CabaretScenes.org just posted this stellar review by Sandi Durell regarding “8-Track Throwback,” Marquee Five’s latest show highlighting singer-songwriter favorites from the 60’s and 70’s.
I gotta just quote the whole thing here, I’m so excited!
Soaring on the success of their debut show, We Can Make It: The Songs of Kander & Ebb, which earned the group a 2010 MAC Award for Best Vocal/Duo/Group, Marquee Five isn’t leaving any dust in their wake as they forge ahead in this latest creation. 8-Track refers to music on magnetic 8-track sound recordings popular in the ’60s and ’70s, eras that produced many of the greatest hits of all time.
Reminiscent of The Modernaires, the 1940s quintet with the Glenn Miller Orchestra who recorded “Make Believe Ballroom Time” for WNEW, the tight harmonies of Marquee Five are, indeed, top-notch spectacular. Impressive, too, are the talents of the individual singers who comprise the group: soprano Vanessa Parvin; mezzo Julie Reyburn; alto Sierra Rein; and the two smooth-sounding males, Mick Bleyer and Adam West Hemming, the latter responsible for the clever arrangements and musical direction.
From group numbers like “Moondance” and the smart, witty “Copacabana”(that intermingles “Oye Como Va,” “Them from The Pink Panther” and “Theme from Sex and the City”), to individual highlights—including Hemmings’s rich and beautifully phrased “A House Is Not a Home” underscored with “Honesty,” Rein’s strong and expressive “Move Over,” Reyburn’s intense rendition of time and love “Tangled Up in Blue” and the juxtaposing duet of Bleyer and Hemming’s pairing “Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word” and “All in Love Is Fair”—there isn’t a dull moment. The musicians are a unique combination of talents: Mark Janas (piano); Matt Scharfglass (bass guitar); John Benthal and Tony Romano sharing dates on acoustic/electric guitar. Joseph Ward directs. Special thanks to Father Jeffrey Hamblin who produces Marquee Five.
Sandi Durell
Cabaret Scenes
September 17, 2010
www.cabaretscenes.org
Cheers,
Sierra Rein
“I don’t sing because I’m happy, I’m happy because I sing” – William James