The Santa Barbara Center for the Performing Arts 2015 performance season is in full swing with the Granada Theatre Concert Series, a series featuring family-friendly performances, comedians and popular contemporary artists, sponsored by Montecito Bank & Trust.

The community can look forward to these exciting new programming highlights that have recently been added:

2015 The Granada Theatre Concert Series Performance Preview

» New York Gilbert & Sullivan Players: H.M.S. Pinafore — 8 p.m. Saturday, March 21

H.M.S. Pinafore, a satirical comic opera, marks the start of Gilbert & Sullivan collaboration’s hit parade that brought musical theater to our stages. Gilbert & Sullivan is the Victorian-era theatrical partnership of librettist W.S. Gilbert and composer Arthur Sullivan. The two men collaborated on fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance and The Mikado are among the best known. Now in its fourth decade of operation, New York Gilbert & Sullivan Players is America’s preeminent professional Gilbert & Sullivan repertory theater company captivating audiences of all ages.

» Steamboat Bill Jr. — 7:30 p.m. Monday, April 13

Featuring The Paragon Ragtime Orchestra playing score for the silent film Steamboat Bill Jr.

The Paragon Ragtime Orchestra came into being as the result of conductor Rick Benjamin’s 1985 discovery of thousands of turn-of-the-century orchestra scores once belonging to Victrola recording star Arthur Pryor. In 1988, the Orchestra made its formal debut at Alice Tully Hall — the first concert ever presented at Lincoln Center by such an ensemble. In addition to its worldwide concert hall, university, and festival appearances, the PRO has acquired a considerable following both here and abroad through its radio programs on the New York Times’ WQXR, National Public Radio, the British Broadcasting Corporation, and the Voice of America networks. In Steamboat Bill, Jr. (Buster Keaton, 1928) Keaton, as the hapless son of a Mississippi riverboat captain tries to learn the family business. Extremely funny, with a fantastic cyclone finale!

» Vicki Lawrence and Mama: A Two-Woman Show — 8 p.m. Sunday, June 14

Emmy-winning comedienne Vicki Lawrence is one of the most beloved television personalities of her generation. Plucked out of total obscurity as a high school senior, Lawrence went on to become part of the now-legendary cast of The Carol Burnett Show. After that, Lawrence went on to star in Mama’s Family, whose character “Mama” has attained almost a cult status among her loyal television viewers, who still enjoy her in reruns twice daily throughout most of the country and the world. Come see Lawrence in a mixture of stand-up comedy, music, and observations about real life.

» Count Basie Orchestra — 4 p.m. Sunday, July 19

In the history of jazz music, there is only one bandleader that has the distinction of having his orchestra still performing sold out concerts all over the world, with members personally chosen by him, for nearly 30 years after his passing. Pianist and bandleader William James “Count” Basie was and still is an American institution that personifies the grandeur and excellence of jazz. The Count Basie Orchestra has won every respected jazz poll in the world at least once, won 18 Grammy Awards, performed for kings, queens and other world royalty, appeared in several movies, television shows, at every major jazz festival and major concert hall in the world. Some of the greatest soloists, composers, arrangers, and vocalists in jazz history such as Lester Young, Billie Holiday, Frank Foster, Thad Jones, Sonny Payne, Freddie Green, Snooky Young, Frank Weiss, and Joe Williams, became international stars once they began working with the legendary Count Basie Orchestra. Don’t miss your chance to see the legendary Count Basie Orchestra live!

The SBCPA Board of Directors and staff acknowledge and honor the incredible support the organization has received over the years from all of Santa Barbara and its neighbors on the Central Coast. The SBCPA recognizes that it is only through the community’s sustained generous financial support that the organization and the Granada Theatre will remain an enabling pillar of the Santa Barbara performing arts community for many decades to come.

To learn more about how to support the Granada Theatre, please contact Kristi Newton, director of development, at knewton@granadasb.org or 805.899.3000 x130, or click here.

— Sydney Gardner is a publicist representing the Granada Theatre.