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The Lincoln Area Music Society
(LAMS) Community Band continued its outdoor summer concert series
with a musical tribute to Broadway. The sunny and pleasant weather
made it a great evening to enjoy music at Latham Park.
Riley McDorman, a band director at Athens High School, directs the
band. The emcee was Terry McDorman.
In 1777, the United States congress declared June 14 as Flag Day. In
honoring the special day and following the summer concert tradition,
the band began the evening by playing the National Anthem as
everyone stood and faced the flag.
The emcee then introduced the theme of the evening taking everyone
on a musical journey down Broadway, which is actually the entire
theater district in New York City. He said it would take days to
list the names of all the musical and drama that have played in
those theaters let alone play the songs from them, which are in the
thousands. The band provided a sampling of songs by creators such as
Lerner and Loewe, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Leonard Bernstein, Andrew
Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice just to name a few.
For the first selection, the band played a collection of dynamic
songs from several Broadway productions including “The Producers” by
Mel Brooks, “The Avenue Q Theme,” “Spamalot,” “Always Look on the
Bright Side,” “For Good” from “Wicked” and “The Circle of Life” from
“Lion King.”
Next up was from several songs from
the 1996 Tony award winning musical “Rent,” which is about
impoverished young artists struggling to survive and create a life
in lower Manhattan’s East village. The story is loosely based on
Puccini’s La Boheme written in 1896 and played on Broadway for 12
years.
The third selection of songs was from “Beauty and the Beast” about a
prince turned into a monstrous beast as punishment for his cruelty.
Years later, a young woman named Belle offers the beast her freedom
in exchange for her father’s. To break the spell, the beast must
earn Belle’s love before the last petal falls from his enchanted
rose or he will remain a monster forever. The film was turned into
musical by lyricist Howard Ashman and composer Alan Mencken.
The band next played a medley from “Chicago,” a musical about felons
who manipulate their stories to celebrity status. With over 7400
performances, “Chicago” holds the record as the longest musical
revival on Broadway. Selections included “All that Jazz,” “Cell
Block Tango,” “Roxie,” and “We Both Reached for the Gun.”
“Jersey Boys” chronicles the life of Frankie Valli and the Four
Seasons from their beginning to their break-up and back again. It is
divided into four parts each narrated by a different member
representing all the seasons. The band’s medley included “Walk Like
a Man,” “Big Girls Don’t Cry,” “Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You” and
“Oh, What a Night.”
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The band then took
a ten minute intermission, which gave everyone a chance to enjoy
ice cream plus delicious homemade cakes made by the Lincoln
Woman’s Club. Proceeds from the sales at the summer concerts
support the club’s charitable works and scholarships.
After intermission, the band played songs from “The Wizard of
Oz,” about a Kansas farm girl names Dorothy who ends up in the
magical land of Oz after she and her dog Toto are swept away
from their home by a cyclone. She learns she cannot return home
until she destroys the Wicked Witch of the West. It has been
adapted for both stage and screen.
Another selection of songs came from the more recent musical
“Dear Evan Hansen.”
Taking everyone back to high and the 1950s, the band played
several songs from “Grease,” which is one of the longest running
musicals on Broadway and was also made into a movie.
The night’s final selections were a montage that included “Sun
and Moon” from “Miss Saigon,” “The Old Gumbie Cat” from “Cats,”
“I Dreamed a Dream” and the title theme from “The Phantom of the
Opera.”
To close out the evening, the band played their traditional
final song Irving Berlin’s “God Bless America” as everyone was
asked to stand.
There will not be a concert next Sunday, June 21 due to Father’s
Day. The band will return Sunday, June 28 for their final
concert of the summer series. LAMS invites children to be part
of the final concert singing “God Bless America.” Children who
want to participate need to be at the library side for practice
at 6:30 on June 28 and wear red, white and blue. Emcee McDorman
said the band will help celebrate America’s 250th birthday in a
memorable way.
Lincoln Area Music Society
performs a medley of Broadway songs
[Angela Reiners] |
