Orlando Cabaret Fest with “The Broadway Boys” and “It Was A Wond
Orlando Cabaret Fest with “The Broadway Boys” and “It Was A Wonderful Year – 1960”
Mad Cow Theatre, Orlando FL</strong>
Kids these days – they hardly remember the classic goofy 1960 novelty hit “Alley Oop”. Sure, it’s condescending and fails to recognize all the contributions the Cave Man made to modern society- taming the brontosaurus, adding leg bones to women’s hair styles, and popularizing the leopard skin print, but Alley Oop is a cultural landmark that even Dr. Demento treasures. I learned about this horrible gap in generational cultural awareness from a pleasant conversation with my tables mates at Club Moo – home of the “It Was A Wonderful Year” series. “It Was A Wonderful Year” features music and trivia from the past decades from an ensemble of entertainers: Kyle Mattingly on piano, Kevin Kelly, David Kelly, Krista Abbot and Sara Barnes on vocals. They guys are in tuxes, girls in green sparkly stuff and it was another educational and entertaining look at a decade that’s been mythologized since before it was over. While most us wore Sears’s jeans and learned to read from Dick and Jane, what people reminisce about are hippies, LSD, and wild rock and roll. Tonight lands closer to truth – we hear material by Frank Sinatra, Pattie Paige, an assortment of teen idols, along with classic Broadway material from “Bye Bye Birdie” and “Camelot.” David Kelly reached deep down into his baritone for “If Ever I Would Leave You” while Kevin Kelly (no relation) pulled off a vaguely believable Dean Martin with “Ain’t Love A Kick In The Head” and much nicer “Puppy Love.” Krista Abbot had her best moments with “A Taste of Honey” and “Hey Look Me Over” and I loved Ms. Barnes rendition of “I’m Sorry,” one of Brenda Lee’s enduring hits. If we learned anything about 1960, the introduction of birth control pills came at just the right time to contain this swelling of teen age lust. Yes, America has preserved the ideal of 2.3 children – and THAT’S better living through chemistry.
The high profile headliner at this year’s Cabaret Fest is the repeat appearance of “The Broadway Boys.” Their gimmick: all have appeared in various Broadway shows from “Rent” and “Wicked” to the little remembered “Dog Fight”. It’s not clear if these guys were principle singers or just lurking in the chorus, but they all had excellent voices and respectable stage presence. The material tended toward relatively obscure numbers like “Come to the Garden” and “You Can Believe in Me” and even “Morning Glow” from “Pippin”. Some pop standards appeared as well, including “Big Yellow Taxi” and the Beatles’ “Blackbird.” While the show was well received (one woman in the front row seemed ready to dance on stage) the big issue here was the arrangements. About half way through the show’s musical director Jesse Nager pointed out these were non-standard arrangements, which was obvious from the first number. While the new style nicely matches the skills of the singers, the Boy Band Sound tends to strip the originality of the music and turn the show into a demonstration of ululation. I thought having each singer introduce themselves along with their home town and first show they appeared in seemed a bit precious – we do like you, but not enough to put you on our Christmas letter list. These guys CAN belt out a song, and their backing band is stellar: the guitarist is cool and precise while the bass player looked a bit like a young Dee Dee Ramone, but with a better haircut. I wasn’t fond of retooled working of this material, but the rest of the audience disagreed, and “The Broadway Boys “got the now standard Orlando Ovation, a growing tradition in this town.
For more information on Mad Cow, please visit http://www.madcowtheatre.com and for times and tickets for Orlando Cabaret Festival, look up http://OrlandoCabaret.com
More information on The Broadway Boys may be found at http://www.bwayboys.com/</em>
