BROADWAY BABIES ALL GROWN UP

Musical Director Shane Schag, Marie Stumpf, Shengquan Jin, Montana York, Raquel Nobile, Juliana Levinson, Victoria Policht, Sam Krivda, Allison Porter, and Luke Sikora

What an entertaining evening we enjoyed at Manhattan School of Music!  Directed by Carolyn Marlow, students of the Musical Theater Lab performed an array of Broadway tunes, many of them addressing issues of our present culture and many of them absolutely hilarious.

Some of them were songs we could not appreciate when seen on Broadway because of the egregious custom of deafening amplification.  Here they were sung unamplified by talented young artists with fine young voices and a good feel for the style. What a treat to understand every clever word!

Perhaps the funniest was "Baptize Me" from The Book of Mormon by Parker, Lopez, and Stone. Luke Sikora was hilarious as Elder Cunningham trying to perform his first baptism on the equally hilarious Allison Porter.  The double entendres flew thick and fast but not over the heads of the audience.

For political resonance, the cast performed  "Everybody's Got the Right" from Stephen Sondheim's Assassins, a wonderful choice.  One can never go wrong with Sondheim, whose text is always meaningful and whose music is always interesting and original.

The issue of "the road not taken" was tackled with excellent humor by Victoria Policht and Montana York in "The Grass is Always Greener" from Kander and Ebb's Woman of the Year. Ms. Policht portrayed an overburdened housewife in muumuu and fuzzy slippers, comparing her life to that of her stylish famous friend, enacted by Ms. York.

A different kind of rivalry was portrayed by Luke Sikora as an author and Sam Krivda as his more 

exciting creation in "You're Nothing Without Me" from Cy Coleman's City of Angels.

Not every duet was competitive.  The warm friendship between Glinda (Ms. Nobile) and Elphaba (Juliana Levinson) was harmonically lovely as they made their farewells in "For Good" from Stephen Schwartz' Wicked.

Marie Stumpf showed fine dramatic chops in two roles: she portrayed a very crazy girl in "Screw Loose" from Javerbaum & Schlesinger's Cry Baby. In "Come Up to My Place" from Leonard Bernstein's On the Town, she was hilarious as Hildy, driving a taxi in which passenger Chip (Sam Krivda), a sailor on leave, has a very outdated list of sights he wanted to see, all of which were long gone. Their interaction kept the audience in stitches.

The dilemma of living in an apartment in New York with very loud neighbors was illustrated by Han Hsiao in "14G" from Jeanine Tesori's Thoroughly Modern Millie. What made it even more fun was that the neighbors were singers, allowing Ms. Hsiao to exercise her vocal cords.

On a more serious note, she performed the duet "One Hand, One Heart" from Bernstein's West Side Story with Mr. Jin in the role of Tony.d

Fortunately we heard even more Bernstein when the full company ended the evening with "To Make Us Proud" from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and "Make Our Garden Grow" from Candide.

Shane Schag was Musical Director and Pianist. He did a bang-up job!

It was a fun evening from an entertainment standpoint but also rewarding in the knowledge that there are up and coming young performers whom we hope will keep Broadway lit up for many years to come.

(c) meche kroop

TWO TERRIFIC TENORS...AND MORE

Grace Canfield, Allison Porter, Cristobal Arias, Katelan Terrell, Cristina Stanescu, Caitlin Redding, Matthew Swensen, William Kelley, Sora Jung ,Ho Jae Lee, Nathan Raskin

It was another thrilling early evening liederabend at Juilliard and the hall was packed. Five superb singers joined with five collaborative pianists for a pleasant respite from the Xmas shopping chaos outside.  The performances were all excellent; we would expect no less.

It's possible to admire all the artists and yet to single out a couple that for one reason or another affect us more deeply.  We suspect it has something to do with the mood we are in or the choice of material. We sometimes hear an artist on another occasion and have very different feelings.  So...here goes.

We were absolutely enchanted by two tenors, which, in itself is remarkable because we get very turned off if a tenor pushes his high notes.  (We actually feel the tension in our own throat and it hurts!) What a surprise to learn that Cristobal Arias is just a sophomore in the Vocal Arts Department. He performed Beethoven's song cycle An die ferne Geliebte, and he performed it magnificently.

This cycle is Beethoven at his most melodic and the melodies have been running through our head all night. Unlike Schubert's cycles, this one does not tell a story. Rather, all the songs revolve around the central theme of longing for a distant beloved. They are best sung simply without spurious dramatic effects and this is exactly how they were performed. 

Mr. Arias has a gentle sweet tone and made liberal use of dynamic variety from the very start. In "Leichte Segler in den Höhen" he sang with marcato emphasis and in "Diese Wolken in den Höhen" he sang with a lovely lilting quality. He ended the cycle with intensity and passion. We were, as they say, "feelin' it".

The cycle was performed without breaks and his piano partner Katelan Terrell was delightful in the interludes which knit the songs together. We loved the way she captured the nature sounds and it was clear that she was enjoying herself.

The second tenor was quite different but equally impressive. Accompanied by Ho Jae Lee, he sang a trio of songs by Francis Poulenc whom we are coming to appreciate more and more. His instrument is a rich one with an interesting velvety texture and a pleasing resonance; his technique is flawless. His involvement in the material was intense and sustained right through the silences. He drew us into the text from the very beginning and by the time he got to the setting of Appolinaire's "Bleuet" we were close to tears.  That's communing with the audience!

We also heard three fine women whom we enjoyed a great deal. The glamorously gowned soprano Grace Canfield, ably accompanied by Nathan Raskin, has a bright sound that opens at the top like a parasol. She sang two selections from Liszt's Tre sonetti del Petrarca--"Pace non trovo" and "I' vidi in terra", and she sang them with intensity and urgency.

Soprano Allison Porter, accompanied by Sora Jung, introduced us to some early 20th c. French songs by Louis Beydts. The texts of the cycle Chansons pour les oiseaux were mostly nonsensical and Ms. Porter succeeded in bringing out the humor with her bubbly personality.

And finally, mezzo Caitlin Redding performed a trio of selections from Claude Debussy's settings of Cinq Poèmes de Baudelaire. They are a far cry from the no nonsense realistic depiction of longing in the Beethoven cycle; au contraire, they are filled with metaphor and imagery.  Similarly the music is radically different from Beethoven's direct illumination of a feeling but rather indirect and impressionistic. William Kelley performed well as piano partner.

The singers were coached by Cristina Stanescu who deserves to be pleased as punch.

Now wasn't that a better way to spend an hour than shopping??  You betcha'!

(c) meche kroop