Friday, November 20, 2015

Eric Conway: Opera@Morgan presents a Staged Reading of "There Was a Boy"

















Eric Conway writes on Thursday, November 19, 2015:

Hello All,

This morning at 10:30 AM, I attended the first performance of a staged-reading of the Broadway-Style Jazz Operetta: “There Was A Boy”.  This is the story of none-other than the one of the most famous recording artists that every lived: Nat King Cole.  The show was conceived and written by James Rich.  James Rich, who was a resident artist in our department for a part of the semester, sang the lead role of Nat King Cole.   Is there anyone over the age of fifty who does not know most of the Nat King Cole standards.  Even today, as we enter the holidays, one cannot stroll through a department store without hearing selections from his most famous Christmas “album”, perhaps most famous of all time.  James as “Nat” was surrounded by both Morgan Music majors who were enrolled in the department’s opera workshop course as well as faculty and administration in the university.  James Rich has a silky voice who successfully recreates the spirit of Nat King when he sings.  As virtually every standard was sung by a different person in the cast, one got the sense of a variety show in hearing many different voices sing these popular standards.  James Rich hopes that one day, this show will make it to Broadway.  Just think that if that happens, it first was realized at Morgan.  If you are from Morgan, it is worth the price of admission just to hear our CLA Dean, Pamela Scott-Johnson; VP of Student Affairs, Kevin Banks; or Theatre faculty member Phillip Burgess croon a few tunes. There are three performances left:  Friday, November 20th, Saturday, the 21st,  at 7:30 PM and Saturday, November 21st at 2:00 PM.  If you are available, I strongly recommend that attend this show and stroll down memory lane as you hear all the popular standards of the forties, fifties & sixties. See some snapshots attached of this morning’s show, with a short clip from the show. All performances will be in the Murphy Fine Arts Center Recital Hall.  $15 General Admission, $7 MSU Students Faculty and Staff.

EC


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