Laura Osnes with Seth Rudetsky
Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts, Scottsdale, AZ, January 24, 2020
Reviewed by Lynn Timmons Edwards
The audience sat for what seemed like an eternity between “we are proud to present” and Seth Rudetsky finally peeking his head around the curtain, taking his place at the piano, and bringing out Laura Osnes. I kept thinking, what did Seth forget to pack this time? His excuse was that he was “flossing.” But to borrow a phrase from Ann Hampton Calloway, “She was worth the wait.
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”
Being
of a pre-Bonnie and Clyde and Bandstand on Broadway generation, I
was not familiar with Laura Osnes, so I was delighted song after song as she
and Rudetsky filled the evening with personal stories and hits from her shows.
In her introduction, it was mentioned that she had done a masterclass for
Arizona performers the previous evening to teach them how to find the “heart of
the song.” Clearly, that is second nature to her.
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After opening with a medley
of “Shaking the Blues Away” and “Blue Skies,” Rudetsky called up what Osnes
thought was her 11th-hour number, “Will Love Come and Find Me
Again?” from her Tony-nominated role in Bandstand. He wanted to be sure
we all knew she was indeed a soprano, so she followed with “If I Loved You.”
When he commented after the song that “she’s still got it,” I thought “this is
not Marilyn Maye but a singer who seemed so young; just barely approaching the
prime of her career.”
Osnes’ voice moves flawlessly through her range and is never harsh as so often contemporary belting can be. In fact, she delivers each song in such a way that the voice is never something you notice: it is absolutely perfect for each song, as are her character and articulation.
The stories ranged from her experience on Reality TV, which launched her onto Broadway as Sandy in the revival of Grease, to her charming honesty about trips and falls on stage, costume and wig challenges, and innocent attraction to various leading men. She has been married to her understudy co-star in a Minnesota production of Aladdin for many years, which she and Rudetsky used to frame “Little Girl” and “Big City” from Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, and Fiddler’s “Far From the Home I Love,” which took her back to her freshman year in high school.
The audience could not stop clapping when she mentioned that, unbeknownst to her, her dad Russ, an optometrist still based in Minnesota, happened to be in town and at the show. She brought him on stage to share the pairing of two songs from The Music Man—“Lida Rose” and “Will I Ever Tell You.” He was charming and clearly the genetic source of her talent.
She
and Rudetsky resurrected her time at Lincoln Center in South Pacific
with “A Wonderful Guy” and in Bonnie and Clyde with “How About a Dance?,”
once again showing off her vast range in style and character. After asking her
to recall her worst audition experiences, Rudetsky wrapped up the cabaret with
an ode to her current Broadway Princess Party so she could perform a medley
of Cinderella songs by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein; the Disney team
of Mack Davis; Al Hoffman, and David Livingston; and Stephen Sondheim. I for
one would pay to see her do an all-Sondheim show. She closed with “Journey to
the Past” from Anastasia and gave us an all-soprano encore of “I Could
Have Danced All Night.” The Scottsdale Center for the Arts regularly hosts
these Seth Rudetsky collaborations with Broadway stars, and this was one of the
best I have seen. Norm Lewis is in the hot seat on March 6.
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Key words
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