Some Enchanted Evening

The songs of Rodgers & Hammerstein

Music by Richard Rodgers

Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II

Directed by Fred Anzevino

Music Direction by Austin Cook

Choreographed by Ben Mason

Produced by Theo Ubique Cabaret Theatre

in association with Michael James

At No Exit Cafe, Chicago

Fabulous musical revue features smart, sophisticated arrangements and smooth vocals that do justice to the Rodgers & Hammerstein songbook

Under Fred Anzevino’s smart direction and Austin Cook’s innovative music direction, the Rodgers & Hammerstein songbook never sounded so lush and heartfelt.  Yes, Some Enchanted Evening contains a wonderful 36 + R & H show tunes that play as a master lesson in song writing. The cast of six: Dana Tretta, Jeremy Trager, Sara Schoch, Danni Smith,  Evan Tyrone Martin and pianist/ music director Austin Cook each had their moments warbling the iconic R & H tunes.  Much of the credit for mounting such a well sung  revue goes to the sharp casting by Fred Anzevino who always seems to find new talent to populate his shows. But it is the stellar music direction and deft musicianship by Chicago newbie Austin Cook that made a difference.  Cook’s fresh arrangements sparked the cast to fully enhance the rich songbook. Austin Cook also sang and music accompanied (on the piano) the singers. This guy’s a major arranger and talented pianist.

The sophisticated style of this revue consisted with both fully sung or fragmented in a medley with solos, duets and full-cast harmonies. You’d be hard pressed to find better singing from a non-Equity cast.  The six talents  wholly internalized 36 + R & H tunes rendered at the intimate No Exit Cafe. No microphones yet each word was richly sung with zest and sincerity.

Among the highlights were: Jeremy Trager’s superb rendition of “Soliloquy” from Carousel.  Sara Schoch’s “Out of My Dream” from Oklahoma was engaging while Danni Smith’s “Love,  Look Away” from Flower Drum Song was smoothly landed. Evan Tyrone Martin nailed, in an exquisite tenor voice, the songs  “Younger than Springtime” and “Edelweiss” from South Pacific and The Sound of Music.  Dana Tretta has fun with tunes like “I Can’t Say No” from Oklahoma and “A Cockeyed Optimist” from South Pacific. Austin Cook, besides his fabulous piano work, deftly nails “Everybody’s Got a Home But Me” from Pipe Dream.

This toe-tapping yet sophisticated revue contains excellent duets like Trager and Sara Schoch’s moving “If I loved You” from Carousel and Trager and Martin’s clever “A Puzzlement” from the King and I. The girls had fun with “I Enjoy Being a Girl” from Flower Drum Song and “I’m Gonna Wash that Man Right Out-s My Hair” from South Pacific. The melodies are memorable, the harmonies delightful as the songs soar into our hearts.

Some Enchanted Evening will renew your spirits and entertain you soul. It is so tuneful that you’ll be humming some of the songs long after you see the show. Kudos to Theo Ubique for their strong production values and their smart casting. This revue is wonderful!

Highly Recommended

Tom Williams

Talk Theatre in Chicago podcast

Date Reviewed: March 14, 2011

Jeff Recommended

For full show information, check out the Some Enchanted Evening page at Theatre In Chicago.

At No Exit Cafe,  6970 N. Glenwood, Chicago, IL, call 773-347-1109, www.theoubique.com, tickets $25 – $30, Thursdays at 7:30pm, Friday & Saturday at 8 pm, Sundays at 7 pm, running time is 2 hours, 10 minutes with intermission, through July 3, 2011

Some Enchanted Evening – thoughts by Will Fink:

Some people do not care for musicals: they find people breaking into song and dance in the middle of everything, I don’t know, tacky; tiresome; bizarre.  Be that as it may, the music in a great many musicals is undeniably good; and the songbook of Richard Rogers and Oscar Hammerstein is particularly memorable.  And so Theo Ubique’s revue of their work at the No Exit Café is a perfect solution for those of us with a great fondness for a well-crafted song but distaste for the musical that surrounds it.  Beyond that bare fact, the performers in this revue are exceptionally good: they give the material heft by doing what, frankly, all good singers do, regardless what they’re singing – they put emotion and passion into the music.  They lend the material the feelings that it requires to be passed off.  And they do this wonderfully well.  The musical direction and vision of Austin Cook, who rearranged many of the songs himself, is laudable not only for its creativity and verve, but for the respect he has for the original compositions.  Every ensemble member delivers the material warmly, affectionately, and skillfully.  Some Enchanted Evening makes for a very enjoyable show – and with the possibility of getting dinner at No Exit, or at the Heartland right down the street, it is quite easy to have a very pleasant, and rather frugal, evening.

Recommended

Will Fink

Here is a complete song list for this magnificent tribute to Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Some Enchanted Evening: