Review: Like Panoramic Pease, MUSIC OF THE NIGHT Was Fun While It Lasted

If you've never heard of Andrew Lloyd Webber - or you're aching to become reacquainted - don't blame Blumenthal Performing Arts, Charlotte Symphony, or CPCC. Three times in last nine years, Blumenthal's Broadway Lights series has brought us touring versions of Phantom of the Opera with visits from Evita, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, and School of Rock sprinkled in-between. CP brought us one of the first local productions of Phantom anywhere in 2015 and has kept enthusiasms stoked for Lord Lloyd with productions of Joseph and Jesus Christ Superstar over the past decade and Evita earlier this year.

Denial and deprivation have become harder to sustain in recent months. Broadway Lights brought Love Never Dies, Webber's sequel to Phantom, to Belk Theater in early September, and both Charlotte Symphony and CP piled on with Andrew Lloyd sequels in late October. Symphony's "Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber and More" opened last Thursday and encored the following evening, but the melodies of CP's THE MUSIC OF THE NIGHT: An Andrew Lloyd Webber Revue linger on after opening on the same night.

The current revue marks a farewell to panoramic Pease Auditorium, which is slated to be demolished along with the school's library in early 2019. As you might expect, the fondness of the farewell comes from numerous actors and artists who have kept the theatre tradition thriving at Pease, regathering at ground zero where the CP program started in 1972.

At the helm, directing and choreographing, is Ron Chisholm, whose local pedigree goes back to 1990. Susan Roberts Knowlson, Patrick Ratchford, Lisa Smith Bradley, and Kevin Harris qualify as distinguished veterans handpicked for this 13-member cast, while Ryan Deal and Lucia Stetson have the creds to be labelled the new establishment. Watch out for a few of the others, though. There were stars on the ascendant in my telescope.

With a running time of less than 73 minutes, nobody onstage gets a truly full workout except the musicians led by the versatile Craig Estep, who has acted, directed, and conducted both musicals and operas over the years at CP. Why such a miserly songlist with so many singers onstage and so many songs to choose from? With a decent bouquet of your fave CP singers on hand to deliver, it would have nice to claim that you'd be hearing all your fave Andrew Lloyd Webber songs.

There are 20 songs, or there would have been if one hadn't been skipped last Saturday. Most generously represented are Evita and Phantom of the Opera - not surprising when you consider that Lucia Stetson and Ryan Deal, who starred in the title roles at CP, are on hand to handle their reprises. This they do with panache, for Chisholm knows where to place his chips when he ponders his staging. Stetson is festively dressed by costume designer Ramsey Lyric for the brash "Buenos Aires" and backed with enough vocalists to evoke a carnivale - and she really is dressed to the nines when she does Evita's anthemic "Don't Cry for Me, Argentina."

As the ghoulish, predatory Phantom, Deal can only fully come into his own when paired with his prey - the more beautiful, the better. Deal breathes heavily enough to be truly sinister in singing "Music of the Night," but he's most commanding when he torments Knowlson in the title song. Squat as Pease is, scenic designer James Duke does provide twin staircases flanking his final Pease set. The one at stage left is definitely an asset when Deal makes his dominant melodramatic exit. "Sing!" he bellows as Knowlson sustains high notes we haven't heard from her in years. I'm guessing that's the rest of the ensemble forming an offstage chorus for this duet, intensifying its power.

Taking up the Raoul role, Ratchford struck up the more consoling duet with Knowlson, "All I Ask of You." All that chemistry was still there, no doubt kindling widespread nostalgia among those in the audience who remember the multiple times Knowlson and Ratchford shared top billing at CP in the past. With the entire ensemble singing "Masquerade" and Knowlson soloing on "Wishing You Were Here," you will gather that Chisholm & Company's MUSIC OF THE NIGHT is wringing maximum mileage from Phantom.

Even before the selections already cited, Brittany Currie Harrington and Traven Harrington were a more age-appropriate Christine and Raoul in "Think of Me." Traven's voice is the mellower at his low end, but Brittany was sensational at her uppermost in an unforeseen cadenza at the end of their duet. Each of the Harringtons logged an additional solo before the revue was done, Brittany reprising the title song from Love Never Dies and Traven taking us way back to the title song of Starlight Express.

Do you remember There's A Light at the End of the Tunnel from that same rollerskating musical? Me neither, but Kevin Harris - perhaps signaling that he'll be back for Showboat next summer? - reminds us how righteously rousing it is in bringing us to intermission, with backup support that matches the liveliness of "Buenos Aires." Of the remaining cast members, I most fancied Ron T. Diaz and Emily Witte, both of whom I wished were better showcased.

Witte was saddled with the lackluster "Another Suitcase" from Evita before being obliged to timeshare "I Don't Know How to Love Him" from Jesus Christ Superstar with Sarah Henkel and Karen Christensen. Diaz continues the Superstar momentum into the final bows, getting a better split on that title song, with J. Michael Beech sharing the spotlight and everybody in celebratory form backing up.

Lisa Smith Bradley bore the burden of beginning the evening with "Memory" from Cats, a song that I loathe from a show I despise. As we moved onward - and inevitably upward - I could be thankful that this irritation had been immediately disposed of. But I remain peeved at the evening's brevity and the songs from other shows that remained AWOL. If we could dip into Joseph for Ratchford's Elvis-like "Song of the King" and Harris's "Close Every Door to Me," surely there could be space for more than the peeps we had into Song & Dance and Whistle Down the Wind.

Maybe it's okay to skip past The Woman in White, Aspects of Love, and Tell Me on a Sunday, but surely we must sample the Tony Award-winning Sunset Boulevard and Sir Andrew's triumphant comeback, School of Rock, which wowed this town back in January. A couple of songs from each of those hits would expand the running time past the 90-minute threshold - and sound more like a respectable survey of this composer's work.

Photos by Logan Cyrus

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