Let’s go see a show!
The Lifetime Learning Center (LLC) offers entertainment away from home with its Best of Broadway day trips. All performances feature professional shows directly on tour from Broadway, presented at the Durham Performing Arts Center (DPAC). Leave the driving and planning to us and join in the fun and excitement of the Best of Broadway!
Registration fees include a continental breakfast or refreshments at check-in, comfortable motor-coach transportation, a three-course gourmet luncheon or dinner, and reserved seating at the Wilson Center or Durham Performing Arts Center (DPAC). We invite you to leave the driving and planning to us and we’ll drop you off and pick you up at the front door of DPAC. Snacks are served on the return trip. We meet in the Orringer Auditorium Lobby on the New Bern campus for check-in. Departure times will vary based on the show times. All registrants will receive a letter/email with complete instructions about two weeks prior to each trip.
Registration for Best of Broadway events is available below. If you prefer, you can register by calling the LLC at 252-633-2618.
Please see our refund and ticket transfer policy before registering for LLC Best of Broadway day trips.
Richard Thomas in Mark Twain Tonight!
Best of Broadway Day Trip
Saturday, September 27, 2025
The Wilson Center, Wilmington, NC
Registration: $239
Emmy Award® winning Actor Richard Thomas brings to life “the nation’s one true comic genius” (The New York Times) in Mark Twain Tonight!, written and originally performed by Hal Holbrook. Join the millions who have cheered for the legendary one-man show, bursting with Twain’s “uproariously funny” and “pungently wise” (Time Magazine) humor.
Most recently seen on Broadway in Our Town, on tour as Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird, on Netflix’s Ozark, and beloved to generations as John-Boy Walton, Richard Thomas is the first and only actor authorized to perform the play since the original.
The year 2026 marks the 60th anniversary of the Broadway premiere for the show that played over 2,300 performances, to an audience of more than 2 million people nationwide. Plan to join the Lifetime Learning Center as we celebrate the return of Mark Twain Tonight!
View an Interview with Richard Thomas
The Sound of Music
Best of Broadway Day Trip
Saturday, October 11, 2025
Durham Performing Arts Center, Durham, NC
Registration: $239
The final collaboration between Richard Rodgers & Oscar Hammerstein II, The Sound of Music has become a play beloved around the world.
Based on the true story of the Von Trapp Family Singers, this play captures a personal tale of growth and hope amidst the horrors of World War II. The musical tells the tale of young postulant Maria, whose free spirit has trouble fitting into the rules and regulations of Nonnberg Abbey. Commissioned by the Mother Abbess to serve as the governess for seven motherless children, Maria transforms the Von Trapp family home from a place of dour rules and regulations to one filled with joy, laughter, and music. In the process, Maria wins the hearts of all seven children and their widower father, Captain Von Trapp.
Chicago
Best of Broadway Day Trip
Wednesday, February 18, 2026
The Wilson Center, Wilmington, NC
Registration: $239
Broadway’s longest-running American musical, Chicago is a dazzling and satirical look at fame, justice, and the media machine.
Set in 1920s Chicago and based on real-life murders and trials, Chicago follows Roxie Hart, a wannabe vaudevillian star who murders her lover and is arrested, despite her attempts to convince her pushover husband, Amos, to lie for her.
In the Cook County Jail, Roxie meets her hero, the famed double-murderess and nightclub performer Velma Kelly. When both acquire the same lawyer, the greedy and lustful superstar, Billy Flynn, tensions come to a head as they vie for the spotlight - though instead of an onstage rivalry, they’re mugging for the flashbulbs and attention of the newspaper reporters. With catchy, sexy music and timeless lyrics paired with choreography by Bob Fosse, Chicago is a musical spectacular that is as addictive as gossip rags and as unforgettable as any trial of the century.
Hamilton
Best of Broadway Day Trip
Saturday, May 23, 2026
Durham Performing Arts Center, Durham, NC
Registration: $279
In 2016, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Pulitzer prize-winning transformation of Ron Chernow’s biography, Hamilton, into a hip-hop musical took the world by storm.
At the center of this groundbreaking musical is the story of founding father Alexander Hamilton, whose ambition drove him from the position of Caribbean outsider and bastard child to American war hero and George Washington’s right-hand man. In the process, Hamilton powerfully shaped America - and gave us all a template for what it means to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps and realize the American Dream.
David Brooks of the New York Times declared seeing Hamilton to be “one of the most exhilarating experiences I’ve had in the theatre.” With heart, humor, and respect, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s musical breathes vibrant, colorful life into this story of America’s founding fathers.
Contact Information
Lifetime Learning Center
Brock Administration Building
New Bern Campus
252-633-2618