Correction: The River City Men’s Chorus will perform Broadway Showcase 2 at 7 p.m Thursday at Trinity United Methodist Church, 1100 N. Mississippi St., Little Rock. This review included the wrong day.
Yogi Berra, former New York Yankees catcher and off-hours philosopher, famously said of a New York restaurant, "Nobody goes there anymore, it's too crowded."
Little Rock's River City Men's Chorus and its current concert, Broadway Showcase 2, which opened for a short, three-show run Sunday, is just like Berra's restaurant. The idea seems logical that nobody would be too excited about seeing 50 men in tuxedos singing songs from the Great White Way. However, heaven help you if you tried to convince the audience packed into pews at the Trinity United Methodist Church of this -- but then you probably couldn't get a seat in the first place.
The River City Men's Chorus, led by conductor and artistic director David A. Glaze and going strong now for 12 years, is an under-appreciated gem in Little Rock culture. Broadway Showcase 2, a bright and buoyant take on the work of Stephen Schwartz, Irving Berlin, Stephen Sondheim and others, bore this out. As Glaze noted toward the end of the show, the cost of Broadway tickets are north of $150, compared with the free tickets for Chorus shows.
The choice of material in Broadway Showcase 2 was a well-stocked buffet of the tried-and-true (the title song from 42nd Street, three songs from West Side Story and a medley from Fiddler on the Roof) to more recent successes (songs from Wicked, Newsies and Hairspray). Backed by a band of eight, the chorus provided plenty of highlights.
The "One Hand, One Heart" ballad from West Side Story was hushed and powerful. Rusty Hart's solo on Sondheim's "Being Alive" from Company hit the right note of yearning. Rick Qualls' resonate baritone served well on a few solos, including Wicked's "Defying Gravity" and "Sit Down You're Rocking the Boat" from Guys and Dolls. It was the audience sing-a-long on Spamalot's "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" that was the most memorable.
Broadway Showcase 2 by the River City Men's Chorus continues at 7 p.m. tonight and Tuesday at the Trinity United Methodist Church, 1100 N. Mississippi St., Little Rock. Admission is free. Call (501) 377-1080.
Metro on 04/20/2015