Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me! live taping to be held at Blossom Music Center on July 18, 2019 at 7:30 PM
UPDATE: Special Guest is Piper Kerman, writer and author of Orange is the New Black: My Year in a Women’s Prison
Panel to include Alonzo Bodden, Maeve Higgins, and Mo Rocca
NPR’s comedy news quiz show presented by The Cleveland Orchestra with partners 90.3 WCPN ideastream® and 89.7 WKSU
Tickets for this special presentation on sale April 15
CLEVELAND – The Cleveland Orchestra, 90.3 WCPN ideastream, and 89.7 WKSU have announced that a live taping of Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me! will be presented at Blossom Music Center this summer on July 18, 2019 at 7:30 p.m. Wait Wait… Don't Tell Me! is National Public Radio (NPR)’s Peabody Award-winning comedy news quiz show. Host Peter Sagal leads a rotating panel of comedians, writers, listener contestants, and celebrity guests through a rollicking review of the week’s news. Contestants vie for the most coveted prize in all of public radio: a custom-recorded greeting by any of its cast members for their voicemail.
UPDATE: July 15, 2019: The special guest on July 18 is Piper Kerman, author of the memoir Orange is the New Black: My Year in a Women’s Prison. Piper’s memoir inspired the hit Netflix series Orange is the New Black. She lives with her family in Columbus, Ohio and teaches writing in two state prisons as an Affiliate Instructor with Otterbein University in Westerville, Ohio. For more information about Piper, visit http://piperkerman.com/orange/bio/.
A panel of celebrity guests will join host Peter Sagal and announcer Bill Kurtis onstage at Blossom Music Center. The panel includes:
- Comedian Alonzo Bodden, winner of season 3 of NBC’s Last Comic Standing and panelist on the Game Show Network’s Mind of a Man.
- Maeve Higgins, contributing writer for The New York Times and host of the podcast (and author of the book of the same name) Maeve in America.
- Journalist, humorist, and actor Mo Rocca, correspondent for CBS Sunday Morning and former correspondent for The Daily Show.
For more information about these panelists, visit https://www.npr.org/2010/12/07/110997511/about-the-panelists.
Image Magnification (IMAG) displaying live footage of the action on stage willbe presented on LED screens in the Pavilion of Blossom Music Center. The Orchestra partners with ideastream — the non-profit multiple media public service organization that operates WVIZ/PBS, 90.3 WCPN, and WCLV 104.9 — to produce the IMAG feed. For more information about ideastream, visit ideastream.org.
Panelists and celebrity guests will be announced by NPR at a later date. The show will be broadcast locally on 90.3 WCPN ideastream and WKSU — and nationally on NPR affiliates — beginning on July 20, 2019.
Ticket Information
Tickets for this special Blossom presentation will go on sale on April 15, 2019 at 9:00 a.m. Guests can purchase tickets through the Severance Hall Ticket Office, by calling 216-231-1111, or online at clevelandorchestra.com. Lawn tickets are $29, and Pavilion tickets start at $39.
This special Blossom presentation is not included as part of subscriptions, lawn ticket book packages, or the Under 18’s Free program for the 2019 Blossom Music Festival Season. Paid parking in paved lots is available by advance purchase: $40 for premium parking in Lot A and $20 for Lots C/D/E. Parking in grass lots is free.
A select number of tickets can be secured in advance as a Thank You Gift to those who pledge to 90.3 WCPN ideastream or to 89.7 WKSU. Some Thank You Gifts include VIP packages, with Pavilion tickets, parking, and a special meet-and-greet reception following the performance with some of the Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me! personalities. Details of these special packages can be found on ideastream.org and wksu.org.
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About ideastream
ideastream serves the people of Northeast Ohio as a trusted and dynamic multimedia source for illuminating the world around us. Publicly supported and locally owned, ideastream is indispensable and highly valued for its unique ability to strengthen our community. ideastream is the consolidation of WVIZ/PBS, with five channels of public television service (WVIZ/PBS-HD, WVIZ/PBS OHIO, WVIZ/PBS WORLD, WVIZ/PBS CREATE and WVIZ/PBS KIDS); 90.3 WCPN, Northeast Ohio’s NPR news and public affairs radio station; WCLV 104.9, Northeast Ohio’s classical music radio station; ideastream Education, with educational resources, services and the award-winning children’s series NewsDepth; and management of The Ohio Channel and the Ohio Public Radio and Television Statehouse News Bureau on behalf of all Ohio’s public broadcasting stations. For more information about ideastream’s rich legacy of innovation and credible content, visit ideastream.org.
About 89.7 WKSU
WKSU is an award-winning public radio station and service of Kent State University that broadcasts to 22 counties in Northeast Ohio from the station’s primary signal at 89.7. WKSU content can also be heard over WKRW 89.3 (Wooster), WKRJ 91.5 (Dover/New Philadelphia), WKSV 89.1 (Thompson), WNRK 90.7 (Norwalk), W239AZ 95.7 (Ashland) and W234CX 94.7 (Mansfield). The station adds WKSU-2 Folk Alley, WKSU-3 The Classical Channel and WKSU-4 The News Channel over HD Radio and as streaming audio at www.wksu.org, through the WKSU mobile and on smart speakers.
About Blossom Music Center, Summer Home of The Cleveland Orchestra
Blossom Music Center was created as the summer home of The Cleveland Orchestra and opened in July 1968 with performances of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony conducted by George Szell. The 200-acre music park features the award-winning and acoustically-acclaimed Blossom Pavilion, designed by renowned Cleveland architect Peter van Dijk and seating over 5,000 under cover. The adjoining Blossom Lawn accommodates as many as 15,000 more outside on an expansive natural-bowl amphitheater of grass surrounded by bucolic woods.
In the half-century since Blossom’s opening, headline makers and yet-to-be-discovered young artists across all genres have created unforgettable musical experiences for over 21 million visitors. Each summer, Blossom serves more than 400,000 visitors, who attend concerts ranging from rock, country, and pop to classical. Live Nation operates Blossom under a long-term contract with The Cleveland Orchestra, dividing each year between the Orchestra’s Blossom Music Festival of orchestral performances (July Fourth to Labor Day weekends) and a series of presentations from across a wide range of rock, country, and other live-concert genres.
Located 25 miles south of Cleveland just north of Akron, Ohio, Blossom is situated in the rolling hills of Cuyahoga Valley National Park, which preserves 33,000 acres of natural parkland along the Cuyahoga River. Blossom Music Center was named to honor the Dudley S. Blossom family, who have been major supporters of The Cleveland Orchestra throughout its history. Blossom lies within the city limits of Cuyahoga Falls, an Ohio community first settled in the early 1800s, at 1145 West Steels Corners Road in Summit County. Visit https://www.clevelandorchestra.com/ for more information about Blossom Music Center and The Cleveland Orchestra’s annual summer season.