Category: Art & Theater

Celebrating the holidays with horns

By Zachary Lewis
zlewis@hippopress.com

Executive Director Deanna Hoying is sounding the horn on New Hampshire Symphony’s upcoming Holiday Brass shows.

“We have our first on Thursday, Dec. 5, at the Rex Theatre in Manchester, and then we follow that on Friday, Dec. 6, at the Coptic Church in Nashua. Both of them are going to be at 7.30 p.m. This is going to be a really fun show that kind of mixes an opportunity to show off our brass section and our percussionists, and we have a mix of what we would call kind of the sacred and the secular, so those really beautiful pieces by Gabrieli,” Hoying said. Giovanni Gabrieli was an Italian composer born in the 16th century.

Brass holds a special place for Hoying. “I’m a brass player, so I’m a horn player, so these are things I kind of grew up with playing. Our guest conductor, David Upham, has picked some really lovely carols from all over the world and then the second half of the show is going to be probably more on the pop secular side with everything from ‘I’ll Be Home for Christmas’ and ‘Jingle Bell Rock’ and ‘Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.’”

The show allows this section of the orchestra to really ring out loud.

“It’s a nice opportunity to play some music we don’t always get to play when we do the full orchestra,” she said. This year they’re working with a guest conductor who is based at UNH. “He is their director of orchestra studies there and … I reached out because I knew my music director was going to be tied up in Indiana for much of December … so we’re really happy to have him join us for this show. We get to spend much of the season with our music director, Roger Collier, which we really love.”

At the Rex, “They love the idea of doing a holiday program there,” she said. “The Palace is running A Christmas Carol pretty much through December, so they love the idea of having the holiday brass at that venue.”

And at the Coptic Church in Nashua, “We did our holiday brass show there three years ago. It’s a different set of pieces, but a similar idea,” Hoying said. “It’s a beautiful venue. I remember the first time we did it there. So many people, even Nashua residents, had no idea that church was there. They’d never been in the church before, and they were just blown away. It’s an absolutely gorgeous interior. The setting worked really well for these pieces too.”

Much of the music was written for brass. “Gabrieli wrote a lot of sacred music, and a lot of his work is written for essentially a brass choir, and so there’s something when you start to play that with your fellow brass players that it’s just so beautiful and so moving and particularly when you’re playing in a church, because that’s where he wrote them to be played, it is just beautiful and it is one of those things that I really enjoy,” Hoying said.

“We’ve got French horns, we’ve got trumpets, we have trombones, we actually have a euphonium for this one. This is something that we don’t get to usually play very much because most orchestral music doesn’t use a euphonium, so we’re really excited about that. Of course we have a tuba player, and then we actually have some percussion that are going to join us too. Our timpanist and two percussionists are going to kind of round out the complement. We have about 17 or so musicians on stage, which is nice, but it gives you that nice big full brass sound.”

Music means a lot to Hoying. “The music is very close to my heart. I already played piano and I started playing it and there was just really something about the quality of the sound coming out of the horn that was just really kind of hooked me. There’s so much great stuff that’s been written for the horn, both as a solo instrument and within the orchestra.”

As a former music teacher, Hoying is always encouraging younger ones to find an instrument that speaks to them. “I would always tell kids when they wanted to play an instrument, don’t just settle for something because someone said, hey, you should play this. Try a bunch of things, because you’re going to find that you have an affinity for certain pitches, certain resonance, certain quality of sound, and if you’re going to be practicing this thing, you want to be in love with it.”

Symphony NH Holiday Brass
Thursday, Dec. 5, at 7:30 p.m. at the Rex Theatre, 23 Amherst St., Manchester. Tickets $29 to $39. Info: Rex at 668-5588, symphonynh.org.
Friday, Dec. 6, at 7:30 p.m. at St. Mary and Archangel Michael Coptic Orthodox Church, 39 Chandler St., Nashua. Tickets $40. Info: 595-9156, symphonynh.org.

Featured image: David Upham. Courtesy photo.

A Christmas Carol returns to Palace

By Michael Witthaus
mwitthaus@hippopress.com

A sure sign of the holiday season’s arrival is the return of A Christmas Carol to the Palace Theatre in Manchester. The Charles Dickens tale of spiritual redemption always provides a reliable way to spark a fire in even the coldest heart. The Palace’s Artistic Director, Carl Rajotte, believes this year’s production has even more to offer.

To begin with, the technical toys at the company’s disposal are constantly being tweaked. A new video wall installed in 2019, but too late for that year’s run, was used for the first post-pandemic production. In subsequent years, they’ve found new ways to leverage the technology.

“We’re playing a lot more with special effects this year and we’re definitely doing different videos,” Rajotte said by phone ahead of an initial first act rehearsal. “It’s not just here’s the brand-new video wall. It’s complementing other things; we’re getting better with combining the lighting, the projections and the special effects.”

There are new costumes, and new blood. “Four people from Jersey Boys have stayed on to do Christmas Carol,” Rajotte said. “We have Austin Mirsoltani back from Beautiful. He played Gerry Goffin in that; he’s playing Bob Cratchit this year. There are quite a few new people to the show. It’s fun.”

When Rajotte came to the Palace in 2002 he was charged with bringing magic back to the perennial holiday production. At the outset, he had desire and a vision but not much else to work with. “They didn’t really have the money back then to hire a composer,” he said. “We had to use a lot of public domain or a cappella music. We even did tracks for many years.”

In 2013 the show went on tour, providing Rajotte with an opportunity to upgrade.

“I said to the board and the president, ‘We’ve got to create our own music now; we have to hire a composer,’” he recalled. Joe Mercier, a local composer, came on board. “We created a whole new show — the same script, but all new music. Then the year after that tour, we brought it back to the stage here. It’s been that music since then.”

Colorful, kinetic and professionally cast, the Palace’s unique version of A Christmas Carol has evolved into an effort on par with Broadway shows and national touring companies. It’s a crowning achievement for a company that in recent years has consistently punched above its weight class.

Though it’s a well-oiled machine, the presence of actors who haven’t done the Dickens story before keeps Rajotte and his team on their toes. “We know it like the back of our hands, nothing shocks us,” he said, “but we forget sometimes that for people brand new to the show, it is not an easy project. There’s a lot to do, and a lot to learn.”

The Palace Youth Theatre company is again represented, with 140 young actors split into four teams. Rajotte noted that many of them have been part of the show for years, like Jenna Bienvenue, who plays Elizabeth in Spirit of Christmas Past. “She’s an adult now, a professional. I asked her, in front of everybody on the first day, ‘How many Christmas Carols have you done?’ She said, ‘Well, gosh, I can’t count. Ever since I was 8, I’ve done it every single year.’”

The presence of the youngsters reminds Rajotte about what’s important in the family-friendly show. He often hears them singing along to adult numbers from their dressing room, which is next to his. “I love this show so much; we think about it all year long,” he said. “My goal when I put this together 22 years ago was to make it feel like it’s coming from a child’s point of view, that it’s how they would see things.”

A Christmas Carol
When: Fridays, 7:30 p.m., Saturdays, 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., Sundays, 2 p.m. through Dec. 29, and Thursday, Dec. 19, 7:30 p.m.
Where: Palace Theatre, 80 Hanover St., Manchester
Tickets: $35 and up at palacetheatre.org

Featured image: A Christmas Carol. Photo Courtesy of the Palace Theatre.

Bye Bye Birdie revisits rock’s early times

Long before there was streaming and hundreds of cable channels, three networks ruled, and families gathered around the television like a hearth every Sunday night to watch the Ed Sullivan show. This is the world of Bye Bye Birdie, the latest performance from Community Players of Concord.

Opening Nov. 22 at Concord City Auditorium, the 1960 musical was inspired by Elvis Presley’s induction into the army, which sidelined him at the height of his career. It begins as Conrad Birdie (Travis Laughlin), his name a play on Presley’s rock rival Conway Twitty, goes to a small Midwestern town to kiss a fan on national television before shipping overseas.

This publicity stunt is the culmination of (ostensibly) a contest hatched by Rose Alvarez (Annie Lelios), the secretary and fiancée of Albert Peterson (Nathan Smith), who writes Birdie’s songs and needs a way to milk his cash cow a bit more. Rosie helps him pen a send-off tune called “One Last Kiss,” and the two decamp for Sweet Apple, Ohio, their star in tow.

Awaiting them are screaming teenagers, including Kim MacAfee (Holly Keenan), whose announcement of her resignation as President of the Conrad Birdie fan club was paused when Rose picked her name from a file drawer, and named her winner of the singer’s final smooch.

Kim’s leaving her post because at age of 16 she believes she’s matured past swooning for pop stars. This is one of many anachronistic touches in the show, like shared household phone lines — yes, kids, back then it was one to a family, attached to the wall and equipped with a dial.

It was also a time when having a steady was serious business, but Kim’s reassurances on that topic aren’t enough to placate her boyfriend Hugo (William Fogg). With help from a now-jealous Rose, set off by a showbiz climber (Emma Daley) making a play for Albert, he plots to sabotage the kiss.

Add to that brew Albert’s conniving mother (Valerie Kehr), who is intent on breaking her son’s engagement, and things heat up quickly.

Bye Bye Birdie is often performed by high schools and local theaters, but it’s Community Players of Concord’s first time doing it.

“It’s a good family show,” director Judy Hayward said by phone. “I found out after we decided that some of the people in Concord had wanted to do it for several years. I guess maybe the timing wasn’t right, and now it is.”

The musical is full of numbers brimming with joy and innocence, like “Put On a Happy Face,” sung by Albert to a high schooler, part of a Conrad send-off group in New York City who despairs that by the time her idol returns from his two-year military hitch, she’ll be too old for him.

Other standouts are “How Lovely to Be a Woman,” “A Lot of Lovin’ to Do” and “English Teacher,” the latter a reflection of Rose’s wish that Albert was in a different, more intellectual career than pop music. “Kids” is a charming complaint about wayward youth in the 1950s, while “Normal American Boy” is a slice of prehistoric public relations work.

Problems such as boys with too much Brylcreem in their hair and girls with shorn braces ready to conquer the world (and call mom and dad by their first names), all mad with rock ’n’ roll, are a welcome distraction at a moment when half of the country is loath to turn on the news.

Hayward is pleased with the progress of rehearsals, with both leads settling into their roles, and Laughlin finding his inner Presley. “They’re great, and they’re always prepared,” she said. “Annie was off book early on, which is always a plus, and Nathan’s doing a great job, and Travis is swiveling his hips just like Elvis.”

What’s her favorite part of this production? “Seeing it come together,” she said. “In the arts … there’s always something to improve. It’s not like making a costume — sewing something and having a finished product. Seeing this progression of things getting better and better, that’s what I like.”

Bye Bye Birdie
When: Friday, Nov. 22, and Saturday, Nov. 23, at 7:30 p.m., and Sunday, Nov. 24, at 2 p.m.
Where: Concord City Auditorium, 2 Prince St., Concord
Tickets: $20 ($18 age 65 and up, 17 and under) at communityplayersofconcord.org

Featured image: Travis Laughlin as Conrad Birdie. Courtesy photo.