Cassie Chilton & Alex Crossland
Love Is Friendship Set to Music
Phoenix Theatre Company Hormel Theatre, Phoeniz, AZ, February 23, 2023
Reviewed by Lynn Timmons Edwards
Cassie Chilton and Alex Crossland are first and foremost superbly talented musicians. They have voices that have earned them many leading and supporting roles in Arizona professional musical theater. I hadn’t known that Chilton is also a fine violin/fiddle player and Crossland plays both guitar and piano. They are not a romantic couple, but they are songwriting and harmonizing soul mates who tour as the indie-folk duo, Cass and Crossland. They released their first self-titled EP following a songwriting marathon during the pandemic, and it is available on streaming platforms.
Phoenix Theatre Company presented them as the third act in its short Winter Concert Series. They are not cabaret performers, and they designed their appearance as an opportunity to showcase their original material, including the full content of their EP. They were grateful for the opportunity given that some of the tunes were making their live debut. The songs featured rich harmonies and melodies and, at times, driving rhythms and interesting arrangements. Most of the songs were about break-ups—some about the heat of the moment and others about longing for what once was. They warned us that most of their songs were sad. It was hard to catch all the lyrics, and it never occurred to them to give us any insight into what or who inspired the song, why it was written, or how it related to their lives or past experiences. Such insight would have taken a big step toward creating a cabaret, and they both have the talent to excel in that genre.
We did get some snippets of music theater, the best being the Johnny Cash classic “Folsom Prison Blues” used in Ring of Fire and Million Dollar Quartet, on which Chilton handled the lowest notes. Crossland soloed on a short “The Night Dolly Parton Was Almost Mine” from Pump Boy and Dinettes, showing off his wide-eyed comic character skills. He took to the piano to accompany himself on “The Boys Are Back” from Bandstand, another highlight of the evening. There was a Broadway medley toward the end of Act I that was played on acoustic guitar and that I think was meant to be tongue in cheek. I did not recognize many of the songs, but there were a few bars from Les Misérables and Annie, and it ended with “Defying Gravity” from Wicked. They began the evening with “Gold” and ended the evening with “Falling Slowly,” both from the folk musical Once.
Chilton starred in last season’s Phoenix Theatre production of Always…Patsy Cline, which is a part she was born to play. She nailed “I Fall to Pieces” from that score. In addition to daylighting as a seventh-grade science teacher, doing professional theater, and being in Cass & Crossland, she also tours with the country tribute band, Rhinestone Country. She shined on their original song, “Better Than I Do,” which was simple and had a clear character who comically expressed her flaws but also declared that no one will love you “better than I do.” The band and the stars hit the height of the evening with a great mash-up of the Human League’s “Don’t You Want Me” and Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams.”
We learned more about the excellent band members, who joined the duo for most of Act II, through their brief introductions than we had learned about either Chilton or Crossland over the entire evening. Those musicians were Derrik Hester on piano, Matt Drui on guitar, Lauren McKay on bass, and Jaimie Clements on drum. Chilton stated that the duo was now negotiating a bi-coastal collaboration, but no details were provided.
Chilton was the only performer on stage who dressed up, donning a Patsy Cline-esque dress, white boots, and cowgirl hat. Unfortunately, she also wore a black mask throughout the entire show (for protection from Covid) that covered more than half of her face. Since this was the last run in the concert series, I wonder why the theater had not postponed the show if she could not sing on stage without a mask. She sounded vocally healthy, but the mask impaired her ability to express emotion or relate visually with Crossland or the audience. Crossland was dressed in jeans, white tennies, a wrinkled shirt, and a baseball cap that shadowed his face under the lights, especially when he sat at the piano. Hopefully, in future performances their visual appearance will match the caliber of their musical magic.
