Review: SING OUT SISTER! at Quality Hill Playhouse

Quality Hill Playhouse is back with an enjoyable evening of song. This time the show is entitled "Sing Out Sister!." The theme of this program is the contribution of female songwriters to the American Songbook since the turn of the twentieth century.

Three very credible singers Christina Burton, Katie Karel, and Leshea Wright share twenty-eight memorable pieces of show and popular music. On the grand piano and singing occasional duets is the ever present Quality Hill Producing Artistic Director J. Kent Barnhart. Backing up Kent and the singers are usual suspects capable Ken Remmert on the drums and excellent bassist Brian Wilson on both acoustic and electronic bass.

Quality Hill Playhouse special is evening with its intimate setting of 150 or so seats. The audience has the opportunity see and hear everything happening on stage. There is always an unusual context provided by emcee Kent Barnhart.

Kent is a heck of a pianist, a passable singer, is endowed with a droll sense of humor. We see someone with a deep love of the music. His knowledge is voluminous about the musical back story for each tune and he frequent personal anecdotes about how he first came in contact with each. It is often as much fun to understand the background as it is to hear the tunes themselves.

Christina Burton is a powerhouse performer. She performs "The Way You Look Tonight," "The Party's Over," from "Bells are Ringing," the nonsense song "Your Awful," "When in Rome," "Nobody Does It Life Me" from "See Saw," "You're So Vain," "The Rose," and many others.

Leshea Wright does a fine job with "God Bless The Child," "Just In Time," "Waiting for Life," "Don't Cry Out Loud," "Love Can Build A Bridge," and "The Greatest Love of All."

Katie Karel makes her Quality Hill debut with "Sing Out Sister!." She has a fine voice and a vibrato that sometimes calls up images of Dolly Parton. She sings "I Will Always Love You" by Dolly, "From A Distance," "Make Someone Happy ," and "Gimme Gimme" from "Thoroughly Modern Millie."

"Sing Out Sister!" continues at Quality Hill through April 3. Tickets are available on the Quality Hill Playhouse website or by telephoning 816-421-1700.

Photos from Quality Hill Playhouse and Tim Scott

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