Easy Street to perform at Packard hall

The mayor hopes to persuade Easy Street to call Packard Music Hall home.
By DENISE DICK
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- Easy Street Productions strolls into the city tonight.
A free performance begins at 7 tonight at W.D. Packard Music Hall. Weather permitting, it will be on the music hall's south lawn, but in the event of rain, the concert will be inside the hall.
Mayor Michael J. O'Brien described the production as a "musical theater variety show."
The event is sponsored by AVI Food Systems and Thomas Fok and Associates, both of Warren.
It marks the Youngstown-based musical theater group's first performance in the city. Another one is planned for August, but a date isn't set.
"With this concert and the one in August, we hope to be able to convince Easy Street Productions to make Packard Music Hall their new home," O'Brien said.
The Edward W. Powers Auditorium in Youngstown is the group's primary performance venue.
Filling the schedule
No programming at Warren Community Amphitheater is set for today, and O'Brien said Easy Street's performance will fill the Saturday evening entertainment schedule for downtown.
This summer marked the first opportunity for a full slate of programming at the amphitheater. Events have ranged from musical theater to dance. Earlier this month, "Ohio Chautauqua 2004: The Roaring Twenties," provided programming in a large tent set up next to the Kinsman House, overlooking the new outdoor theater.
Easy Street Productions was founded in Youngstown in 1988 by Maureen Collins and Todd Hancock. They brought Mahoning Valley audiences "Pump Boys and Dinettes" in the 1980s and also "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat," "The Will Rogers Follies" and "Annie."
O'Brien said Easy Street's premiere city performance came about "through my persistence in meeting with them to have them perform in Warren."