The third show of The Community Players' 88th season is "A Grand Night
for Singing". This show is a musical revue of the classic songs of Richard
Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein, presented in jazzy, new arrangements. The
revue features songs from such lesser-known works as "Allegro", "Flower Drum
Song", "State Fair", "Me And Juliet" and "Pipe Dream", as well as hits from
"Oklahoma", "Carousel", "South Pacific", "The King and I" and "The Sound of
Music". Created by Tony Award-winner Walter Bobbie, the show presents clever
musical arrangements of old standards, including a sultry Andrew
Sister-esque "I'm Gonna Wash that Man Right Outta My Hair', a swingin'
"Honeybun" worthy of the Modernaires and a jazzy "Kansas City". Nominated
for Tony Awards for Best Musical and Best Book of a Musical, "A Grand Night"
will remind you why Rodgers and Hammerstein continue to be among the most
beloved composers of American musical theatre. Directed and choreographed by
Andrew Bobola and musically directed by Michael Savignac, the revue features
five talented vocalists, Lia Del Sesto, Steven Dulude, Hans Foy, Deirdre
Newbold and Heather Vieira as well as six wonderful dancers who do many
different styles of dancing in this show. Over three dozen are performed in
this high energy show. Their well known music is given a hip new look and
feel while the dancers swirl around in several of the numbers. This is the
show to cure those winter doldrums and bring a warm, sunny feeling back into
your life after the very long winter.
Andrew moves the performers through with an impressive fluidity through
their various groupings up and down the stairs and all over the set. While
Michael creates the best sound on his keyboard which Victor Turenne, built a
realistic baby grand piano around it to give the revue, an old fashioned
feel. The set looks like the setting for "The Love Boat" with two long
spiral staircases on either side of a two story platform with a rail on the
front. The five piece orchestra and Michael are on the stage. He is on a
platform center stage under the stairways and the two instruments on each
side of the tiers in ascending order. "A Grand Night for Singing" starts off
with the opening line of the intro of "Oh What a Beautiful Morning" from
"Oklahoma" and is called All the "Sounds of the earth are like Music" with
the five part harmonies then they break into humming "The Carousel Waltz"
with the dancers doing ballet and leaps during it. Conspicuously absent are
old warhorses like "Climb Every Mountain" and "You'll Never Walk Alone".
Missing too are lesson songs like "My Favorite Things" and "Getting to Know
You" and the declamatory love songs "No Other Love" and "Younger Than
Springtime" are excluded.
The gorgeous raven haired, Lia Del Sesto with an awesome soprano range
leads off with her first solo "So Far" from "Allegro" then later in the
first act she sings "Do I Love You Because You're Beautiful to a photo of
her boyfriend in a frame, hugging it to herself. In Act 2 she performs the
energetic "It Might as Well be Spring", the wise grandmother's song about
love "I Know It Can Happen Again" and the majestic "Something Wonderful"
from "The King & I". Steven Dulude, a handsome young man with light brown
hair and a soaring tenor voice woos Heather doing a romantic version of "The
Surrey With the Fringe on Top", tries to understand his girl who can't
resist other men in a humorous version of "How Do You Solve a Problem like
Maria?" and his last solo is the poignant "Love Look Away" which brings
tears to the audience's eyes while the dancers do an interpretive dance
around him. Steve does "Shall We Dance" with Lia while trying to coax her
into dancing with him( pretending to be a dance instructor teaching her the
waltz very slowly) while two dancing couples whirl around them doing the
polka. Hans Foy, another handsome dark haired man who traveled all the way
to Pawtucket from Worcester, MA, sings "We Kiss in a Shadow" showing off his
high baritone range while Tracie Finan, a pretty blond, does an exquisite
ballet bathed in romantic red lighting. His next number is the rousing
"Honey Bun" which the girl dancers( Tracie, Stephanie Bobola (Andrew's real
life daughter), Irina Abramov and Leslie Racine Vazquez) do an excellent tap
dance to. Hans is also at ease with more serious numbers including "Oh What
a Beautiful Morning" which opens the second act as he comes down the aisle
onto the stage, "My Little Girl" with Stephanie doing a ballet around
him and the emotionally charged "This Nearly Was Mine" when he realizes love
has eluded him. Beautiful red haired Deirdre Newbold using her strong mezzo
voice sings one of the duo's best comic numbers "I Cain't Say No" as she
flirts with 2 superb male dancers dark haired Venugopalan Anantharamakumar
(a software engineer and salsa teacher) and blond haired Tom Lavalle who do
high kicks in the air during this number. She also sings one of their best
love songs using her upper register in "If I Loved You" while Tom dances
around her with a red rose. Deirdre sings a jazzy version of "Kansas City"
with the company as the dancers perform in it as well as "When You're Riding
through the Moonlight". She and Lia duet on the comic "Stepsisters' Lament"
when Steve ignores them for Heather. Heather Vieira, a pretty brunette with a
strong alto voice, sings the giddy ode to true love "A Wonderful Guy" and
the comical "The Gentleman is a Dope" when Hans ignores her. She also gets
to strut her stuff in a bawdy dance number with the two boys called "It's
Me" from "Me and Juliet". And when "Some Enchanted Evening" one of the duos
most well known ballads, rings down the first act, it is performed in a
breezy arrangement for five intertwining voices while the finale of Act 2 "A
Grand Night for Singing" is sung by all 11 performers in excellent
harmonization. Other group songs include the title song near the start of
the show, "Hello Young Lovers", "To Have and to Hold/Wish Them Well" during
a wedding segment and "Impossible" and the stirring love song from "The King
& I", "I Have Dreamed" which originally was a duet becomes a five part
harmonic triumph. The cast also handles the duets, trios and quartets
wonderfully, too. The hard working stage manager Kerri Lynn Costa keeps
things running smoothly all night long. The multitude of colorful costumes
are by Pam Jackson including gorgeous gowns of red, blue and off-white. The
mood lighting and sound design is by Dan Fisher who also produced the show
while Emily Varden runs the lighting board. This production is dedicated in
loving memory to Sheila Battey-Ribeiro who was a choreographer, director and
performer at Community Players for many years. So for a look back at how
popular songs were written in the 1940's thru the late 1950's, be sure to
catch "It's a Grand Night for Singing" at Community Players. You will be
thoroughly entertained by these talented folks.
IT'S A GRAND NIGHT FOR SINGING ( 20 March to 5
April, 2009)
