The residents of the Santa Clarita Valley who recently attended the Neil Berg’s 100 Years of Broadway concert at the College of the Canyons’ Performing Arts Center are most likely still reeling from the exquisitely performed musical strains of show tunes performed by top Broadway performers, including Rita Harvey, the star of Phantom of the Opera.
Before the concert, The Magazine of Santa Clarita caught up with Harvey who was traveling with five other notable singers from the stages of Broadway theatres. Her husband, Neil Berg is the producer of the show, booked in 130 cities nationwide.
“My favorite show is usually the one I’m currently working on,” says Harvey, who recently performed in the revival of Fiddler on the Roof with Alfred Molina and Rosie O’Donnell. She is currently working with the developers of a musical about aviator Amelia Earhart.
Audience members at the COC concert were treated to Harvey’s incredible range and poise as she sang two Phantom songs including Music of the Night, I Could Have Danced All Night from My Fair Lady, among other favorite selections.
Her equally-talented cast members’ performances included a heart-stopping rendition of And I Am Telling You sung by Capathia Jenkins from the Broadway cast of Dreamgirls and other songs by the great composers Jerome Kern, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Kander and Ebb, Cole Porter, Stephen Sondheim and Andrew Lloyd Webber.
Berg, a composer himself, gave the audience a listen to a song from a show he is composing based on the movie Grumpy Old Men. It was only the second time an audience was privileged to hear it and if the response to it is any indication of it’s future success, Berg has a winner, make that another winner right next to his 100 Years of Broadway compilation show.
“When I was 10-years-old,” said Berg, “I’d listen from upstairs to my sister playing piano downstairs. Then I wrote my first song, You Make Me Feel Blue.”
Believe me, after hearing him sing it during our interview he really has come a long way in his composing and performing abilities since those early days. His piano playing during the two-hour COC show included a piano solo that could have easily rivaled that of Billy Joel.
Word has it he is in negotiations to return to COC in 2008. We should only be so lucky to end up hearing the stars of Broadway next season in our own backyard.
