Photo courtesy of McMillan Inn
Written by Emilie Kefalas
Toes tapped both onstage and in the seats of the Historic Savannah Theater last Friday night as an ensemble of talented performers presented their final weekend run of the musical revue, “Broadway on Bull Street.” Featuring the Great White Way’s most beloved ballads and melodies, the two-hour show was accompanied by a small but strong onstage band.
The theater is a bona fide southern gem, first welcoming theatergoers in 1818 and entertaining audiences from its corner of Chippewa Square ever since. Just as if not more amazing is the local talent seen onstage. All of the actors call Savannah home and perform at the theater year-round.
From my aisle seat in the front row, I could see the actors as clearly as their voices reverberated in the hallowed theater. Every transition they made from singing and dancing to singing to dancing to singing and dancing some more looked flawless. In that, they achieved the magical standard of a Broadway production. From the first note, that moment when I recognized the opening number (“On Broadway”), I knew I would be absorbed in catchy favorites, nostalgia-tugging renditions and bewitching melodies I would be singing for the rest of the weekend.
Though the roster of songs are cherished and hallowed material of musical theater, none of them are technically “easy” to perform. A slow, building crescendo with a series of elongated notes demands much of a performer’s vocal chords, particularly in Michelle Meece’s and Gretchen Kristine Stelzer’s beautiful “Wicked” rendition, which featured the gorgeous “For Good” and “Defying Gravity.” Stelzer’s voice came through on the latter, and Meece’s portrayal of Glenda would have made Kristin Chenoweth proud.
Actress Courtney Flood, a SCAD performing arts alumni, embraced the stage with great presence. Actor F. Michael Zaller had the golden range for performing “If I Were a Rich Man” from “Fiddler On the Roof” to “Walk Like a Man” from “Jersey Boys.” His voice was purely stellar, and his presence unmatched. He could walk onto a real Broadway stage tomorrow and be more than qualified.
One performer I never tired of watching was Huxsie Scott, a soulful powerhouse who turned songs like “Summertime” from “Porgy and Bess” and “What I Did For Love” from “Chorus Line” into heart-stopping belting ballads. There is a reason Scott is considered one of the greatest jazz and blues artists ever to live and perform in the Savannah area. I closed my eyes a couple times during her numbers just to hear the rumble in her range.
Several of the songs I acknowledge as musical theater miracles were in the song book of “Broadway on Bull Street,” yet no performer moved me to tears quite like Stephen Dobson. The actor silently entered center stage and like a private prayer, he let out the first note of one of my favorite songs from “Les Miserables,” “Bring Him Home.” Dobson did not just sing this difficult anthem. His entire person pulsed with each word.
Danielle Walker’s saxophone skills zested the sound set no matter the setting. The night’s pianist, Charles Ancheta, zipped his fingers across the keys at astonishing tempos, tapping and tinkering the notes to the most recognizable and beloved of show tunes. Ancheta’s most notable arrangement was his medley of Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Phantom of the Opera,” during which his hands seemed to leave his body and perform on their own.
Young talent flourished through the spirit and enchantment of three youth performers. Child actors Turner and Claudia Birthisel brought a wonderful taste of young talent to the stage for a simply “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” delivery of a “Mary Poppins” medley. Their ages and talent combined with adored cross-generational material felt so fitting and appropriate. Turner returned for the “Newsies” numbers, his enthusiasm and energy unlimited and enviable by his fellow cast as well as the audience.
High school student Kassidy Oswald’s grace and proficiency in the art of dance was simply unreal, from her tap dancing solo in the “Newsies” medley to her interpretive routine during a rendition of “Memory” from another Lloyd-Webber favorite, “Cats.”
To watch such accomplished young performers hold their own and stand out among an ensemble of veteran entertainers was, for me, the greatest feature of a wonderfully captivating evening at the theater. Considering how Oswald and the Birthisel’s fellow cast have maintained their involvement in musical theater through adulthood, one can hope they will continue to use their gifts on multiple stages and keep our toes tapping for many more years.
