Melinda's Board: Re: Concert Review

Date: 11/25/01 10:38:29 PM
Name: Anonymous
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Subject: Re: Concert Review
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Went to the show on Tuesday and thought that she sounded great. I wish she sang more of her new stuff but oh-well. Anyways thought I would include the review. Thought it was a little harsh!!

Peters tests her audience's love
Backup singers, stumbles stifle a vibrant voice

Octavio Roca, Chronicle Music Critic Thursday, November 22, 2001

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When she was good, Bernadette Peters was terrific at the Orpheum on Tuesday night.

Unveiling a new show after an absence of three years, she made music among friends. And her adoring audience gave her a warm standing ovation at the end.

Still, she really tested their love. It is understating the case to note that this charming train wreck of a show did not seem ready on first impression, and that the whole affair should probably be reconsidered before it gets any further down the road.

The singing was fine. Peters' sexy gurgle of a low voice rose through her inimitable, vulnerable middle to a shining belt on top in the gorgeous "Unexpected Song" and "Time Heals Everything." She was defiant yet touching in "Being Alive," absolutely sweet in "No One Is Alone."

Bob Mackie dressed her in a parade of sexy gowns that had her looking first like an exceptionally well-formed silver Deco lamp before she changed into a sensuous number of black brocade on pink and -- for the encores -- a black strapless gown that best highlighted the fiery halo of her hair.

Marvin Laird conducted the overamplified band and also accompanied Peters at the piano in the show's more intimate moments. Her repertory was impeccable,

truly the best of Broadway and the West End, from Irving Berlin and Leonard Bernstein to Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber and Stephen Sondheim. Peters also paid tribute to Richard Rodgers' centennial with a group of songs from her forthcoming Rodgers and Hammerstein recording. So what's not to like?

Well, the show was far from tight, and Peters herself was seldom focused on the material. The Rodgers and Hammerstein songs in particular sounded like sight-readings. The mannered "Can't Get a Man With a Gun" was a reminder that it took a real country singer, not Peters, to make sense of the most recent revival of "Annie Get Your Gun."

She forgot her lines and stumbled on the patter, each false start adding a layer of insincerity to every garden-variety showbiz story. Most of all, Peters was ill served by Richard Jay-Alexander's hack direction and was dragged down further by an embarrassing quartet of amateur singers that had no business being on the same stage. A scene from "Dames at Sea," the 1968 breakthrough hit that made Peters a star, was inexplicably given over to dinner-theater choreography and worse dancing.

The men's quartet also ruined "Moonshine Lullaby," but the worst came at the end. This was after Peters had created real magic with "We'll Catch Up Some Other Time," a bittersweet, urbane and ineffably moving little masterpiece from Bernstein's "On the Town." A competent director might have noticed that, after almost 2 1/2 hours, this was a good time to bring down the curtain in triumph. Instead, Jay-Alexander had Peters upstaged by the appaling men's quartet in an audience sing-along of "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas." She deserved better.

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Replying to:

I went on Friday (Nov. 23) night and she was in great voice throughout most of the evening. I could hear her voice start to give out here and there towards the end, but she still sang her heart out through every number and we didn't get out until 10:25.

How was the audience reaction at the matinee? Did she still give out the Christmas ball. I understand that she dropped some numbers for both Saturday shows and Sunday has been canceled.

Here's the numbers she did on Friday:
ACT I - No Business Like Show Business / Can't Get a Man with a Gun / No One is Alone / Sooner or Later / Second Letter Home / Unexpected Song / I'm Flying / Time Heals Everything / You Could Drive a Person Crazy / Raining in My Heart / Some People

ACT II - Nothin' Like a Dame / Mr. Snow / It Might as Well be Spring / I Left My Heart in SF / Moonshine Lullaby / Not A Day Goes By / With So Little to Be Sure Of / Childern Will Listen / Being Alive / Move On / Some Other Time / Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas

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Replying to:

HI!
Did anyone go to B.P.'s concert at the Orpheum? I went today (Now 24th) to the matinee. I realized right away that she had a cold and was having trouble with hoarseness I felt so bad for her because I could see she was trying so hard. As a singer, I could relate and could see that she had all kinds of things she would have liked to do with her voice and her songs with dynamics and licks and such but didn't really know what was even going to come out. By the end of the concert she couldn't sing anymore and had to finish off "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas" by speaking it when I am sure she ussually must finish it with a beautiful belt as she does with so many other songs. I was so amazed at how she handled it. It was inspiring to see that even big celebrities can have struggles in their arts. The woman is amazing. Her personality came right through and compensated. She's beautiful. I see now that I can always make a song beautiful if it comes from the heart. Does anyone have an adress I can write to her??????

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