Sidetracked

While I’m always impressed with great singers, a great voice doesn’t do that much for me without great songs. So to me a great songwriter with an average voice is worth much more than a great singer who can’t write songs (a.k.a., ”American Idol” contestants).

But every now and then you get someone who can both sing and write. Then you have those really talented people who can sing, write and master instruments.

There aren’t too many of those. Stevie Wonder, Paul McCartney, and Billy Joel come to mind. And, of course, Ray Charles.

Uncle Ray. The Genius.

When I first heard the SLO Little Theatre was going to feature Ray in this year’s Legends show, my first reaction was: How are they going to do that? Not only would you have to get someone who looked and sang like Ray, but also someone who could play piano like Ray.

No easy feat.

But the Legends series has garnered such a great reputation, good performers are drawn to it. Which was evident this past weekend when “What’d I Say, A Musical Tribute to Ray Charles” ended its run at the Clark Center in Arroyo Grande.

We’ve written about this show before, so I won’t get too detailed. But I’ll say this: It was impressive.

Roy Henry did a great job as Ray (I especially liked his version of “What’d I Say”) while Mark Burnes — who kind of reminds me of Billy Joel — played piano backstage. (Burns did reveal himself for the cabaret portion of the show.) Joanna Jones, who was added to the cast for the second run, brought down the house with her powerful version of “Bridge Over Troubled Water” (the Aretha Franklin version). Meanwhile, another new cast member, Emy Bruzzo, was terrific performing both Aretha and Billie Holiday numbers.

I’ll look forward to seeing Bruzzo star as both Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald in the next Legend show.

The band, featuring a 4-piece horn section, was tight and rocking. And Suzy Miller’s choreography again was spot-on. While Ray’s tale is told through back story, writer/director Mary Meserve found clever ways to do it. You hardly noticed that Henry had no lines. And there were several moments when the crowd laughed out loud.

If I were in a real critical mood, I could point out a couple of things here and there that could have used work, but that would almost be critiquing just for the sake of critiquing. And I wouldn’t want to take anything away from what was a really solid show.

Whenever my wife and I leave these Legends shows, we always note how they’re good enough to play in bigger cities across the country. Fortunately, the reputation has become so good, that the series continues to attract the best talent around, ensuring that future shows will contiue to meet the standard set by previous ones.

Photo: David Middlecamp

Posted on August 25th, 2008 by Pat
Filed under: Music