Town Hall Arts: 2/21 – 3/23
The best of four productions of this
musical to have been seen by this reviewer, Town Hall’s “SWING” knocks it out
of the park!
Matt Peters’ direction is very fine. His
choreography stuns!
Rae Klapperich’s dancing is exhilarating eye-popping
magic! Lithe, limber and lovely! How does it get any better than that?
Left to Right: Stephen Bertles and Rae Klapperich
Stephen Bertles is the Rock of Gibraltar
over, under and around which Ms. Klapperich dives soars and sparkles
throughout.
Raven-haired beauty Ronni Gallup, who stuns
in the dancing of numerous routines, gives us true star quality.
Tracy Kern and the male ensemble of "Swing"
Tracy Kern unleashes her glorious soprano alongside
Darren Kramer’s ultra- smooth virtuoso trombone until the rafters rattle with
“Cry Me a River.”
Anna High soars with her rich, sonorous
renditions of such golden standards as “Blues in the Night” and “I’ll Be Seeing
You in All the Old Familiar Places.”
Seth Caikowski enhances the production ginormously
with his great voice and sparkling comedic presence. Who knew he was a maestro
of the ukelele?
Whether singing such well known numbers as
“Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy” or singing and dancing in ensemble moments, the multi-talented
Matt La Fontaine is always engaging.
Seth Alison’s lighting design dazzles!
Most of the costumes created for SWING
show off the glorious bodies of the stars to a fare thee well and are sparklin’
spot on! (Well, except for the ones in the Country Western number.)
Although he’s great when scattin’ with
Traci Kern in “Bli-Blip” Demetrius De Thomas needed to be miked better to keep up
with this cast of power-house singers and dancers.
Donna Debreceni’s stage band, which is
onstage throughout, goes from cookin’ swingin’ jazz to laid back, steamy blues
in a New York nano-second.
One would be remiss not to mention with
huge praise the reeds of Rob Rebholz, the trumpet of Rob Reynolds, the trombone
of Darren Kramer, Scott Alan Smith’s guitar/bass and Tag Worley’s
drums/percussion. This band is musical theatre gold.
For you, dear reader, it simply means
entertainment that’s the Mother Lode!
Note:(If there were
one other criticism of this show it would be regarding those floating cardboard
notes that hang uselessly above the audience. Puh-leaze take them down and
return to Beyond the Blackboard. Hopefully you still have the receipt.)
Town Hall Arts Center
2450 West Main Street
Littleton, Colorado 80120
303.794.2787
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