Review: Tibbits bursts into Broadway for its season opener
Summer is here and Michigan’s summer theaters are welcoming audiences back with love letters designed to remind them of why they love live theater so very much.
Tibbits Opera House, which has been offering summer theater season since 1964, is hosting their summer season outdoors set in the middle of a scenic golf course under a pavilion designed to host weddings at The Ponds in Coldwater.
They opened their season this week on June 16 with a “Best of Broadway” revue that includes songs from 1904 to 2015. The show was conceived of by Artistic Director Peter Riopelle and compiled and arranged by previous Artistic Director Charles Burr (who retired last year) and Matthew Everingham, who is the music director.
While in the program they claim they chose songs not to please the audience but themselves, it was very much a crowd-pleaser and one that skewed toward those who love the Golden Age of theater and the modern era’s more mature songs. With the exception of the missionary duo from “The Book of Mormon,” modern youth were mostly absent with even such songs from “Dear Evan Hansen” featuring the mother.
The six actors in it—three women and three men—were able to cover the wide range of needs in the songs, starting from the opening ensemble piece of “Give My Regards to Broadway” to solos, duets and trios. With numerous ballads and a large amount of belting, the show required strong voices from its cast and they got them with Nile Birch, Stephanie Burdick, Liz Davis, Max Antonio Gonzalez, Brooke Jackson and Michael Motkowski.
Several times, the sextet demonstrates an absolutely stunning ability to harmonize, showing as much strength as an ensemble that they do as soloists. The conclusion to the Andrew Lloyd Weber medley at the end of the second act is goosebump-inducing.
The revue contains a total of 40 songs plus the medley of five more songs. The first act moves mostly chronologically from 1904 to 1966, selecting songs from musicals as well-known as “Oklahoma,” “South Pacific,” “My Fair Lady” and “Camelot” to some of the older ones like “Call Me Madam,” “No, No, Nanette” and “Little Johnny Jones.”
Sometimes they picked songs those shows were known for, such as “Matchmaker” from “Fiddler on the Roof” or “They Say It’s Wonderful” from “Annie Get Your Gun.” Other times they chose lesser-known ones such as “Sadder but Wiser Girl” from “The Music Man” to “Cockeyed Optimist” from “South Pacific.”
The second act launched with “The Age of Aquarius” from Hair and then dabbled in the 70s and 80s for a bit with selections from Sondheim intermixed with “Les Mis” and “Chicago” and others. The 90s were offered both in chronological order and as an encore item at the end of the show.
The revue entered this century with songs from “Sister Act” and “The Book of Mormon” before hitting such blockbusters as “Wicked” and “Hamilton.”
Burr did a wonderful job of mixing up the moods. While there were many ballads and love songs, some sad, some merry, he also peppered the evening with humor, whether it was the shortened version of Matchmaker, or the nearly show-stopping moments of “The Book of Mormon’s” “You and Me, but Mostly Me” that Gonzalez and Motkowski sang or “Hamilton’s” “You’ll Be Back” sung by Motkowski that had the audience laughing in the aisles.
Each actor also had their solo moment to shine, a song that showed off their immense talent and vocal strength. They included Davis in “Defying Gravity” and “Hello Young Lovers,” Motkowski in “Oh What a Beautiful Morning,” Birch in “Sarah Brown Eyes,” Jackson in “I Could Have Danced All Night,” Burdkick in “So Big, So Small” and “Before the Parade Passes By” and Gonzalez in “Old Devil Moon.”
Motkowski in particular did an excellent job of inserting character work and story telling into his songs, never forgetting that all of these songs were meant to forward a plot or accentuate the emotion of a musical.
Musical director Everingham did an excellent job of taking advantage of the acoustics of the outdoor space and balancing the accompaniment with the volume of voices so that it had a strong presence that never overpowered.
Burr made the most of the shallow, long stage and the blocks that doubled as chairs and set pieces with actors moving them easily around the space. There were a lot of songs to cover in two hours, so he kept them moving quickly with transitions between songs sometimes barely allowing for audience applause.
Burdick and Riopelle worked together on a set design that featured a backdrop of iconic images from musical theater show logos. Dusti Donbrock created costumes and the hint of costumes that spoke to the songs being sung while never creating a delay for a costume change.
Outdoor lighting is always a bit of a challenge and while there were several lighting cues that delightfully underlined either the character or the lyrics (for example, Elphaba got a nice green backlight), some of the spotlights and gobos were shaky and distracting.
In the gorgeous setting of the Ponds where the sun set during the show, even the birds got in on the action, adding their lullaby of chirps to the show’s instrumentation.
It was, in many ways, an evening designed to welcome people back to the theater and to celebrate with music all that we have been missing. It is also a hopeful preview into the rest of the season that will feature this amazing ensemble of actors.
The Best of Broadway is open for another week, June 22-25. To obtain tickets, go to www.tibbits.org or call 517-278-6029.