Review: Osnes & Fontana Take Part in 'A Lovely Night' at the TILLES CENTER

There is nothing like the resonating echo of instruments tuning on a stage. For me, this sound is a perfect indicator that a fantastic evening is about to occur. This definitely was the case Sunday night at the Tilles Center when I saw A Broadway Romance Starring Tony Award nominees Laura Osnes and Santino Fontana. The evening was emceed by Ted Sperling, who is beginning a new initiative at the Tilles Center by bringing memorable Broadway themed events to the venue. Ted Sperling is a Tony Award winning orchestrator for the brilliant show The Light in the Piazza and is currently represented on Broadway by the current Tony-nominated revival of Fiddler on the Roof. The music of the magical evening was performed by the Orchestra of St. Luke's under the direction of Mr. Sperling.

The romantic tone was automatically set at the beginning of the program with Sperling conducting a magnificent rendition of the overture from Girl Crazy featuring the classic romantic Gershwin hits "Embraceable You" and "I Got Rhythm". During the course of the evening, the audience experienced the lives of a modern couple and the ups and downs of their relationship through songs from classic and new shows like Finnian's Rainbow, Annie Get Your Gun, Dogfight, and The Last Five Years.

Santino Fontana and Laura Osnes were both pristine and captured the essence of a modern couple finding and struggling to hold onto romance. Some of the great performances of the evening included: a beautiful medley of songs from She Loves Me ("Tonight at Eight"/"Will He Like Me?"), an enrapturing duet version of "If I Loved You" from Carousel, and "First Date/Last Night" from Pasek and Paul's Dogfight, which was, personally, my favorite performance of the evening. An issue I had with the concert was at times the orchestra's microphones were louder than the singers. This was evident during my favorite number from Dogfight. The stellar acoustic guitar solo by Scott Kinney, which was reminiscent of James Taylor, completely drowned out

Santino's voice during the chorus. A truly fun moment of the night was getting to hear Prince Hans sing "Love is an Open Door" live with Osnes taking on the role of Princess Anna. On a side note, Laura Osnes should be the top contender for the role of Anna in the upcoming musical version of Frozen. Disney better wake up and grab Osnes; she is a Disney princess incarnate, from her angelic voice to her true beauty both inside and out.

Act II contained some nice surprises and one major letdown. Ultimately, the flaw of Act II was the storytelling. Unless you were well learned in the shows featuring the songs performed, the plot became convoluted. I was thrilled to see and hear the emphasis of Sondheim. After all, Sondheim is the only composer that has ever captured the true conflict of romance in both his melodies and lyrics. However, in my opinion, the selection of songs, including Sondheim's, did not fit my idea of a romantic story. During Act II, the couple gets married and has kids. Then the bride and groom have affairs because they feel they are both in a loveless marriage. After being unfaithful to each other, Osnes exclaims she wants to leave him (with Sondheim's "Could I Leave You?") and once Fontana figures out "How to Handle a Woman" (from Camelot) they decide to remain with each other? This is romance? Romance = remaining faithful. Numerous audience members made comments after the show stating that this truly captured the romance of today's generation. I guess I really am old fashioned.

A pleasant surprise was when Ted Sperling displayed his talented singing chops, especially when he assumed the role of "Jenny" in "Getting Married Today" from Company. The best surprise of all was the unexpected encore performance. Fontana and Osnes performed "Ten Minutes Ago" from their highly praised production of Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella. The encore was definitely a surprise for the orchestra because some of the musicians already walked off stage after the final number. It was quite humorous to see the musicians scurry back on stage while Fontana and Osnes were singing.

Even though there were some issues with sound and plot, the evening overall was fantastic and that was due to the amazing talents involved and the gorgeous, lush sounds produced from the Orchestra of St. Luke's. I definitely recommend you try to see Sperling's next venture at the Tilles Center, which you can preview here: https://tillescenter.org/event/endowment-concert-ted-sperlings-babes-in-toyland-starring-kelli-ohara-and-special-guests/

If the event is anything like A Broadway Romance, you won't want to miss it.

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