When I was 4 years old I was visited by the angel of music and I was never the same. My aunt took me to the Kennedy Center's Opera House to see the national tour of The Phantom of the Opera and according to her stories, I was the most well behaved four-year-old that anyone in the audience had ever seen. I was completely mesmorized and though I've seen the show several times since then, I'll always remember my first. Come to think of it, wasn't "remember your first time" an ad slogan used to promote the show a few years ago? Anyway, it's becoming increasingly difficult for me to decipher my first memories of the show from more recent ones, but I certainly remember the specatacle, from the the Phantom's lair to the masquarade, and of course the falling chandelier. But above all else, I remember the music and that has lived with me for the past 18 years. I loved to listen to the original cast recording, I believe it was on cassette tape then, and I specifically remember running around my house singing the cadenza to "Think of Me" and the notes above the staff at the end of the title track, because I wanted to be Christine Daae. I was probably the only four year old in my neighborhood who know what a high C was.
While I have come to love many other musicals in my theatre-going career, The Phantom of the Opera will always be my first. And as a singer, I still love singing this score more than anything other piece of music I've ever learned. Though there are surely other musical theatre composers that I admire more, I will always credit Andrew Lloyd Webber with inspiring my love of the musical theatre, which has become for me, a love that never dies.
I have been waiting for years to see Kelli O'Hara perform live, and when I attended her solo concert tonight at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, I was certainly not disappointed. She opened with He Loves Me, a tweaked version of the song She Loves Me. She then continued into Wonderful Guy from South Pacific and also sang a selection from Most Happy Fella. After the first two to three songs, Kelli addressed the audience. She seemed incredibly comfortable speaking to the audience and while she wasn't as funny as other performers I've seen in concert, she was incredibly sweet and charming in her own way, not to mention incredibly gracious. She told us that this was a new concert and it is the same she will be performing at her upcoming show at Feinstein's in New York. The theme of this concert was her growth as an artist and she began with ingénue songs and progressed into songs sung by more adult characters to reflect her maturity and life experience. She did a lovely rendition of Kurt Weill's My Ship and we were also privileged to hear The Beauty Is from The Light in the Piazza as her final ingénue number.
She then continued into Something Wonderful from the King and I and an absolutely stunning rendition of This Nearly Was Mine. She spoke of how much she fell in love with this song hearing Paulo Szot perform it nightly in South Pacific. She even acknowledged that performing the song was a huge risk but I found it to be a phenomenal rendition. She then gave a small discussion of her appreciation for Sondheim, performing Finishing the Hat, and a song written for her by Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey in the style of Sondheim for the brilliant composer's 80th birthday celebration. The one selection she chose from her solo album Wonder in the World, which is great I might add, was All The Way.
Kelli discussed the importance of family in her life, specifically her husband and son, and the balance it takes to be a mom and a performer. Everything she said was just so incredibly charming that I darn near fell in love with her! She then sang Opera-Country a number written for her by her musical director that discusses a country singer who secretly wants to be an opera star. This song made use of her lovely upper range and in its use of character voices and a somewhat autobiographical storyline, I found it quite similar to the Kristin Chenoweth standard The Girl in 14G. For her final number, Kelli performed West Side Story's Somewhere, which she also did two years ago for Barbra Streisand at the Kennedy Center Honors.
After tremendous applause and a standing ovation, she returned for an encore, I Could Have Danced All Night, which I thought was her best number. I've been saying for what seems like forever that she needs to play Eliza Doolittle in a Broadway revival of My Fair Lady and I stand by that choice.
In conclusion, I found Kelli's voice to be in tip top shape, and for someone who I admire primarily for her voice, this concert was the perfect medium for me to have my first live experience with Kelli. I could listen to her sing for hours. What I love about her is that her vocal training is definitely apparent, but when she sings, it sounds effortless. Singing clearly gives her great joy and it is very evident in her performance. And as for her stage presence? There were definitely times where her jokes didn't land or she didn't say exactly what she was meaning to say, but she is so darn sweet that you can't help but fall in love with her. I left the concert as an even bigger fan that I was when I arrived and from the mood in the theatre, she was a hit!
Over the years, the John F. Kennedy Center in Washington, DC has become one of the foremost institutions for the Performing Arts in the nation. In terms of theatre, I will even venture to guess that it has done more for the art form than any institution away from Broadway. In 1978, the first Kennedy Center Honors were bestowed upon 5 people who had contributed greatly to the performing arts and therefore, enlivened American culture. The tradition as continued every December since 1978 and the annual ceremonies have given us countless memorable performances and many that I hold near and dear to my own heart. One of the most special for me, in recent memory, was the tribute to Dolly Parton, who as I have mentioned many times, is one of the 3 performers that I truly idolize. Her life story was introduced by Reba McEntire, another great lady in country music, who ultimately concluded with the tried and true statement "there ain't nobody like Dolly Parton". The following performance, Alison Krauss singing "Jolene" was a particular highlight of that broadcast for me.
I'm going to try to include a comprehensive list of all of the honorees from the past 30 years. Please inform me if I forget anybody and I will add them to the list! I'm also going to include a small list at the end of artists who I think are deserving of being honored by The Kennedy Center in the near future.
1978: Marian Anderson, Fred Astaire, George Balanchine, Richard Rodgers, Arthur Rubeinstein
1979: Aaron Copland, Ella Fitzgerald, Henry Fonda, Martha Graham, Tennessee Williams
1980: Leonard Bernstein, James Cagney, Agnes de Mille, Lynn Fontanne, Leontyne Price
1981: Count Basie, Cary Grant, Helen Hayes, Jerome Robbins, Rudolf Serkin
1982: George Abbott, Lillian Girsh, Benny Goodman, Gene Kelly, Eugene Ormandy
1983: Katherine Dunham, Elia Kazan, Frank Sinatra, James Stewart, Virgil Thompson
1984: Lena Horne, Danny Kaye, Gian Carolo Menotti, Arthur Miller, Isaac Stern
1985: Merce Cunningham, Irene Dunne, Bob Hope, Alan Jay Lerner & Frederick Loewe, Beverly Sills
1986: Lucille Ball, Hume Cronyn & Jessica Tandy, Yehudi Menuhin, Antony Tudor, Ray Charles
1987: Perry Como, Bette Davis, Sammy Davis Jr., Nathan Milstein, Alwin Nikolais
1988: Alvin, Ailey, George Burns, Myrna Loy, Alexander Schneider, Roger L. Stevens
1989: Harry Belafonte, Claudette Colbert, Alexandra Danilova, Mary Martin, William Schuman
1990: Dizzy Gillespie, Katharine Hepburn, Rise Stevens, Jule Styne, Billy Wilder
1991: Roy Acuff, Betty Comden & Adolph Green, Fayard & Harold Nicholas, Gregory Peck, Robert Shaw
1992: Lionel Hampton, Paul Newman & Joanne Woodward, Ginger Rodgers, Mstislav Rostropovich, Paul Taylor
1993: Johnny Carson, Arthur Mitchell, Geog Solti, Stephen Sondehim, Marion Williams
1994: Kirk Douglas, Aretha Franklin, Morton Gould, Harold Prince, Pete Seeger
1995: Jacques d'Amboise, Marilyn Horne, BB Kind, Sidney Poitier, Neil Simon
1996: Edward Albee, Benny Carter, Johnny Cash, Jack Lemmon, Maria Talchief
1997: Lauren Bacall, Bob Dylan, Charlton Heston, Jessye Norman, Edward Vilella
1998: Bill Cosby, Fred Ebb & John Kander, Willie Nelson, Andre Previn, Shirley Temple Black
1999: Victor Borge, Sean Connery, Judith Jamison, Jason Robards, Stevie Wonder
2000: Mikhail Baryshnikov, Chuck Berry, Placido Domingo, Clint Eastwood, Angela Lansbury
2001: Julie Andrews, Van Cliburn, Quincy Jones, Jack Nicholson, Luciano Pavarotti
2002: James Earl Jones, James Levine, Chita Rivera, Paul Simon, Elizabeth Taylor
2003: James Brown, Carol Burnett, Loretta Lynn, Mike Nichols, Itzhak Perlman
2004: Warren Beatty, Ossie Davies & Ruby Dee, Elton John, Joan Sutherland, John Williams
2005: Tony Bennett, Suzanne Farrell, Julie Harris, Robert Redford, Tina Turner
2006: Zubin Mehta, Dolly Parton, Smokey Robinson, Steven Spielberg, Andrew Lloyd Webber
2007: Leon Fleisher, Steve Martin, Diana Ross, Martin Scorsese, Brian Wilson
2008: Morgan Freeman, George Jones, Barbra Streisand, Twyla Tharp, Pete Townshend & Roger Daltrey
2009: Mel Brooks, Dave Brubeck, Grace Bumbry, Robert De Niro, Bruce Springsteen
2010: Merle Haggard, Jerry Herman, Bill T.Jones, Paul McCartney, Oprah Winfrey
My Picks for Upcoming Ceremonies: Burt Bacharach, Barbara Cook, Renee Flemming, Billy Joel, Jerry Lee Lewis, Patti LuPone, Reba McEntire, Bette Midler, Mark Morris, Al Pacino, Bernadette Peters, Hal Prince, Meryl Streep, Betty White
In honor of the spectacular announcement yesterday from the Kennedy Center about their upcoming spring 2011 production of Follies, I thought I would post some of my favorite songs from the iconic Stephen Sondheim show.
In Buddy's Eyes, Follies, as performed by Marin Mazzie--although I think this song works best when performed by a slightly older actress, Mazzie's performance is irresistible and she truly exploits all of the emotion in the song
Losing My Mind, Follies, as performed by Barbara Cook--in my opinion, nobody interprets Sondheim better than Barbara Cook and this performance is just terribly heartbreaking
It was just announced today that Bernadette Peters will headline the upcoming Kennedy Center production of Stephen Sondheim's Follies as Sally Durant Plummer. As Sally, she will perform some of Sondheim's most beloved songs including the heartbreaking "In Buddy's Eyes" and "Losing My Mind." This truly is the year for Peters & Soneheim as she is currently playing the role of Desire Armfeldt in the current Broadway revival of his A Little Night Music. The original production of Follies opened on Broadway on April 4, 1971 and ran for over 500 performances. It features music & lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and a book by James Goldman. Hal Prince directed the original production Michael Bennett choreographed.
Other casting includes Kim Cattrall as Phyllis Rogers Stone, Danny Burstein as Buddy, and John Dossett as Ben. Peters and Dossett previously shared the stage in the 2003 Sam Mendes revival of Gypsy as Rose and Herbie. Danny Burstein is fresh off of his acclaimed run as Luther Billis in the recent South Pacific revival and will head into the new production of Women on the Verge of A Nervous Breakdown before rehearsals for Follies begin. Cattrall is perhaps best known for portraying Samantha Jones on the hit HBO series Sex and the City and the subsequent films, but she has enjoyed an extensive stage career on London's West End stages.
Tickets for this sure-to-be-wonderful production go on sale January 30th and the run begins May 7, 2011 and closes on June 5, 2011. Now I'm not one for starting rumors, but the last successful Kennedy Center production (Ragtime in 2009) transferred to Broadway and there is certainly a chance that this production, with its amazing source material and star-filled cast, could be Broadway bound. But regardless, what a great opportunity for DC theatergoers to see Bernadette Peters, a living legend, live onstage.
I have been waiting for years to see Kelli O'Hara perform live, and when I attended her solo concert tonight at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, I was certainly not disappointed. She opened with He Loves Me, a tweaked version of the song She Loves Me. She then continued into Wonderful Guy from South Pacific and also sang a selection from Most Happy Fella. After the first two to three songs, Kelli addressed the audience. She seemed incredibly comfortable speaking to the audience and while she wasn't as funny as other performers I've seen in concert, she was incredibly sweet and charming in her own way, not to mention incredibly gracious. She told us that this was a new concert and it is the same she will be performing at her upcoming show at Feinstein's in New York. The theme of this concert was her growth as an artist and she began with ingénue songs and progressed into songs sung by more adult characters to reflect her maturity and life experience. She did a lovely rendition of Kurt Weill's My Ship and we were also privileged to hear The Beauty Is from The Light in the Piazza as her final ingénue number. 
