Review: An Intimate Evening with David Foster and Katherine McPhee at The Music Center At Strathmore

Anytime I attend a theatrical presentation there is a chance that I won’t know what to expect going in. When attending a concert there is usually more certainty. You know who the artists are and you at least have an idea of what you might hear.

When I walked into the Music Center at Strathmore for David Foster and Katherine McPhee’s concert this past Tuesday evening, there was only a piano onstage with some sound monitors and a projected image of Foster and McPhee with the caption “An Intimate Evening with David Foster and Katherine McPhee.” From that slide, I assumed this was going to be an all acoustic concert of piano and voice.

There are reasons why I thought this. David Foster is a 16 time Grammy Award winning producer/musician/arranger who has worked with the likes of Josh Groban, Celine Dion, and Barbara Streisand to name just a few. Katherine McPhee is an extremely talented singer/actress whose credits include NBC’s Smash and Waitress on Broadway.

After an opening video montage of Foster’s career, he appeared onstage in almost a god like pose and started playing his composition “Winter Games” which had a backing track. Then he went into one of his biggest hits “Love Theme from St. Elmo’s Fire” playing with a projected Kenny G and another backing track. I think you can see where this review is going.

Then Katherine McPhee came on with “Somewhere” from West Side Story. Foster produced this song for the closing track on her legendary The Broadway Album.” In this case the recorded track upstaged McPhee’s lovely vocal and actually became a distraction.

Other performances by McPhee that were hindered by her accompaniment included her rendition of “Singin in The Rain” which included some really badly synthesized brass samples. There is no denying McPhee’s talent. She has a killer voice to be sure and deserved something better for her accompaniment.

Also appearing as a special guest was America’s Got Talent finalist Daniel Emmet whose voice bears a striking and almost exact resemblance to Josh Groban. This was demonstrated very clearly with his rendition of “You Raise Me Up.” Emmet’s “Nessun Dorma” is a prime example of why using recorded tracks are just a bad idea. Emmet’s voice is truly a marvel, and the song is truly suited to it but because he was singing to a track, the music didn’t necessarily match the power of his voice.

The only time this concert landed for me were in the two encores of “I’ll be Seeing You” which was beautifully sung by McPhee and “Love” played by Foster without any help. These two instances were glimpses into what the rest of this concert should have been.

I really did admire the artists onstage, but I left the venue thinking “Great talents and very bad production choices.” I imagine this was not the desired effect they were going for.

Running Time: 85 minutes with no intermission.

An Intimate Evening with David Foster and Katherine McPhee was a one night only engagement at The Music Center at Strathmore on September 29th, 2026.

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