By Brian Scott Lipton . . .
One of our most beloved institutions, The New York Pops has often catered to its core audience of older attendees by focusing on the popular composers of yesteryear – Rodgers and Hammerstein, Lerner & Loewe – and keeping the spotlight on familiar guest artists.
So musical director Steven Reineke definitely deserves kudos for kicking off the Pops’ latest season at Carnegie Hall on October 27 with something completely different: 21st Century Broadway, featuring songs first heard on stage during the past 23 years and using four talented performers making their Pops debuts: Hailey Kilgore, Derek Klena, Javier Munoz, and Ali Stroker. Fortunately, this powerful quartet delivered some truly powerful and passionate moments (including two from Off-Broadway shows that never made it to the Great White Way) that should long be remembered and made the evening more-than-worthwhile.
Kilgore – who made a literal splash in Once on This Island – accurately wowed the crowd with a sizzling, sultry “Fabulous, Baby” (from Sister Act) and bravely and brilliantly delivered the triumphant “I’m Here” (from The Color Purple), holding her own against LaChanze, Fantasia Barrino and Cynthia Erivo.
Stroker displayed both her comic gifts – in a very funny “A Summer in Ohio” (from The Last 5 Years) and “The Diva’s Lament” (from Spamalot) – along with her dramatic ones, nicely duetting with Kilgore on the always touching “For Good” (from Wicked) and breaking down even more barriers with a singular take on “Waving Through a Window” (from Dear Even Hansen).
Munoz proved, beyond any doubt, that he can touch any heart with the right ballad, specifically the gorgeously understated Lynn Ahrens-Stephen Flaherty tune “Love Who You Love” (from A Man of No Importance) and the poignant “Proud of Your Boy”(from Aladdin). Not surprisingly, he also shone brightly while being paired with the handsome, strong-voiced Klena on a stirring rendition of “Dear Theodosia” from Hamilton.
For his part, Klena showed off his impressive vocal skills on two songs he premiered on Broadway, “My Petersburg” (from Anastasia) and “Perfect” (from Jagged Little Pill), along with “Goodbye,” from Catch Me If You Can, a song Klena admits he’s been obsessed with since he first heard it when he was 18.
In the end, though, the program turned out to be a mixed bag — both by featuring these lesser known songs (even if they were chosen at the performers’ request), as well as including some of the least memorable numbers from such megahits as Waitress, In the Heights, Spring Awakening, and even Hamilton.
It would be churlish to also quibble about which shows were left out, but I will give Reineke a virtual slap on the wrist for excluding Hairspray, especially the joyous “You Can’t Stop the Beat.” I would have loved to hear that anthem after the concert’s “final” number, a sublime “You Will Be Found” (from Dear Evan Hansen) for which the stars were joined by eight talented young vocalists from the Susan E. Wagner High School Concert Choir.
The concert’s other major issue, sadly, is that the Pops often sounded too big; these songs were written for much smaller orchestras and the arrangements written to magnify the instruments often sounded awkward and even drowned out the stars or forced them to over-sing.
Still, I sincerely hope the Pops try more programs like these, introducing this extraordinary orchestra to younger audiences and newer songs and vocalists to older concertgoers.
www.newyorkpops.org www.carnegiehall.org
Photos: Richard Termine
