Pops Goes The Broadway…
Heigh-Ho, My Merry Rainbow Tribe! Bobby Patrick, your RAINBOW Reviewer here. Putting the silent T in cabareT to bring you ALL the Tea!
We all know, my lovelies, that Bobby almost always prefers the close quarters of the dark corners of the cabarets of our city. But every so often we find ourselves uptown and fancy as we did on Friday night at the very Carnegie Hall for the New York Pops BROADWAY BLOCKBUSTERS – how could we not?! Maestro Steven Reineke, an out and proud LGBTQ+ artiste BTW, assembled a cast of 4 guest voices AND the fab chorus of Essential Voices USA to belt the best of the Broadway. Nikki Renée Daniels, Jordan Donica, Matt Doyle, and Broadway World Cabaret favorite Melissa Errico gave their all, adding their vocals to Rieneke’s athletic baton, EVUSA, and the Pops’ superb instrumentalists in a program that included some Steve, some Jule, some Richard & Oscar, some Jerry, and of course that English Lord What’s His Name (ALW – wink). For two glorious hours, the Hall rang out with songs near and dear to any musical theatre fan’s heart, and, in the hands of Rieneke and the throats of his guests, these classics never sounded better… and here’s why…
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Melissa Errico
What can be said about this singing actress that Broadway World has not already said time and again? A true creature of the theatre, one can see the change come over Melissa in that moment before she sings a note, where she drops into the story, the character, and the scene she is playing from any of the musicals represented in this program. Reviving her rendition of WOULDN’T IT BE LOVERLY from the 1993 revival of MY FAIR LADY (joined by 4 EVUSA backup boys) was a real treat, and being surprised by the revelation that this was her Carnegie Hall debut made being in the audience even more of a privilege. She soloed only once, the rest of the time, mixing it up and acting with her cast-mates for everything except for Sondheim’s LOSING MY MIND from FOLLIES. This was a serendipitous song for her, as Reineke told the house that M.E.’s great aunt had been a Follies Girl in her youth. With a gorgeous arrangement by Doug Besterman, Melissa’s performance was another that elicited a single-word note from our pen – BOOM!