Review: The Golden Age of Broadway at The Boston Pops

The Golden Age of Broadway

The Boston Pops Orchestra, Keith Lockhart conducting

The Golden Age of Broadway, featuring Marin Mazzie, Laura Osnes, Jason Danieley, and Justin Hopkins, vocalists; Tanglewood Festival Chorus, Lidiya Yankovskaya, Guest Chorus Conductor; Lawrence Goldberg, pianist

Steve Colby, Sound Designer; Pamela Smith, Lighting Designer

Performances June 15-June 16 at 8 p.m. at Symphony Hall, Boston

Ticket Information 888-266-1200 or www.bostonpops.org

The Boston Pops has been winning the affection of audiences in Boston and beyond for 131 seasons, so they must be doing something right. Case in point, over the course of two nights they filled Symphony Hall with some of the greatest hits from musical theater in a program called The Golden Age of Broadway. The roster of vocalists featured Marin Mazzie, Laura Osnes, Jason Danieley, and Justin Hopkins, with heavenly support from the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, with Lidiya Yankovskaya as Guest Chorus Conductor. Keith Lockhart was on the podium, summoning forth outstanding arrangements of classic tunes from "America's Orchestra."

Defining the Golden Age as the years between 1943 and 1959, Lockhart began the concert with a lovely, lush medley from the quintessentially American musical, Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma! More than one third of the evening's selections came from the R&H canon, including South Pacific (1949), The King and I (1951), and The Sound of Music (1959). The other composers represented are a who's who of musical theater: Lerner & Loewe, Porter, Loesser, Adler & Ross, and Styne & Sondheim, among them. Broadway stars Mazzie and Danieley are long-time Pops collaborators, while Osnes took the Symphony Hall stage for the first time. Pops patrons may remember Hopkins from the 2015 holiday season.

Danieley cracked the toughest nut first, delivering the challenging "Soliloquy" from R&H's Carousel. Each of his songs allowed him to display his acting skills, shifting from tough guy Billy Bigelow to gambler Nicely Nicely Johnson ("Sit Down, You're Rockin' The Boat," Guys and Dolls) to fast-talking Professor Harold Hill ("Trouble," The Music Man). He even sang a duet with himself, crooning "Hey, There" (The Pajama Game) smoothly along with playback from his smart phone. Strangely, there were no duets pairing Danieley and Mazzie, who are Mr. and Mrs. offstage and often perform together in concert.

Conversely, Osnes and Hopkins teamed up three times, her crystalline soprano floating lightly above his resonant bass in "Almost Like Being in Love" (Brigadoon), "We Kiss in a Shadow" (The King and I), and "My Heart is So Full of You" (The Most Happy Fella). The women of the chorus played the ensemble of nurses to Osnes' Nellie Forbush for her sassy rendition of "I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair" (South Pacific), followed by "Some Enchanted Evening," sung with urgency and gorgeous, deep tones by Hopkins. Osnes fearlessly soloed on two of Julie Andrews' signature songs with favorable results. She was light and joyful in "I Could Have Danced All Night" (My Fair Lady), and captured the easence of Maria in "The Sound of Music."

Mazzie probably disappointed some people who had tickets for The King and I at Lincoln Center in New York while she was onstage with the Pops in Boston, but their loss was our gain. Since mid-May, she has been playing Anna Leonowens in the revival (which will be closing on June 26) and her performance of "Hello, Young Lovers" was nuanced and totally in character. As I commented to my companion, you could tell she's been singing that number eight times per week. She revisited an earlier role (Lilli/Katharine) with an emotional "So in Love" (Kiss Me, Kate), and went to the opposite end of the spectrum to step into the shoes of Mama Rose for a powerhouse "Some People" (Gypsy). The foursome came together for a powerful, climactic "Climb Every Mountain" (The Sound of Music), enhanced by the strength of the chorus.

The Tanglewood Festival Chorus provided a wonderful, rich sound behind the featured vocalists on many of the musical numbers. The male members took the spotlight for "Heart" (Damn Yankees) and gave it their all, but I only wish they had donned Red Sox caps for the occasion. Lockhart and the orchestra presented all of these wonderful show tunes in their best light and made me long for the days when musical theater had a full complement of musicians in the pit. To hear the classic songs from the Golden Age of Broadway sung by four outstanding singers and played by America's Orchestra in one of the greatest acoustic temples was priceless. Singing along to a reprise of "Oklahoma!" was sublime.

Photo credit: BSO Press Office (Marin Mazzie, Jason Danieley)

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