Tuesday, February 24, 2004
'Love Stories' follow Valentine's Day at Forum
The romantic pairings of sand and sea, night and day, and flora and fauna were joined by Suzanne Ishee and Gary Lindemann at the Outer Banks Forum for the Lively Arts Saturday.
The latter pair, with accompanist Mitch Samu, performing as Broadway Center Stage, brought Love Stories, their depiction of classic Broadway lovers, to the stage at the Kitty Hawk Elementary School.
From the moment Samu opened with the overture to Irving Berlin's Annie Get Your Gun and Ishee sauntered onstage singing "I Got the Sun in the Morning," the audience was taken on a road trip to Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, Oklahoma, London, Paris and Siam, via Broadway. Using simple costume changes based on eveningwear and a few props, the trio invoked Annie Oakley and Frank Butler, Lilli Vanessi and Fred Graham, Curly McLain and Laurie Williams, Henry Higgins and Eliza Doolittle, Anna Leonowens and King Mongkut, and Christine Daae and Erik, Phantom of the Opera.
Broadway veterans Ishee and Lindemann were able to wander about and project their voices to the house, speaking and singing, aided only by two hanging microphones on either side of the stage.
"Anything You Can Do," from Annie Get Your Gun, became an entertaining tour de force from the actor-vocalists, who softened considerably for "They Say It's Wonderful" from the same show.
Highlights of the rich evening included a fine Lindemann reading of "I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face" from Frederick Loewe and Alan Jay Lerner's My Fair Lady, the singers' chilling harmonies on "So in Love" from Cole Porter's Kiss Me Kate and lovers' lessons from My Fair Lady and Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II's The King and I.
In the first lesson, Henry attempts to soften Eliza's speech and image in "The Rain in Spain," replete with dancing. The dancing is the object of the lesson in "Shall We Dance?" from The King and I, as King Mongkut takes over dance lessons from Anna with a bit of terpsichorial jiu-jitsu.
The anchor of the show was a hair-raising melding of two versions of The Phantom of the Opera, Andrew Lloyd Webber's Broadway hit, and Maury Yeston and Arthur Kopit's 1983 musical Phantom.
Some consider Webber's musical much too much of a merely good thing; mixing in Yeston's subtler songs, such as "Home" and "You Are Music," produced a moving synopsis of the melodramatic story.
To lighten up an encore, the musicians chose a number from another Broadway Center Stage project, America's Singing Sweethearts, about Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald. The song was the delightful "I Married an Angel," from the 1942 film of the same name, Eddy and MacDonald's final movie together.
The Broadway Center Stage troupe, with a piano, a cloak and a cork, were easily able to evoke entire shows in an elegant and tasteful (save the Webber) entertainment. Happy Valentine's Day, what?
©2004 Womack Newspapers Inc.
The latter pair, with accompanist Mitch Samu, performing as Broadway Center Stage, brought Love Stories, their depiction of classic Broadway lovers, to the stage at the Kitty Hawk Elementary School.
From the moment Samu opened with the overture to Irving Berlin's Annie Get Your Gun and Ishee sauntered onstage singing "I Got the Sun in the Morning," the audience was taken on a road trip to Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, Oklahoma, London, Paris and Siam, via Broadway. Using simple costume changes based on eveningwear and a few props, the trio invoked Annie Oakley and Frank Butler, Lilli Vanessi and Fred Graham, Curly McLain and Laurie Williams, Henry Higgins and Eliza Doolittle, Anna Leonowens and King Mongkut, and Christine Daae and Erik, Phantom of the Opera.
Broadway veterans Ishee and Lindemann were able to wander about and project their voices to the house, speaking and singing, aided only by two hanging microphones on either side of the stage.
"Anything You Can Do," from Annie Get Your Gun, became an entertaining tour de force from the actor-vocalists, who softened considerably for "They Say It's Wonderful" from the same show.
Highlights of the rich evening included a fine Lindemann reading of "I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face" from Frederick Loewe and Alan Jay Lerner's My Fair Lady, the singers' chilling harmonies on "So in Love" from Cole Porter's Kiss Me Kate and lovers' lessons from My Fair Lady and Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II's The King and I.
In the first lesson, Henry attempts to soften Eliza's speech and image in "The Rain in Spain," replete with dancing. The dancing is the object of the lesson in "Shall We Dance?" from The King and I, as King Mongkut takes over dance lessons from Anna with a bit of terpsichorial jiu-jitsu.
The anchor of the show was a hair-raising melding of two versions of The Phantom of the Opera, Andrew Lloyd Webber's Broadway hit, and Maury Yeston and Arthur Kopit's 1983 musical Phantom.
Some consider Webber's musical much too much of a merely good thing; mixing in Yeston's subtler songs, such as "Home" and "You Are Music," produced a moving synopsis of the melodramatic story.
To lighten up an encore, the musicians chose a number from another Broadway Center Stage project, America's Singing Sweethearts, about Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald. The song was the delightful "I Married an Angel," from the 1942 film of the same name, Eddy and MacDonald's final movie together.
The Broadway Center Stage troupe, with a piano, a cloak and a cork, were easily able to evoke entire shows in an elegant and tasteful (save the Webber) entertainment. Happy Valentine's Day, what?
©2004 Womack Newspapers Inc.
