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cahwyguy
Yesterday was my daughter’s 18th birthday. It was also the day that Raul Esparza was going to do a concert at the Valley Performing Arts Center. Erin loves Raul Esparza, and really wanted to go; alas, she is now up in Berkeley and was unable to get down. She got her nose pierced instead (which looks nice, but we do have the traditional parental stance). In Erin’s absence, we went to the concert. This write up is partially for her*.
[*: In particular, she specifically asked that I not say that the show was great or gush over it before the "more" tag.]
The singular focus of Raul’s show was Sondheim. Much as I love Sondheim, he gets tiresome as a concert subject. I understand why singers choose him: His songs are musically complex, a challenge to sing, and provide the ability to showcase one’s talents. If one has worked with Sondheim — a theatre legend — one can share those stories and entertain the audience. But having just listened to a concert devoted to Sheldon Harnick, and being a fan of all musical theatre, I’d truly like to see a concert devoted to other composing teams. We occasionally see these for Rodgers and Hammerstein (although less often these days); what I’d really love, though, is shows devoted to the lesser-known and more challenging material of Kander and Ebb, or the wonderful Jazz compositions of Cy Coleman (who was really the most jazzy of the composers out there). But we are lucky, at least, with Raul’s choice of Sondheim. He didn’t fall into the trite Sondheim category, doing well known songs such as “Send in the Clowns” or anything from Gypsy. Alas, he also didn’t do some of the great songs from lesser shows, such as Saturday Night, Frogs, or Pacific Overtures. More on this later.
Raul’s show also lacked Merch. One goes to a show hoping to be able to pick up something to bring the memory home. A solo CD. CDs of recent shows (I know Leap of Faith has been recorded, but I don’t recall if the CD is released yet). At VPAC? Nothing. Perhaps this show is preparation for a future Sondheim solo CD.
As for Raul’s performance itself. It was very good, although I’m not as much of a fanatic as my daughter is. I’m certainly not as much of a fanatic as the person sitting next to me was, who loved to scream and clap over enthusiastically. I thought the show quite pleasant, although my wife noted that Raul didn’t put a lot of vocal power in most of the songs. His chatter portions were mostly stories about his growing up and Sondheim’s influence thereupon, and upon his interactions with Sondheim on Broadway. A number of these stories were similar to what is found in the album Sondheim on Sondheim, especially the sequence on the endings of Company. There was very little else, and you didn’t learn much about the man.
More on these subjects, plus the usual upcoming show list, after the cut…
This entry was originally posted on Observations Along The Road (on cahighways.org) as this entry by cahwyguy. Although you can comment on DW, please make comments on original post at the Wordpress blog using the link below; you can sign in with your LJ, FB, or a myriad of other accounts. There are currently 
