Highly Recommended **** Each season, Music Theater Works brings us a musical concert as part of their program. This year, “Lerner and Lowe’s Greatest Hits”, a slick two act trip through five musicals of the past. Directed by Rudy Hogenmiller, at the fabulous Nichols Concert Hall in Evanston, this concert features the music from” Brigadoon” , “Paint Your Wagon”, “My Fair Lady”, “Gigi” and “Camelot”. There were plenty of audience members thinking back to memories that these shows have in their minds.
If you have never been to the Nichols, the seating is very comfy pews that have great sight lines to the wide stage. There are four musicians on the stage : Joey Zymonas ( drums), Joseph Krzysiak ( bass), Nina Saito ( violin) and Linda Madonia ( on piano and conductor). They are solid in every way, never overpowering the voices of the four performers that bring this music alive.
The cast is made up of Samantha Behen, who we just saw in “Hunchback”, Alicia Berneche, (one of Music Theater Works regulars), Martin L. Woods ( who many might remember from” Duke Ellington’s Greatest Hits”) and Billy Dawson ( who recently played Quasimodo in “Hunchback”). These four performers, compromise the range of voices that are perfect for the songs selected, and truly enjoyed every second of performing for the audience. Being concert style, they can play with the audience a bit and they do!
Let’s talk about the music. Many younger people are probably unfamiliar with “Brigadoon” ( circa 1947) a story about a magical place that only appears every hundred years. Songs like “The Heather on the Hill”, “I’ll Go Home With Bonnie 
Jean” and of course, “Almost like Being in Love” tell this charming love story. The second play in the first act, “Paint Your Wagon” ( circa 1951) is a western with songs like “”I Talk to the Trees”, and “They Call The Wind Maria” (Woods truly shows off his pipes on this one).
The second part of the show begins with “My Fair Lady” (circa 1956) and all of its glory including a marvelous opening combo of a mix “Wouldn’t it Be Loverly”/”With a Little Bit of Luck” followed by Berneche’s “I Could Have Danced All Night”. Part Two then goes into “Gigi” (1958) and “I Remember It Well” and “Thank Heaven For Little Girls” ( probably the few songs that people have heard before) and then, “Camelot” (1960 evoking memories of President John F. Kennedy and our world at that time, for me) with “The Simple Joy of Maidenhood”, “How To Handle a Woman”, “If Ever I Would Leave You” and a sparkling “What Do The Simple Folk Do” as playful as I have ever seen it.
These are powerful talents. There were sections where they did harmony a capella and sent chills down my spine. Behen is as bubbly as I recall her in “How To Succeed”, Dawson shows his full range, Berneche his notes that will amaze you and Woods is a powerful vocal force. If one is seeking a musical walk down memory lane, Music Theater Works is ready to provide it for them. However, the concert will only be available thru October 13th at Nichols Hall located at 1490 Chicago Avenue in Evanston.
The performance schedule is as follows:
October 5th 8 p.m. (Saturday)
October 6th 2 p.m. (Sunday)
October 9th 2 p.m. (Wednesday)
October 10th 2 p.m. (Thursday)
October 11th 8 p.m. (Friday)
October 12th 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. (Saturday)
October 13th 2 p.m. (Sunday)
Running time is under two hours with a 15 minute intermission.
Tickets from $44- $64
ages 25 and younger half-price
call 847-920-5360
visit www.MusicTheaterWorks.com
To see what others are saying, visit www.theatreinchicago.com, go to Review Round-Up and click at “Lerner & Lowe’s Greatest Hits”.
Looking for a place to dine, before or after, try FOUND, located at 1631 Chicago Avenue ( two short blocks north) , one of Amy Morton’s restaurants with a very eclectic menu ( plenty of farm-to-table).
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