Stan Davis: Reviews

BROADWAY DIGEST A WINNER

REVIEW
What: Hats off to Broadway, Bob LeBlanc's Variety Fare
Where: Metro Studio,
1411 Quadra St.
When: 7:30 p.m. tonight. Also at 8 p.m. April 9 and 2 p.m. April 10 at Mary Winspear Centre, Sidney
Tickets: $25 at Long & McQuade, Ivy's and Munro's books, or at the door. In Sidney at 250-656-0275
Rating: 4 (out of five)

How do you squeeze more than 70 blockbuster Broadway hits into one two-hour program, without pressing the fast-forward button or leaving your audience gasping for breath?

First you ask pianist Bob LeBlanc to conjure smooth-as-silk segues between each song. Next you find six performers who are able to leap vocally and emotionally from theme to theme and lyric to lyric, switching style, tempo, rhythm and mood, and even adding a few fancy dance steps.

LeBlanc's new show group, Variety Fare, does all this while performing Hats off to Broadway in Victoria tonight and next week in Sidney. The kickoff performance Thursday night was a near sellout.

"I never let people get bored," explained LeBlanc, 77, who plays by ear and admits medleys have been his métier for decades.

In a tribute to Irving Berlin, for instance, he donned a sequined jacket and delivered a fast-paced melange of about a dozen hits.

In addition to being a snappy pianist, the producer and artistic director has a knack for choosing singers whose voices complement each other as beautifully as the songs, whether taken from Guys and Dolls, South Pacific, Jesus Christ Superstar, Les Miserables, Carousel, Kiss Me Kate, Oliver, Chorus Line, Cabaret, Hello Dolly, Oklahoma or Chess.

A highlight among the non-stop entertainment is Fran Bitonti, who at one point is torn between two lovers in a hilarious singing skit featuring just one line from each of no fewer than 18 love songs -- with choreography by Jennifer Saunders.

Bass vocalist Stan Davis, assistant musical director of the group, adds to the show's vibe and comic chemistry with Sarah Carlé, who is a talented singer, actor and amusing wannabe Ethel Merman. Tenors Timothy Kyle and Dwayne Gordon add rich harmonies and stand out as soloists, while Angela Ireland brings her strong voice and sparkle to the Great White Way mix, especially with Carlé in I Knew Him So Well, from the musical Chess.

As the songs say: That's entertainment. Thursday night's show was Some enchanted evening, during which We felt the room swaying and thought What good is sitting alone in your room ... when we could be blessed with the Sound of Music, or at least Putting on the Ritz with a little help from Alexander's ragtime band while floating Way down upon the Swanee River.

Talented local composer-performer Stan Davis sometimes writes shows for the Four Seasons Musical Theatre, so it’s not too surprising that his brand new Harmony For Christmas sounds like the soundtrack to an off-Broadway Christmas musical. All but three of the 16 tracks are originals, and they are brought to vivid life by nine singers, all performers in Victoria Operatic Society productions. With rich harmonies and touching sentiments, these well-performed songs joyfully reach out to the whole family. There’s even a token ditty for the season’s lonely guys, complete with wittily lugubrious lyrics like “What good is mistletoe when there’s no one here but me?” For sale at upcoming shows, Christian Book and Music, and the rather more pagan Lyle’s Place. - Robert Moyes, Monday Magazine

EXPRESSIONS SCORES WITH SUPER SONGS
Theatrical elements familiar and favorable to children were greeted with shrieks and applause Sunday as Expressions Theatre presented "The Witch and the Rabbit King".
The lighthearted romp through standard children's territory, written, produced by Stan Davis, contained enough twists and turns to make the journey an intriguing one for both the young audience and their accompaniment of parents.
Davis even appears as Oswald, a bilingual, woe-begone bunny with a missing mate in the Sylvia Hosie directed and choreographed production, the first for this new company.
Keeping "Rabbit King" from being swallowed by the glut of necessary children's theatre trappings, thus losing its unique spirit in convention, were the witty, hummable songs of Davis, not far from Lloyd Webber and endearing to all ages. His thirteen musical numbers (under the direction of Amanda Snider) are memorably wrapped about a simple libretto telling the tale of good-gone-bad-gone-good.
Songs are in the "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" tradition in their spoofing of various musical styles - rockabilly to country, to, weakest of all, rap.
Humor abounds with a leather-clad Rabbit King (Paul Donison in his best Elvis), on overblown wizard (Alan Penty) and a suitably evil witch (Pam Miller) each upstaging the other.
There's good rapport between the character and audience, inviting involvement, without sacrificing pace.
This Expressions debut should be punctuated by an exclamation mark, making us await more with some anticipation.