Then, in 2013, they hit the road with New Kids On the Block and Boyz II Men, the latter being their inspiration and a group that figures prominently in their origin story. (In the mid-nineties, a fledgling 98° snuck backstage at one of their concerts, hoping to get a demo to the Boyz.)

Encouraged by the rapturous fan reaction, the group headlined their own, 38-city trek in the summer of 2016.  The My2K tour, which also included O-Town, Dream and Ryan Cabrera, played to sell-out or near-capacity crowds at venues like the prestigious Ryman Auditorium in Nashville and the 5000-seat Coney Island Amphitheater in New York City.

Over the two decades, all four members have enjoyed other careers outside of music. Nick, who was recently on Season 25 of ABC’s Dancing with the Stars, and launched a successful solo music career and has starred on TV shows both as an actor (The WB’s Charmed and One Tree Hill) and as a television host (VH-1’s Big Morning Buzz Live, NBC’s The Sing-Off). Drew was crowned season two winner of Dancing with the Stars, been on Broadway, and both brothers opened Lachey’s Bar (A&E). Timmons joined members of Backstreet Boys and ‘NSYNC for VH-1’s Mission Man Band and Nick Carter’s Sci-Fi feature, Dead Seven. Jeffre is involved in various media and cause related projects stemming from his foray into politics as a mayoral candidate of Cincinnati.

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