Arizona State University Music Theatre Cabarets
ASU Kerr Cultural Center, Scottsdale, AZ, April 17, 2023
Reviewed by Lynn Timmons Edwards
Toby Yatso
ASU’s Music Theatre and Opera program (formerly known as Lyric Opera Theatre) has been training would-be professional singer/actors for decades. It has partnered with The Phoenix Theatre Company to provide would-be performers with real-world experience which, to the benefit of the program and its students, brought Toby Yatso onto their teaching faculty. Yatso is a phenomenal quadruple threat. Because of his height, good looks, charm, and skill, I call him the “Tommy Tune of Arizona.” He showed great ability as a teacher in his debut, directing the cabarets for the course ASU calls MT6. He described the ASU Kerr Center as the place where hip meets historic, a cabaret space, where his students (mostly in their sixth semester of training) took their “swanky final exam.”
The exceptionally talented pianist Andy Chen accompanied the cabarets. He is about to graduate with his master’s degree in music theater direction and is a veteran of the 2022 cabaret final exam.
The assignment was to “be yourself on purpose,” for which they all received an A+. They were also challenged to connect with the audience; their ability to do so varied from song to song, but their stories were indeed raw and personal. Assuming they all entered college right after high school, they were seniors when Covid-19 hit. The trauma and emotional scars from those “lost” years were palpable. At least two singers admitted to writing a suicide letter at one point. Many who had been popular performers in their high schools felt lost and alone in navigating the transition to college. Nearly every performer disclosed mental health challenges that ranged from anxiety to ADHD to the less-known “synesthesia.”
Each student displayed talent. Some relied mostly on their voice, some on their comedic skills. Whether each one will make a living as a singer/actor remains to be seen. Not to be sexist, but the women dressed for their performance, while the men, with one exception looked as though they just showed up. Thanks to Yatso, they have all experienced the art form of cabaret, and it was a privilege to be a part of the two-night event. The following text highlights the best of what the individual performers had to offer during their 15 minutes of fame.
Bre Sieminski: Invincible
Sieminski came rushing onto the stage as if she were flustered and late, but it became clear that she was just setting us up for a fun time. “What You Want” (Lawrence O’Keefe/Neil Benjamin) was all about making an impact on her college. Her other song choices included “A Silent Cause” (The Paper Kites) and “Some Things Are Meant to Be” (Jason Howland and Mindi Dickstein), and she summed up her story with “Don’t Let the Good Life Pass You By” (Cass Elliot). She read excerpts from her diary, which were about the ambitious girl from high school who lost her way, her dream of going to NYU crushed by Covid, her anxiety-ridden freshman year at ASU, and coping with her mother’s breast cancer. She garnered huge laughs with her story about over hydration that resulted in her wetting the bed as she lay next to her devoted boyfriend who still loves her. He’s a keeper! Sieminski is a classic soubrette with a well-trained middle range that was never harsh on the ear. Her final song made me believe she could be a country-music star if she chose, and she surely has a bright future as a comic character actress.
Tawny Audi: The Bright Red Shirt
Audi centered her cabaret around her most embarrassing moment in high school when her comedy troupe, all dressed in bright red shirts, performed for a high school English class to disastrous silence. She opened with “Firework” (Katy Perry) in the style of Moulin Rouge, followed by “Heart of Stone” from Six the Musical and “Over the Rainbow,” and she finished with “The Climb” (Miley Cyrus). Audi was raised by a Middle Eastern mother whom she referred to as a superhero. She told a funny story of her mother walking her to class dressed completely in black, from her boots to her sunglasses, and putting an immediate stop to the bullying her daughter had been experiencing. Audi shared her dark journey through the post-Covid years, her love of performing, and her newfound maturity. She brought honest emotion to her stories. She has a big voice with a Broadway belt that sometimes can be harsh and not quite in the middle of the pitch. Still, she has the potential to work in national touring companies and on Broadway. She is well suited to the musical scores of today.
Justin Carey: Live in the Present
Carey took the stage with confidence and boyish charm as he recreated Tommy’s “Sensation” (The Who/Peter Townshend) from his childhood performance. He had fun putting it out there, and he moved about the stage with ease on “Miracle of Miracles” (Jerry Bock/Sheldon Harnick), which celebrated his getting into the ASU program. He then turned the tables with “The End of the Movie” (Rachel Bloom). This song was a smart choice; it described the period of angst and darkness when he became a loner following his life as a high-school star with lots of friends. He explained that, despite the song’s lyric, he had never banged his ex-boyfriend’s dad. He put together a slide show that was projected behind when he sang “Story of My Life” (One Direction). It was a clever idea, but it would have been less distracting with fewer images that dissolved from one to the next. He has a strong voice with a range that would enable him to tackle many Broadway shows, classic and current.
Matt Griesgraber: Blue Skies
Griesgraber kicked his set off with “Corner of the Sky” from Pippin. I would cast him in that role as well as in Dear Evan Hansen, from which he sang “For Forever” (Benj Pasek/Justin Paul). He has an excellent conversational vocal style and a lovely high range that slides in and out of falsetto as needed. “Soul of a Man” (Cynthia Lauper) was his downer song, and it did not sit as well in his voice. He was diagnosed with severe anxiety as a child, and he described his experience with a story about a kite that soars but then is lost due to his own fears. He accompanied himself on piano on his final song, Irving Berlin’s classic “Blue Skies,” which he dedicated to his grandfather who passed away in 2014. He sang in a high key that required him to use his falsetto, perhaps because it was the easiest key to play.
Jaz Moehring: I Am Who I Am
Moehring looked as though she had just left the national tour of Into the Heights. She opened with a dark rendition of Nina Simone’s “Four Women” and talked about her experiences as a biracial young woman, the bullying she endured, and never feeling quite white or quite black enough. She was delightful on “White Boys” from Hair and got a laugh by acknowledging that racism in America couldn’t be solved in a 15-minute cabaret. I enjoyed her take on “If You Knew My Story” (Bright Star), and she was poignant on “Don’t Touch My Hair” (Solange), talking about how she is learning self-care and how to love herself. She touched on Beyoncé’s “Bigger,” and then finished with her title song. She has a powerful voice and a look that is very marketable. As with many young belters, her high notes can be too loud and a little harsh, but she has the raw material to be a star.
Cassie Miller: Local Synesthete
Miller was both captivating and a unicorn among her peers. She possessed a classically trained soprano voice, a Disney-princess demeanor, and a rare condition called synesthesia, in which her brain mixes sensations across the five senses. She spoke about the imaginary characters in her imaginary cottage, about her struggles to live in the real world, and how theater grounds her in the moment. She made seamless transitions between her stories and songs which in order were “Fairies at the Bottom of Our Garden” (Liz Lehmann), “Quiet” from Matilda, “Winter Bird” (AURORA), and Vagabond (MisterWives). She has an operatic voice that can be piercing when amplified. Her story sticks with you. She gave herself credit for finally speaking to her parents after having a dissociative experience on a school bus and thanked them for getting her diagnosed and being her support system. She sang to her younger self about holding on and learning to live among the neurotypical. Miller is buoyant; she’s a river of positive energy and someone to be watched.
Sophia Marino: Encore!!!
Marino, who closed out the first night of shows, opened with “Chicago,” from the TV show Victorious, in which she used parody lyrics about being in Tempe; she got a laugh when she “realized” that the Kerr Center is in Scottsdale. She disclosed she had been labeled a weird kid who was funny and a goody-two-shoes and had plenty of friends until they dissed her after the eighth grade. “Me and My Husband” (Mitski) was a questionable choice to express her loneliness. Next, she donned a pink boa to sing “I Am Lily of the Valley” which had to be transcribed from an old I Love Lucy episode, her favorite TV program. She had a running joke about having a crush on the Geico gecko, and she clearly relies on her comic skills as a performer. “She Used to Be Mine” from Waitress is a frequent cabaret number these days, and Marino found the vocal power and heart to pull it off. Like many of her peers she is on a path of self-healing.
