Celebrating Great White Way
The classics to contemporary songs performed by local talent
Ever wanted to see and hear some Broadway hits but without all that narrative foofaraw?
From Broadway With Love brings together local vocal talent and a 14-piece orchestra (11 soloists and a choir) to perform songs from the Great White Way. The selections date from classics (West Side Story, 1957) to contemporary (Dear Evan Hansen, 2016). Postmedia News talked to musical director Christopher King about the show, which is the inaugural production of Circle Bright, a recently formed Vancouver performing arts company.
Q: Is there a theme to From Broadway With Love?
A: The idea is to give a snippet of Broadway to audiences through the concert format as opposed to a fully staged show.
Ten of the 20 songs in the show
were chosen through Circle Bright’s social media channels. Were there any surprises?
There were a lot of modern shows, staples of musical theatre like Phantom and Les Miz. But I was surprised by how much modern material people wanted to hear, like songs from Waitress (2016), Dear Evan Hansen, and The Book of Mormon (2011).
Where did you find the singers?
We had open auditions. They’re all pros who have worked in theatres across Vancouver, some across Canada. They’re all musical theatre types with different backgrounds.
How did you match the singer with the song?
When I looked at that list from the online poll and the talent we had, I paired people up. A couple of people who had auditioned for me, I knew what they were capable of so I assigned them what I thought was what was most appropriate for their vocal type or personality.
Were there any absolute musthaves for you, song-wise?
I really thought it was important to make sure we gave a selection of Broadway material that people could grab onto, songs that were popular but also ones people hadn’t heard. I think we did a pretty good job of spreading out the material. What was really the most important thing for me was that people have a good time, and they experience a small bit of Broadway storytelling in one evening.
Did you find that these songs all had something in common, whether in arrangements or the way the lyrics told a story?
The important thing was that the songs could stand on their own, and that they encapsulate the story of the show in some way. But we also give introductions to the song, where somebody gives a synopsis of what’s happening in the moment.
For example, there’s a song from a musical called Violet (1997; Broadway opening, 2014). It’s about a woman who was disfigured by an accident. As a kid she goes on a bus journey in the southern United States to see an evangelical minister to be healed. What’s cool about the context is that, though we never see the disfiguration, the other actors do. So we only react to her through how other people see her. The song is a beautiful Southern revival, gospel-y number. But without that context we wouldn’t know what’s happening.