After Dark Cabaret
The Cast Members of Mame
Arizona Broadway Theater, Peoria, AZ, February 3, 2023
Reviewed by Lynn Timmons Edwards
The After Dark Cabaret is a beloved tradition at Arizona Broadway Theater (ABT). It’s usually held on the second or third Friday after a performance of its Main Stage show. The cast members of the show volunteer to sing in the lobby. This evening’s festivities followed a performance of Mame and were hosted by the show’s production supervisor Jamie Hohendorf-Parnell along with Mame’s music director/conductor Lizzie Webb at the piano. (Kurtis Overby, ABT’s associate artistic director and Mame choreographer was in New York City conducting the theater’s annual casting call and could not perform his usual duties as emcee.) The lead players rarely if ever participate in the cabaret and I think that is their loss, but it does give us a chance to see and hear the immense talent percolating in the ensemble.
Ryan Ardelt kicked off the show with his rendition of “The Wizard and I” (Wicked). He was delightful and made the song his own in portraying “a boy which a Wizard can really rely on.” Mame is his ABT debut, and he seemed thrilled to be there, just like a kid at Christmas. Next up was Tim Canali with the comic song “In Love with You” (First Date). He sings well but he was not believable in portraying the song’s hetero relationship. I would recommend a gender switch to boyfriend if he keeps this song in his repertoire. Max Mendoza also picked a comic song, “Along the Way” (Edges). He understands that cabaret is more about telling the song’s story than about vocal prowess, and he cracked us up when he described the demise of Jorge the gerbil and then found the pathos in the ending which expressed his fears of becoming a father. Tyler Mell was vocally and dramatically committed to “My Petersburg” (Anastasia), but I got the sense that he has outgrown the song.
Katie Jurich and Elizabeth Worley look like two blond Disney princesses, and they delivered a medley of Disney songs, trading off characters and coming up with some lovely harmonies. Jurich has a modern Broadway sound while Worley’s voice carries more vibrato. They played off each other with big smiles. Their number was the only duet and the only medley in the show, so it was placed nicely at spot five. Evan Sheets wore a costume and sang “I’m Coming Out of My Shell” from the young-audience musical A Year with Frog and Toad. It is a silly song, but he made a production number out of it. A.J. Riddle, an actual child, did a bang-up job with “Consider Yourself” (Oliver!). He plays young Patrick in Mame where he had a few pitch issues, but he held his own with the big kids in the cabaret. He is clearly a boy who is safe and at home in the theater. He is a veteran of the ABT Summer Camp program, and his talent speaks to its success with arts education.
A true highlight was Ashley Woodson who performed “Satisfied” (Hamilton). She was aided in the choral parts by cast members who were in the audience and by two other singers. Casting directors for Hamilton should take a serious look at her for Angelica Schuyler; she’s a triple threat and has the right look for the part. Next up was Kimberly Abrams. She had a hard act to follow, but she tackled “Right Hand Man” (Something Rotten) and showed off her comic patter skills and her big belt of a voice. She plays Mame for two of the eight weekly shows.
A toss-up with Woodson’s “Satisfied” was Alden Caple’s (pictured) “The Streets of Dublin,” which was my favorite song of the evening. I had never heard any of the songs from the score of A Man of No Importance and don’t know anything about the show. Caple created the character of a working Irishman and took me straight home with him. He is a large man with an even larger silky tenor voice. The song fit him like a glove. A Google search showed he was teaching high school theater less than a year ago. Bravo to the ABT’s artistic staff for bringing him to Arizona.
Kat Gold is an ABT veteran with a big voice. She negotiates contemporary scores with her high belt like a Broadway pro. Without some context, he choice of “I Didn’t Plan It” (Waitress) did not really stand alone as a cabaret song. Likewise, Allie Tamburello is a talented singer/actor, but “If You Knew My Story” (Bright Star), in which she could show off vocally, did not have a story that held my attention. It also did not help that she stepped out of the light with the mic.
Hohendorf-Parnell and Webb went to school together in Montana, which helped them build some a rapport on stage. Webb, who recently was the music director of the national tour of Anastasia, is a fine accompanist. She will be working on ABT’s production of Escape to Margaritaville (March 10 – April 16). The After Dark Cabaret takes place on Friday, March 24.
