Orchestra, chorus to open Philharmonic Pops series
- By Roger McBain
- Evansville Courier & Press
- Posted September 30, 2010 at midnight
  
Tamra Hayden Philip Hernandez Craig Schulman
Courtesy The Evansville Philharmonic Orchestra
EVANSVILLE - Craig Schulman will leave the mask home for this weekend's Pops performances with the Evansville Philharmonic Orchestra.
Schulman has donned the Phantom's mask scores of times to sing the lead role in Broadway and touring productions of "Phantom of the Opera." He also wore it in "Three Phantoms," a Pops program he performed here in 2007, in his third appearance with the Evansville Philharmonic since 1999.
This weekend, Schulman will lead a trio of guest soloists to sing another kind of program with the Evansville Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus, uncorking the first Pops concert of the season.
Schulman, Tamra Hayden and Philip Hernandez will sing featured roles in "Broadway Nights," a program drawn entirely from five classic musicals by Alan J. Lerner and Frederick Loewe - "Camelot," "Gigi," "Paint Your Wagon," "Brigadoon" and "My Fair Lady."
Schulman, a veteran Broadway, touring and concert performer and recording artist, "jumped at the chance" to perform in the all-Lerner and Loewe program, said Alfred Savia, the philharmonic's music director.
Savia worked with Schulman to put the program together after seeing the success of an all-Rodgers and Hammerstein concert the orchestra presented a couple of years ago, the conductor said. "That was a really big hit."
Lerner and Loewe wrote some of the most popular shows in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s.
"My Fair Lady" almost immediately became one of the staples of American musical theater. It was the first musical Savia ever played in, back when he was a high school clarinetist in New Jersey.
He first played "Gigi" as a member of his all-state high school band.
Since then, he's conducted those and many other Lerner and Loewe standards countless times, he said.
And "Camelot," Lerner and Loewe's musical about the mythical court of King Arthur, became a popular term and metaphor for the administration of President John F. Kennedy.
The resurgence of interest in the 1960s generated by the Emmy-winning television drama "Mad Men" has reinvigorated interest in the music of that era for those who lived through it and for a new generation as well, said Savia.
The concert will include: "If Ever I Would Leave You," "What Do the Simple Folk Do" and "Camelot," ("Camelot"); "Another Autumn" and "They Call the Wind Maria" (from "Paint Your Wagon"); "I Remember it Well," "The Night They Invented Champagne" and "Gigi" (from "Gigi"); "It's Almost Like Being in Love," "Come to Me, Bend to Me" and "I'll Go Home With Bonnie Jean" (from "Brigadoon"); and "I Could Have Danced All Night," "With a Little Bit of Luck," "On the Street Where You Live," "The Rain in Spain" and "Wouldn't It Be Loverly" (from "My Fair Lady").
If you go
What: Guest soloists Craig Schulman, Tamra Hayden and Philip Hernandez will join the Evansville Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus to open this season's Pops series with "Broadway Nights," featuring music of Alan J. Lerner and Frederick Loewe
When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday
Where: The Victory
Admission: Tickets cost $25 to $60 for adults, $15 to $60 for those 12 and younger, $13 at the door for students (hour before concert). (original publication corrected by EPO)
Information: For reservations or information, call (812) 425-5050 or go to www.evansvillephilharmonic.org online.
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