(Enlarge) The Cavani String Quartet — Annie Fullard and Mari Sato on violin, Kirsten Docter on viola and Merry Peckham on cello — perform for Candlelight Concerts at the Wilde Lake Interfaith Center in Columbia on Saturday, Dec. 13. (Photo by Christian Steiner)

There was more to the 1950s than what you saw in "American Graffiti" or on "Happy Days." Now director Harriet Lynn is taking a new look at the Eisenhower era in a new musical revue being presented by Howard County's Fabulous 50+ Players titled "Fab 50s do the '50s."

The show, which opens this Friday, encompasses rock'n'roll music, theater songs, television shows and forgotten non-rock hits of the era. If names such as Rosemary Clooney and Nat King Cole evoke memories, this is one show you shouldn't miss.

According to Lynn, the troupe will perform songs like the Doris Day hit "Que Sera Sera," Frank Sinatra's "Love and Marriage" and Pat Boone's "Love Letters in the Sand," as well selections from such beloved Broadway works as "Guys and Dolls," "Gypsy," "My Fair Lady" and "South Pacific."

"It was a big era for Broadway shows," notes Lynn.

Along with musical director Phyllis Stanley -- who also had a big hand in organizing the show and arranging the material -- Lynn has been associated with the troupe since its inception in 2000. It was chartered by the Howard County Arts Council as a vehicle for older actors, and virtually all of the shows that Lynn and Stanley have worked on have been revues.

"What we've been doing consistently with our shows is finding an era or a composer that we really like, and exploring that," explains the director. "This was a natural one that we've had on the shelf."

For "Fab 50s do the '50s," Lynn says she drew on the personal lives of her charges for material. Using personal stories by actors was an idea that clicked for the troupe with its 2006 revue "Radio Daze," which proved a hit (they recently performed it at a national senior theater conference).

"This time we thought it would be interesting to highlight the stories of seniors who were involved in this project," Lynn explains. "We're weaving it around things of the era, like, for example, 'The Ed Sullivan Show' and 'The Nat King Cole Show.'"

The personal stories, Lynn explains, proved revealing.

"You learn a lot of the history of some of our actors, so this is kind of fun," she says, adding, "and we act them out in a creative way."

The show's cast includes Tom Berry, Phyllis Bilhuber, Shirley Bishop, Richard Cook, Harriet Cook, Jackie Dunphy, Albert Herold, Ann Henry, Robert Hoke, Dick Holmes, Audrey Sanders and Douglass Williams. Several other seniors are employed in off-stage roles such as Dona Jensen, who serves as assistant stage manager, Rich Madzel, who is the light board operator and Ernie Bilhuber, who works the spotlight.

"I'd say the median age of the troupe is from late 60s to 70s," Lynn says. "But anyone who is 50-plus can be in the show, and I mean that literally. We'll find a way. If they're not on stage they're backstage or something of that nature."

Does Lynn herself get under the spotlight at any point?

"I introduce the show," she notes. "But I'm there in everything that could possibly go on, except you don't see me on the stage. I feel like I know every nuance."

The Fabulous 50+ Players will perform the original musical revue "Fab 50s do the '50s" Friday-Saturday 7 p.m. and Sunday 2 p.m., Dec. 12-14, in the Black Box Theatre in the Howard County Center for the Arts (8510 High Ridge Road, Ellicott City). Tickets are $10 general, $8 for senior citizens. Call 410-313-2787.

Cavani Quartet to play by Candlelight

Classical Music

You might figure that New York City would be the place a musical group as acclaimed as the Cavani Quartet would call home. But this enduring, all-female chamber music group hails instead from the heartland -- specifically Cleveland, Ohio.

This Saturday, Dec. 13, the ensemble will be stopping into Columbia for a Candlelight Concert Society appearance.

The group has been around since 1984, adopting its name from the 19th-century violin makers Giovanni and Vincenzo Cavani. Besides winning the prestigious Naumburg Chamber Music Award, the musicians have been prize winners in Spain's Coleman International Competition, Canada's Banff International String Quartet Competition and the Cleveland Quartet Competition.

In 1989, the quartet was named Young Artists of the Year by Musical America Magazine and in the ensuing years, it has won eight Chamber Music America residency partnership grants. In 2005, it was also the first recipient of the Guarneri String Quartet Residency Award from Chamber Music America.

Over the years, the members have appeared in concert with such classical music luminaries as Itzhak Perlman, Michela Petri, Anton Nel, Benita Valente and members of the Juilliard, Cleveland and Emerson String Quartets. They've also been the quartet-in-residence at the Cleveland Institute of Music since 1988.

The group is comprised of Annie Fullard and Mari Sato on violins, Kirsten Docter on viola and Merry Peckham on cello. For Saturday's concert, they'll be playing Szymanowski's "String Quartet #2, op. 56," Bartok's "String Quartet #6" and Mendelssohn's "String Quartet in A Minor, Op. 13."

The Cavani String Quartet can be heard Saturday, Dec. 13, 8 p.m., in the Wilde Lake Interfaith Center (10431 Twin Rivers Road, Columbia). Admission is $29 general, $26 for seniors and $12 for students (full time; to age 24). Call 410-997-2324 or visit: www.candlelightconcerts.org.

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