Newton Theatre to present Micky Dolenz

NEWTON — The Newton Theatre is pleased to present The Monkees’ Micky Dolenz on Saturday, June 3, 2017 at 8 p.m.
Micky Dolenz IS the voice of The Monkees. He’s the unmistakable performer that moved a generation and led this pop culture phenomena to a dozen Top 20 singles, four No. 1 albums and two Emmy Awards. Micky brings a one-of-a-kind presence to the stage. Along with a full band, he will perform hit songs like I’m a Believer, Last Train to Clarksville, I’m Not Your Steppin’ Stone, Daydream Believer and Pleasant Valley Sunday.
Micky Dolenz first established himself as a performer at age ten when he starred in his first TV series, Circus Boy, which aired from 1956 to 1958. He went on to guest-star on a number of television shows. During high school and college in the mid-‘60s, Dolenz also learned to play guitar. He performed with a number of rock bands, including one called The Missing Links.
In the fall of 1965, Micky was one of 400 applicants who responded to a trade ad that announced auditions for a new TV show about a rock band. He auditioned for The Monkees’ TV show by playing and singing Chuck Berry’s legendary rocker Johnny B. Goode, and was chosen for the show along with three other actors: Davy Jones, Michael Nesmith, and Peter Tork.
The Monkees' debut single, Last Train to Clarksville, featuring Micky on lead vocals, hit the charts on September 10, 1966 and rocketed to number one. Two days later, the television show debuted on NBC to great success. The TV ratings remained high for two seasons, and the show won two Emmy awards for the first season for “Outstanding Comedy Series” and “Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Comedy” going to veteran director James Frawley.
Micky and his fellow TV bandmates went on to become a real rock band. They toured North America from late December 1966 to May 1967, and their US / UK summer 1967 tour featured (at Micky’s invite, following the Monterey Pop Festival) none other than guitar legend Jimi Hendrix as the opening act for the first few dates.
The Monkees also went on to star in their own feature film, Head, a 1968 psychedelic romp directed by the TV series’ co-creator Bob Rafelson from a script co-written by a young Jack Nicholson. The movie is now considered a cult classic.
The TV ratings for The Monkees remained high during its initial two season run, with Micky in the director’s chair for the series’ final episode. While the “Pre-Fab Four” continued to be seen in re-runs, Dolenz turned his attention back to the origins of his trade—acting, and now directing.
In 1977, Micky flew to London to star in the West End production of the musical The Point! written by singer/songwriter Harry Nilsson. He planned to stay three months. Instead, he remained in England for twelve years. During that time, he further honed his behind-the-camera skills by working as a producer-director for the BBC and London Weekend Television.
In the early 1980s, while in England, Dolenz directed a stage version of the Alan Parker-directed 1976 feature film Bugsy Malone — the cast of which included a then-unknown 14-year-old Welsh actress named Catherine Zeta-Jones.
In 1986 MTV re-broadcast episodes of The Monkees, exposing a whole new generation to the show. Freshly back to the States, Micky joined with former Monkees' bandmate Peter Tork to record new tracks for Arista Records. The first single, That Was Then, This Is Now, became The Monkees’ first Top 20 record since 1968. Micky, Peter and fellow Monkee Davy Jones subsequently reunited for a stellar 1986 summer tour, so successful that it sparked the reissue of all Monkees' classic LPs, as well as Pool It!, on Rhino Records.
At one point in 1987, there were seven Monkees' albums on Billboard's Top 200 LPs chart. By 1996, The Monkees again joined together; this time, for a "30th Year Reunion" summer tour across America.
Ultimately, The Monkees achieved their greatest success not as a TV show but as viable recording artists; selling in excess of 65 million units, and achieving worldwide success. Their first four albums—The Monkees (1966); More of The Monkees (1967); Headquarters (1967); and Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn, & Jones, Ltd. (1967) all reached the number-one position on the charts and launched three number-one singles: Last Train to Clarksville, I'm a Believer (both with lead vocals by Micky), and Daydream Believer. The group's first five albums also went platinum.
Micky went on the road in some theatrical productions, such as Grease, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum in 1993, and in 2004 he starred in the Elton John/Tim Rice Broadway musical Aida, as the character of “Zoser.”
In 1993, Micky's autobiography I'm A Believer: My Life Of Monkees, Music, and Madness (Hyperion/Disney) was published. In addition to writing, Micky has divided his time between acting (The Drew Carey Show, Days Of Our Lives, and General Hospital); directing (Boy Meets World for ABC/Disney, and Pacific Blue for USA Networks); and touring with his own band featuring his sister, Coco Dolenz.
In 2005, Dolenz was also on WCBS-FM as a morning “drive-time” on-air personality, and soon wrote, along with illustrator David H. Clark, his first children's book, Gakky Two-Feet (Putnam/Penguin) as well as the Buzztime Trivia-associated game book Micky Dolenz' Rock ’n Rollin' Trivia (Square One Publishers).
In April 2007, Dolenz was featured on FOX-TV’s American Idol on the "Idol Gives Back" episode, when the show filmed celebrities singing and dancing to the Saturday Night Fever hit "Stayin' Alive" by the Bee Gees. Micky also participated in the 2008–09 season of CMT's reality-TV music show Gone Country, competing against fellow celebrities Sheila E. (who eventually won), Taylor Dayne, George Clinton, and actor Richard Grieco.
Then in 2011, Micky regrouped with Davy Jones and Peter Tork for a brand-new 45th anniversary Monkees tour. With performances both in England and the US (just as they had in 1967), the group garnered some of their best reviews ever—including an especially fine assessment of the band’s musical abilities from Rolling Stone magazine.
In February 2012, while in New York preparing for a possible new theater role in a musical called Garage Band, Micky received the tragic news that Davy Jones unexpectedly passed away. It was a moment that shook Micky as much as it had Davy’s fans throughout the world, and Micky paid loving and heartfelt tribute to the man he considered in so many ways “a brother” in a flurry of requested media interviews.
After a series of Davy Jones tributes scheduled, Micky regrouped with Peter Tork and the long-absent fourth Monkee, Michael Nesmith, for a series of Monkees reunion shows in the summer of 2012. The 12-date tour around the US proved fantastically successful, immediately creating a demand for a follow-up series of engagements. Pollstar, the concert tour industry’s leading trade publication, placed it in its Top 20 grossing concert tours in 2012.
Already a creative and artistic success many times over, Dolenz decided to “go entrepreneur” and formed a fine-furniture company with his daughter, Georgia, called “Dolenz & Daughters” (www.DolenzandDaughters.com).
Actor, singer, director, producer, writer, radio DJ, crafter and all-around performer extraordinaire, Micky Dolenz stands tall as a paragon of taste and accomplishment in the rough-and-tumble world of show business and entertainment. And oh, by the way - he remains a believer . . .
Tickets for Micky Dolenz range from $44 to $59.