By Kent Mancuso
The coldest day of the year so far hit New York City on Friday night of Jan. 17, with temperatures plummeting overnight — so that those of us who had to go out on Saturday morning had to endure temperatures of 10º, with wind chill below zero. However, that same Friday night, BASIC productions’ “Broadway Blockbusters II” opened at Flushing Town Hall and generated enough heat to blast the East coast into a new El Niño cycle.
For this hearty senior citizen, who has not missed my morning jog since the day I retired, I was so heated up by “Broadway Blockbusters Take II” from Friday night, that my freezing early morning jog Saturday was a breeze. I kept humming all those tunes out loud for more than an hour.
In fact, I’d recommend that anyone looking for a cure to the winter blahs hurry over to Flushing Town Hall this coming weekend for any of the remaining performances of this wonderful production. “Broadway Blockbusters Take II” is the “almost better than” sequel to last year’s original “Broadway Blockbusters” also at Town Hall. I had thought the original was quite an event, never imagining that they would do it again, almost better. At this rate, I am putting in my vote for “Take III” next year and “Take IV” and “Take V,” at the very least.
The special magic of this production is the production. The minute you walk upstairs in the beautifully redone historical Town Hall and enter the theater, you can’t help but saying, as one young audience member said on Friday night, “Wow, this is beauuuuuuuutiful!” (That’s not a typo, folks. That’s what she said.) The theater is sumptuous, giving the impression of a grandly designed professional space. And when the crew includes a female usher dressed in an usher’s tux, the show biz spell really begins to take effect.
And that’s what “Broadway Blockbusters” is all about — show biz — that special glitter and excitement that you could see and feel in the audience as it was crowding into the lobby before the crew let us upstairs. Granted, the audience was filled largely with friends and family of cast members, and with a large cast such as this one — including a merry group of talented children, that translates into a big, motivated audience.
It’s hard to put my finger on what made the night so wonderful. Perhaps it was the special drive that I could see in the faces of the children as they walked through the audience on their way backstage; or their nervous energy that seems strong enough to launch the space shuttle; or the special tingle you feel when the lights go down and the bustling audience settles eagerly into their seats in hushed anticipation; or maybe it was the thrill of hearing a live orchestra — not just a piano, but an orchestra — start up and accelerate into full speed.
And then the singing and dancing began.
Broadway melodies flooded the hall for two impressive acts — great songs from shows past to shows present — including “Ziegfeld Follies,” “Rent,” “Fiddler on the Roof,” “Smokey Joe’s Café,” “Ain’t Misbehavin’,” “Hair,” “West Side Story,” and “Woman of the Year” — were all strung together with no particular reason other than the thrill of hearing and seeing them performed as group production numbers. Blended into the mix were clusters of songs from featured musicals, namely, “The Sound of Music,” “Beauty and the Beast,” and my personal favorite,” Les Miserables.”
Although group numbers prevailed, giving all of the large cast ample opportunity to sing and dance with great lighting and choreography, as well as a most professionally equipped orchestra under the baton of Jeff Arzberger, the production centered around a core of two singers, Susan Agin and Andrew Koslowsky. Agin is a vibrato-heavy contralto of considerable talent, a belter of the Bette Midler, Ethel Merman, Fanny Brice, Sophie Tucker school. Just listening to her wrap those bronzed vocal cords around “My Man” and “Seasons of Love” let me know what this chanteuse is all about. Koslowsky has a richly textured baritone capable of handling “The Impossible Dream” and “Empty Chairs and Empty Tables” with ease. And when these two singers combined forces for “Do You Love Me?” they brought the house down.
They were also the featured singers in a number of duets and group numbers with other cast members. But not to hog the limelight, other soloists were given a chance to strut their stuff. John Rodriguez had the place on its toes in “This Joint Is Jumpin’,” Danielle Crinnion sang some of “Beauty and the Beast” tunes quite sweetly, as did Cara Ann Miller with “The Sound of Music.”
A special highlight was a medley of tunes from “The Wizard of Oz,” featuring a disarming and talented group of children and the very talented Cecilia Vaicels as soloist. Vaicels was the Wicked Witch in last summer’s “Oz” production at St. Gregory’s in Bellerose, a performance I applauded loudly in my TimesLedger review the morning after it opened. And when Vaicels joined voices with the lovely soprano of Dolores Voyer for “With One Look,” I was in Broadway heaven.
The cast also displayed the remarkable talents of David Arzberger, Chad Badgero, Kirk Johnson, Bethany Davis, Ana Russell, young Daniel Moore, Donald Gormanly, and — well the cast is just too large to single everyone out. The special treat for me was that these are all local performers, given an opportunity to display their talents with all the professionalism of Equity performers, right in our own backyard. And each one rose to the occasion so well. Bravo to each of you!
One negative was the lack of high voices. The production was heavily tipped into the middle and bottom range, and the thrill of a professional show should be the range of voices extended in both directions. For example, even though I loved the set of music selected from “Les Miserables,” I think most people would agree that the most beloved tunes are “Bring Him Home,” “Who Am I?” “One Day More,” “Stars,” “I Dreamed a Dream” and “On My Own,” all requiring high voices. There are only a few local singers I know of who can tackle those money-note songs. Perhaps next year?
There are three performances left this weekend, Friday at 8 p.m. and Saturday at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. Flushing Town Hall is located at 137-35 Northern Blvd., between Union Street and Main Street, in Flushing. For information call, 718-463-7700, Ext. 222. You can’t miss!
