Jonathan Miele, co-director of Maine State Ballet, has assembled a heaping stageful of talent for this year’s “A Night of Broadway” at Maine State Ballet Theater in Falmouth, featuring singers known throughout local community theater along with Maine State Ballet dancers.
Miele and musical director Vicky Stubbs (who provided accompaniment on the piano, with Bill Manning on percussion) have crafted the show in such a way that about two dozen songs and dances of highly varied vintage, derivation and style flow along without feeling disjointed.
The revue is notable also for its spectrum of performers’ ages, from Miele’s young granddaughter Emma (performing with her father, principal dancer Glenn Davis) to veteran songstress Ellen Lefevre, and for the opportunity it gives to hear professional-quality singing unaltered by electronic amplification – a rare treat.
On Saturday evening, the show was absorbing in its entirety, with shining moments from each on the roster of vocal soloists: Miele, Lefevre, Davis, Marissa Sheltra, David Coombs, Suzy Cropper, Stephen Filieo, John York, Jim Gaddis, Danielle Vayenas, Marilyn Minsky Melton, Tony Farides and Darren Avery.
Vayenas’ rendition of “You’ll Never Walk Alone” (“Carousel”) was beautiful and moving. Without over-dramatizing, she gave lovely expression to the lyrics, and her voice was full and secure from bottom to top of the song’s famously challenging multiple-octave range.
Sheltra, whose past roles have included the adult Cosette in Ogunquit Playhouse’s 2008 “Les Miserables,” sang “I Could Have Danced All Night” from “My Fair Lady” with resonance and clarity.
She and Gaddis performed together in the duet “Suddenly Seymour” from “Little Shop of Horrors.” This song provides just enough of its own context to give it stand-alone emotional impact, and the pair told its story with fluency and Broadway-quality vocals. Gaddis also gave a solid rendition of “Prayer” from “The Scarlet Pimpernel,” handling its challenging vocal transitions well.
Lefevre and Vayenas impressed with “Happy Days Are Here Again” and “Get Happy,” two solos intelligently juxtaposed to be sung simultaneously. Lefevre also delighted with the solo “Some of These Days” and a sweet medley of standards in duet with Miele.
No choreographer was credited in the program, but whoever it was did a great job with an ensemble that included expert hoofers alongside singers without dance training. In the full-cast opening and recurrent smaller-ensemble songs, the choreography gave the performers just what they needed for fluent, confident movement.
For the triple threats among the cast, dance was featured more, including a soft-shoe for Miele’s “Once in Love With Amy” (“Where’s Charlie”) and some nice tapping for Glenn Davis, childishly echoed by Emma Davis, in “Put On a Happy Face” (“Bye Bye Birdie”).
The show also included two dance-only selections, performed by Maine State Ballet dancers. “I Got Rhythm” (“Crazy For You”) was a slick tap number, with ballet-influenced suspension and top-level steps by the group of nine dancers, featuring Glenn and Janet Davis doing what they do best: captivating through personality-rich movement.
“Dancin’ Man” from “Fosse” was striking for Glenn Davis’ capture of the Fosse style, with its distinctive lyricism and precise nuance of movement throughout the body, especially in the shoulders and head. Davis was so close to perfect that it was hard to draw the eyes away from him to the six accomplished female dancers with whom he performed.
Throughout the program, drama and flashiness alternated with comedy. Miele and York provided much of the latter, especially in York’s “Satisfied With Life” (“Tintypes”) and both performers’ appearances in the recurring “In the Same Boat” (“Curtains”).
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