Indy in January: Back to the ’50s

Break out the poodle skirts and leather jackets. Mid-January, 2009, is being taken over by the 1950s. At least, in Central Indiana it is.

Nobody planned it this way. It’s not a part of some cross-promotion. It just seems to be happening this way.

On Jan. 17, Pike Performing Arts Center is bringing in “John Mueller’s Winter Dance Party,” which recreates the famed last tour of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and the Big Bopper (The Bopper’s real-life son plays his dad). A day earlier, Pike is hosting the Elvis Birthday Tribute Artist Spectacular, a rental event–not part of the subscription season–featuring a trio of Elvi as well as the King’s drummer, D.J. Fontana.

Elvis and Buddy Holly, back to back? What more could a self-respecting greaser want?

Well, how about the Fonz? That same week, Jan. 13-18, is when Broadway in Indianapolis brings the national tour of “Happy Days: The Musical” to Clowes Hall.

Enough nostalgia for you? Just wait.

Over that same weekend, the Madame Walker Theatre will be hosting concerts by living legends Jerry Lee Lewis on Jan. 16 and Little Richard on the 17th. Both, rest assured, are the real deal, not simulations.

And, for movie fans, Jan. 9-10 brings “Some Like It Hot” to the big screen at Franklin’s wonderful Artcraft Theatre. And over at the IMA, the Tobias Theatre will be showing “La Dolce Vita” on the 16th. Okay, so it was released in 1960, it was shot in 1959. That counts, doesn’t it?

Or maybe I’m stretching it. Still.

Anyone up for dinner at Mug ‘n’ Bun?