The Quest: Choose Your Own Adventure
The Quest: Choose Your Own Adventure – A Musical
Written and conceived by Nishaa Carson and Keith Newhouse
Directed by Spensyr Mayfield and A. J Harrett
Musical Direction by Nishaa Carson
Fight Choreography by A. J Harrett
Starring Kevin Romera, Nishaa Carson, David Bracamonte, and Erik Branch
Central Florida Vocal Arts
Presenting at The Venue, Orlando FL</strong>
Opera is one of those arts that used to be funny and sexy until it became a hobby of the wealthy. Central Florida Vocal Arts attempts to peel off that veneer of respectability while maintaining the vocal gymnastics opera excels at. Tonight they taken a rather innovative approach to “The Magic Flute,” mixing it with pop tunes sung in the grand styles and simple but fun staging. At various times The Tall Guy With A Drink (Peter Heid) appears and encourages us to vote on what happens next. Since I only got to this show at the end of the run, it seemed like the crowd knew the “right” way to vote. Shades of Tammany Hall!
Poor lost prince Tamino (Kevin Romero) is attacked by a plush snake operated by three young women. He wakes up in the avian presence of Papageno (David Bracamonte) and they become friends. Tamino is shown a picture of Pamina (McKenzie Frazier) and we are off on the race to get the young couple marries despite the efforts of the evil Queen of the Night (Carson) and the evil looking but kind hearted Sarastro (Eric Branch). Branch belts out an amazing version of Radio Head’s “Creep” while Bracamonte does some doo-wop. Later he joins in a duet with Ms. Frazier on my favorite Holy Grail tune “A Song Like This.” Ms. Carson sticks to the operatic arias; she very good at singing them and I’m very bad at identifying them. Overall, it’s a fun and surprising collection of pop, show tunes and opera, all done tongue in cheek and with audience participation. Plus, CFVA is one of the few groups than can get good sound out of the echoey Venue space.
For more information on Central Florida Vocal Arts please visit https://www.facebook.com/CFLVocalArts or http://cflvocalarts.com/ </em>
