Author: Alexandria Strother

From January 21 to March 26, 2016 the Purple Rose Theater in Chelsea Michigan will be presenting Neil Simon’s The Odd Couple. Following the play’s Broadway run beginning in 1965, The Odd Couple has been the source material for numerous spin-offs including a 1968 film and 1970s television sitcom.

Sunday afternoon Lydia Mendelssohn Theatre was packed. The main floor was filled with Professors from the university and local theater patrons willing to pay a premium to get closer to the stage and the balcony was full of Vocal Performance majors and local high school students who were just as excited for the afternoon’s performance.

Jamie Barton’s much anticipated recital began promptly at four with an announcement from the stage: she’s sick. My heart immediately sank as I assumed she was cutting the recital short, or worse, had been replaced with a healthy singer to pacify the anxious crowd. The director of UMS explained how Jamie Barton had been a part of masterclasses at the university during the week, sang in another concert Friday, and was scheduled to sing at the Metropolitan Opera on Saturday (a performance which was live streamed to movie theaters around the world) in addition to this solo recital. Apparently, she knew that something had to give and, much to the relief of the audience, she had canceled her appearance at the Metropolitan Opera and would still present her recital in Ann Arbor.

Her entrance caused a hushed murmur to go through the audience – the beautiful mezzo whom everyone was expecting to come out in a spectacular gown was dressed in black snow boots, jeans and a graphic long sleeve shirt with white angel wings printed on the back. Martin Katz, the pianist for the evening, was dressed more casually than I have ever seen him dressed on a daily basis – much less a concert! Katz’s red button up shirt was hanging, untucked, over light wash jeans and shoes of the non-dressy variety. After the applause and murmurs died down Jamie Barton addressed the audience – apparently your luggage can be lost on a direct flight!

The recital itself was breathtaking. I have heard Jamie Barton perform live before and this (along with her intermittent coughing) was the only reason I could tell that she was under the weather. Even from my seat at the back of the hall, the timbre of her voice was clear and full for the vast majority of the music. The Turina set which began the performance brought my friend to tears and the Chausson set which followed (especially Le colibri and Hebe) were presented in a such sensitive, natural way that caused me to be deeply moved. The last piece of the Chausson set, Les temps des lilas, did not create this same effect as the acting become more of a performance and lost the naturalistic honesty of the previous pieces, however, Jamie Barton’s superb technique and musicality carried the piece well.

Intermission was unusually long as Jamie Barton’s luggage had arrived at the end of the standard intermission length and they had extended it to allow her to change into the gorgeous floor length gown that we had all expected her to wear.

The recital ended with Dvorak’s Gypsy Songs and two pieces by Rachmaninoff. The Gypsy Songs were especially strong – the rest which her voice received during intermission served her well and her voice was the fullest during this set. By the Rachmaninoff set her voice was clearly tired and rather than push through to perform the entire set (risking damaging her voice and performing them at a caliber less than her standards) one of the three pieces from the set was cut.

Jamie Barton presented a magnificent concert on Sunday – a true feat for someone so obviously sick – proving yet again, that the hair, the make up or the gown or even a voice singing to it’s full potential is not what intrigues the audience or moves the masses.

On January 10th at 4 pm Jamie Barton will present a recital at the Lydia Mendelssohn Theatre (located in the Michigan League) in collaboration with pianist Martin Katz. Winner of the 2015 Richard Tucker Award, winner of the Main and Song prizes at the 2013 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition, a winner of the 2007 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and a Grammy nominee, Jamie Barton has performed at the most prestigious opera houses around the word.

The program will include five sets by Turina, Chausson, Schubert, Dvorak and Rachmaninoff.

Student tickets are available for $12 at the UMS ticket office.

I have been told that the secret to happiness is quite simple: ensure that your expectations are lower than that which is bound to happen, because otherwise you will always be disappointed. It was through my own folly then, that this premise was not kept in mind as I attended Ann Arbor in Concert’s An Evening with Shoshana Bean and Whitney Bashor at the Lydia Mendelssohn Theatre on Saturday evening. Overall, the production was entertaining and well laid out, however, I found it much too long and rough around the edges.

As students, we are able to attend any of the School of Music, Theatre and Dance productions for $12. These productions are never flawless but they are quite good – while they are current students, many of the performers go on to sing, dance and act on major stages across the country including Broadway. So when I purchased tickets for $25 a person to see two current Broadway stars, my expectation was that this performance would be significantly stronger than anything I had seen on the Lydia Mendelssohn stage.

For those that have attended one of Audra McDonald’s concerts at Hill Auditorium, it is easy to understand the vibe which the performance was striving for. There was a beautiful bright red couch on the right side of the stage where Shoshana Bean and Whitney Bashor sat when not singing and a white swivel chair from which Mike Mosallam controlled the length and subject of conversation between songs. They strived to seamlessly interpolate conversation between each piece the girls sang, including stories from their childhood, audition nightmares and backstage antics, but instead of naturally flowing through conversation, it came off as forced and unrehearsed. There were extremely endearing moments during which I was grateful for the insights into these girls lives, but as the conversation dragged on I became disinterested. For a performance that contained approx. 50 minutes of music and no intermission, it lasted much too long. Overall, the conversation took away from the experience so that by 10:25 when it was over (the performance began at 8:10 with no intermission), I was more than ready to leave.

The obvious highlight of the evening was the singing. Both Bean and Bashor are extremely talented performers and every time they stepped up to the mic they performed like the professionals they are. I was pleasantly surprised by inclusion of several of the musical theatre majors who functioned primarily as backup for Bean and Bashor, but some of who were featured in a Wicked medley. The medley finished with Bean taking back the mic, and I felt bad for the student featured right before her because the difference in the quality of instruments was extremely apparent. During this medley two students of note were Cameron Jones and Jillian Slade, both commanded the space physically and vocally holding their ground among an incredibly talented crowd. Since there was no program, I am unable to properly credit another incredibly talented student who performed during the “guess-that-riff” section of the evening. She performed difficult passages from Bean’s repertoire and nailed every single note, leaving everyone, includng Bean, obviously impressed.

An Evening with Shoshana Bean and Whitney Bashor had the potential to be a performance that would exceed the highest of expectations, yet, the performance which they put on was simply good not extraordinary. The dialog which occurred between songs lacked “performance energy” and lasted far too long causing the performance to drag. However, for the opportunity to see Bean and Bashor perform live, it was well worth the price of admission.

On Saturday November 14th at 8 pm Shoshana Bean and Whitney Bashor will present a special one night concert at the Lydia Mendelssohn Theatre in Ann Arbor, Michigan made possible through their collaboration with Ann Arbor in Concert.

Bean and Bashor, who are most well known for portraying Elphaba in Wicked and Marian in The Bridges of Madison County respectively, take the stage under direction of Mike Mosallam as they take a brief break from pre-Broadway tryouts of the new musical Beaches based on the 1988 Bette Midler film of the same name.

Tickets are $25 – 50 depending on location.

Tickets are on sale at www.a2ic.org

All My Sons by Arthur Miller was premiered in 1947 and became an overnight success after his previous show, The Man Who Had All the Luck failed after disastrous reviews and only four performances. All My Sons revolves around the successful Keller family and Kate Keller’s (Regan Moro) refusal to believe that her son Larry who went MIA in WWII is dead. Her husband, Joe (Benjamin David Reitemeier) and son Chris (Ryan Rosenheim) have accepted that Larry will never come home but have played along with her interpretation of reality in order to keep the peace. However, Chris has invited their former neighbor and Larry’s former girlfriend Annie (Madeline Rouverol) to the Keller family home in order to propose to his long time pen pal and friend. Yet, it is not just Annie and Larry’s past relationship that stands in his way, Annie’s father once was Joe’s business partner – a failed partnership which ended with defective parts being sent to US Army, 21 pilots dead, Annie’s father in jail and Joe surrounded by murderous suspicion.

As a special production for the 100^th Birthday of Arthur Miller and 100^th anniversary of the School of Theatre and Drama at the University of Michigan, this production was designed to impress alumni and the community at large – a feat which it easily accomplished. Since the Arthur Miller Theatre has a thrust stage, I have never seen a traditional curtain used in this venue causing the set to be immediately exposed the second you walk into the theater. This provides the audience with a tremendous amount of time to view the set and cast judgments about each piece present on the stage, presenting a huge amount of pressure on the Scenic Designer to create the “perfect” set. Caleb Levengood (’03) did a tremendous job with set. The stage was framed by white lattice woodwork which was filled with items that appeared to be from Larry’s childhood. While the actors never interacted with any of these objects or acknowledge their existence, they framed the story as a constant reminder that while Larry himself might not be present, his absence was always something to be noted. On the stage itself, a porch jetting out from the façade of an incomplete house subtly suggested  that there are parts missing from more than just the house.

The principle actors did a tremendous job with creating believable and complex characters on stage, while the featured actors fulfilled their purpose as plot devices but were otherwise not of note. Regan Moro as Kate Ketter was especially powerful in her presentation of a woman trapped in a world of delusion but desperately clinging to reality. The wringing of her hands was never overdone, she was not the stereotype of a woman who has lost or the false two dimensional character you too often see but rather a powerful, commanding presence determined to hide the disintegration of her world from those closest to her.

Arthur Miller’s All My Sons is not an uplifting piece but much like Death of a Salesmen Miller forces the audience to look at themselves before casting judgment on the choices of his characters. Here he questions the audience: how much would you compromise?