Music Reviews Archives - Page 3 of 21

Let Me Entertain You: Jule Styne’s Greatest Hits

September 6, 2017October 9, 2016 by Tom Williams

Tunes from Funny Girl (lyrics by Bob Merrill) with like know shows that produced songs that became standards, this songfest produces one tuneful song after another. we remember songs like “The Party’s Over,” ” Don’t Rain on My Parade,” I’ve Heard That Song Before,” “It’s Been A Long Time,” “Saturday Night Is the Loneliest Night of the Week, “It’s Magic, ” “Time After Time,” and “Make Someone Happy” and “People” are among the wonderful tunes that not only were sung expertly but presented with their meaning or spirit.

Das Rheingold

October 6, 2016 by Tom Williams

In a new production, the Lyric Opera of Chicago has mounted the finest staging that I have ever seen of an opera! Wagner, who wanted his Der Ring des Nibelungen to be know as a music drama, would be proud of David Pountney’s stage of Das Rheingold which was based on Johan Engels and Robert Innes Hopkins designs. Below you’ll see a vast array of photos in order for readers to get a feel for this magnificent staging that enhances Wagner’s music drama as a compliment to Wagner’s power score and the fantastic voices from the world class singers.

The Love Potion (Le Vin Herbe)

October 1, 2016September 30, 2016 by Tom Williams

Sung in English (translation by Hugh MacDonald) with a large video depicting the story with a huge English super titles, The Love Potion works well. Featuring music that sounds like film underscoring rich in piano and string sounds, The Love Potion’s singing makes the story come alive. The 12 person ensemble (a kind of Greek chorus) sounded terrific and the leads led the way.

From tenor Bernard Holcomb’s Tristan to soprano Lani Stait’s Isolde to baritone Nicholas Davis’ King Mark, these featured artists carried the opera with their expressively skilled voices

Smokey Joe’s Cafe at Drury Lane Theatre

September 6, 2017September 9, 2016 by Tom Williams

This fast-paced two hour revue is a non-stop songfest that has enough well performed classic rock, pop and R & B to please. . Director/choreographer Dodge has the cast doing movement and dance routines that work effectively on stage. The harmonies and the blended vocal arrangements together with the outstanding musical arrangements by Roberta Duchak sounded terrific. These nine performers demonstrate their talents and we get to hear the songbook of two relatively unheralded composers. Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller’s tunes come alive in this fun revue. Smokey Joe’s Cafe ranks as one of the longest running reviews on Broadway (2,036 performances) and it has had a long run in the city by Theo Ubique a few years ago.

“Oh, Coward!” by Dead Writers Theatre Collective

September 11, 2017August 27, 2016 by Tom Williams

Filled with the words and songs of Noel Coward (1899-1973), the English playwright, composer, director, actor and singer, known for his wit and flamboyance, Oh Coward! is a sharp 35 song-fest that is nicely performed by Michael Pecas, Joanna Riopelle and Ian Rigg with terrific arrangements by Gerald Bailey with fine piano work by Howard Pfeifer. The non-Equity cast delivered a slick, sophisticated, mostly well sung musical revue.

Operetta In Exile 2016

October 22, 2022July 13, 2016 by Tom Williams

Operetta in Exile begins with six songs from Die Blume von Hawaii, a 1931 collaboration between three Jewish artists, Paul Abraham, Alfred Grunwald, and Fritz Lohner-Beda. The story is typical of what defines an operetta: it is light-hearted, uses stock characters, and a formulaic plot. However, between the songs we learn about Abraham’s persecution at the hands of the Nazis.

The Cousin from Nowhere 2016

October 22, 2022July 9, 2016 by Tom Williams

One of the joys at this operetta is in the fabulous 22 member orchestra, conducted by Anthony Barrese that sounded magnificent! The cast of classically trained singers projected and enunciate expertly despite no amplification. The cast has professional singers from both the Lyric Opera of Chicago and the Chicago Symphony Choruses. I was particularly impressed by the skilled comic chops from Nicholas Pulikowski who carried the lead with immense empathy. He gave one of the strongest performances seen on a Chicago stage this year!

An Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse Songbook

October 22, 2022June 27, 2016 by Tom Williams

This cast creates a spell both with their acting/singing skill making this 80 minute show into a polished art piece that Beckett would enjoy as well as Newley and Brisusse. An Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse Songbook is a most entertaining revue with energetic singers covering a sophisticated songbook of almost forgotten composers. This review is a showcase for a fresh, youthful and amazingly talented newbie – Graham Thomas Heacock.

Second City e.t.c.’s 40th Revue – A Red Line Runs Through It

May 1, 2016 by August Lysy

Written and Performed by Lisa Beasley, Aasia LaShay Bullock,

Peter Kim, Katie Klein, Julie Marchiano, Scott Morehead

Directed by Matt Hovde

Musical Direction/Original Music/Sound Design by Jesse Case

At The Second City e.t.c., Chicago

Running Express to Entertain

If you’re looking for an entertaining show where you can eat, drink, and laugh all at the same time, then Second City e.t.c.’s 40^th Revue A Red Line Runs Through It is where you should be tonight. Written and performed by some of Second City’s best, this nearly two-hour show gambols pell-mell through skits, songs, and dances that never failed to amuse with their at-times outrageous and absurd but always skillfully diverse display of comedy.

A Red Line Runs Through It features a lot of lighting and music that, far from merely complementing the skits and atmosphere, are integral to the show as a whole. For instance, the show opens with the cast riding an El-train, bored and impatient at a delay; then, inexplicably, the emergency lights go out and a black light comes on to reveal the entire cast wearing Guy Fawkes’ masks (also inexplicably) and eerily dancing. Absurd? Yes. Amusing? Inexplicably so. Some of the best skits also involve singing, such as a political rap battle, an ironic love song to Rahm Emmanuel, and an improvised song based upon an audience call-out (in this case, crazy drivers), among several others.

Besides this noteworthy inclusion of music (compliments to Jesse Case), the show features some strong collaborative moments among the cast as well as some in which individual members are allowed to shine. We see Peter Kim coach his very white friend Scott Morehead on the how-to of drag; Lisa Beasley and Aasia Lashay Bullock blithely perform some everyday “black-girl magic”; Julie Marchiano plays a humorless fitness/life guru whose existential exercises lead Beasley to commit murder; Katie Klein exposes the seedy past of the Frank Lloyd Wright Estate amidst the mundane backdrop of an architectural tour; and, at one point, the whole cast delivers different iterations of the opening segment to the 11 p.m. news, varying their approaches depending on the city.

Dry Land

April 30, 2016April 29, 2016 by Tom Williams

A Midwest Premiere

By Ruby Rae Spiegel

Directed by Hallie Gordon

At Rivendell Theatre, Chicago

Realistic female teen drama is an intense take on friendship

Set in a girls locker room of a Florida high school, Dry Land is a ferocious new play about how teen swimmers who both have a secret and whose friendship is most unlikely. Amy (Bryce Gengel) is a nasty, bossy teen who is trying to DIY an abortion. She is aided by Ester (Jessica Ervin), an insecure teen more at home as a swimmer than as a person. Both girls become united under uncommon pressure; Amy trying to abort her pregnancy while the self-loathing Ester struggles to fit in to her new school. The Amy-Ester relationship is dominated by the demanding Amy, who orders around Ester like a dictator. We see how each character struggles with their awkward relationship and Ester helps Amy despite Amy’s nasty treatment.

Much of this drama vividly deals with the complexities of female friendship, as each character deals with the pressures they feel about surviving as a teen in high school. The realism of this play, including a bloody scene, is well staged as the two players, Bryce Gengel and Jessica Ervin did yeoman work as troubled teens.

I think this play is for women, mothers and teen girls. They will relate and maybe understand the talk more than I did. The speech patterns of the girls – their tendency to talk fast and run their words together with the contemporary pop culture references, made it difficult for me (a senior male) to understand. The younger folks, especially the women, laughed at the comments while I was clueless.