British sensation Collabro making Thomasville stop
When Thomasville Entertainment Foundation’s program committee selected musical theatre ensemble Collabro for a concert appearance more than a year ago, they had no way of knowing the sensation the British boy band’s planned appearance would create.
But after the contracts were signed and Collabro’s star continued to rise, TEF found itself with a quickly sold-out show on its 2016-17 concert schedule and a waiting list for tickets from fans as far away as California. It turns out that Thomasville is one of only five cities on Collabro’s U.S. tour and the only one in the Southeast.
Facing a dilemma, TEF made the unprecedented decision, due to popular demand, to double their audience capacity by relocating the March 23 show from the 500-seat venue at the Thomasville Center for the Arts to downtown Thomasville’s Municipal Auditorium.
“Because Collabro is one of the most successful musical theatre groups in the world today, we’ve faced an unusually high demand for tickets,” said TEF trustee and volunteer Rick Ivey. “We’re so pleased that we are able to accommodate more of their North American fans for what promises to be an amazing evening of fantastic entertainment.”
To date, ticket holders for the concert, the finale of TEF’s 79th performance season, hail from 12 U.S. states and Canada.
And, Ivey added, a number of downtown restaurants and merchants are planning to host visitors to Thomasville — as well as local TEF patrons — by offering special menu items and discounts on March 23 to those presenting a ticket or stub from the Collabro performance.
Collabro’s U.S. tour set list includes Broadway showstoppers from musicals like “Les Miserables,” “Wicked,” “West Side Story,” “Jekyll & Hyde” and “The Lion King,” as well as standards from the Great American Songbook, including “Over the Rainbow” and “That’s Life,” Ivey said, assuring a repertoire that will appeal to fans of all ages.
Just months after meeting for the first time above a London pub in 2014, Collabro rocketed to international acclaim by winning their “Britain’s Got Talent” semi-final bracket with more than 63 percent of the vote and winning the overall competition with one of the largest margins in the show’s history.
Since then, the group has released two chart-topping albums, and, today, Jamie Lambert, Michael Auger, Matthew Pagan and Thomas Redgrave tour the world to great acclaim, primarily, in the past two years, in Europe and Asia.
Curtain time on Thursday, March 23, is 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $15 for students and $38 for adults. For more information or for tickets, visit www.TEFconcerts.com or call (229) 226-7404.