Show brings Simon and Garfunkel to life
If you’re too young to have seen the legendary folk duo Simon & Garfunkel when they played a series of Atlantic Canadian shows in the late ’60s, or were disheartened when a planned Halifax reunion tour stop was cancelled in 2010, there’s a new take on The Sounds of Silence coming our way this month.
Appearing at the Rebecca Cohn Auditorium on Saturday, Nov. 25 at 8 p.m., The Simon & Garfunkel Story is a part-concert/partmultimedia- theatre experience detailing the turbulent times and fascinating careers of childhood friends Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel. The show follows them from their youth in Queens, New York through a chart-topping run in the late 1960s, to their 1970 breakup and triumphant 1981 reunion concert in Central Park.
New York-based actors Taylor Bloom and Ryan M. Hunt sing as Simon & Garfunkel respectively, but they’re not losing themselves in their roles per se. “We’re not like Elvis impersonators,” says Middletown, Virginia native Bloom, who sees their role more as interpreters and tour guides through their music and life than imitating Paul and Art.
“There are images throughout the show, and a few video montages, and they help the audience understand how the music exists in a cultural and historical context,” he explains. “That’s helpful on two fronts. For the older members of the audience who grew up with this music, it really does bring them back to that time in their lives. For the younger audiences, who are less familiar with that period, it helps them understand the music on a deeper level, I think.”
After starting out as Queens pop act Tom & Jerry, Simon & Garfun- kel were drawn to the Greenwich Village folk scene, where their first hit, The Sounds of Silence, was born. Simon’s pop songwriting desires would see the duo graduate to more ambitious material like The Boxer and the Grammy Award-winning Bridge Over Troubled Water, before the friendship soured and both went solo in the ’70s.
Their songs spoke to the times, without becoming dated, while the records were produced with hints of folk-rock and pop that keeps them sounding fresh today. Bloom calls their success a “perfect storm situation” where their talent fit perfectly with the zeitgeist of a Vietnam-era America constantly trying to heal itself.
“You had all these pieces that had to fit together for this to work properly,” he says.
“Paul’s song-writing is the first thing, the music is beautiful and fairly simple.
“Anyone can listen to it and enjoy it. But the lyrics that he writes are very truthful; they ring true for a lot of people.
“In almost all of his songs, you can listen to one and something will speak to you. And the way their voices came together is another; at times it’s almost difficult to tell who’s singing what. They had this interesting connection when they were singing, and if you look up footage of them from the ’60s, they never sing a song the same way twice.”
Bloom figures that Kathy’s Song might be his favourite Simon & Garfunkel song, but is hardpressed to pick a favourite moment in the show.
He feels that the heartstring-tugging sounds of Homeward Bound and The Boxer usually get the most emotional responses from their audiences, much the same way they did a half-century ago.
The main thing, he says, is that he and Hunt still enjoy singing the songs as much as the crowds love hearing them.