BWW Reviews: CAROLEE CARMELLO: THE BOSTON CONCERT

Carolee Carmello: The Boston Concert

with Musical Director/Pianist Phil Reno

Monday, September 22, 2014, Presented by The FUDGE Theatre Company, Founding Artistic Director Joey DeMita, in association with Matt Phillipps, at the Mosesian Theatre at the Arsenal Center for the Arts, 321 Arsenal Street, Watertown, MA; www.fudgetheatre.com

Three-time Tony Award nominee Carolee Carmello wowed 'em at the Arsenal Center for the Arts in Watertown Monday in a one-night only performance presented by The FUDGE Theatre Company Founding Artistic Director Joey DeMita, in association with Matt Phillipps. Dubbed Carolee Carmello: The Boston Concert, the versatile artist shared the stage with her virtuoso piano accompanist and Musical Director, Phil Reno, and stormed through a set list of eleven o'clock numbers from Broadway shows she's been lucky enough to have been in and even some she hasn't. At present, Ms. Carmello is originating the role of Madame du Maurier (the mother of Sylvia Llewelyn Davies) in the Broadway-bound Finding Neverland at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge and spent her night off revisiting some of her twelve Broadway roles.

Interspersed between the songs was a mix of personal anecdotes and mini-synopses of the musicals. Carmello's current gig is not her first time on the boards in the Boston area. She opened the night with "I Dreamed a Dream" from Les Miserables, and told a funny story about having to go on for Fantine (she was the understudy) in the first national tour which started in the Hub at the Shubert Theatre. That was the first of many serious songs which packed an emotional wallop (including "As Long As He Needs Me" from Oliver, "When I Look At You" from The Scarlet Pimpernel), but not all of the emotion was heavy or sad. There were smiles all around when her father joined her onstage for the duet "You're Just In Love" from the great Ethel Merman vehicle Call Me Madam and Dad has a pretty good set of pipes, too.

Carmello sings with great clarity, a lot of vibrato, and practices amazing breath control when she sustains notes for an incredible length of time. She displayed an impressive ability to belt, perhaps most notably in her final encore "Don't Rain On My Parade" from Funny Girl, when she held nothing back. Equally impressive is her ability to create a character in the short span of a song, and she introduced us to a wide range of people. She used different dialects (Cockney English, Skid Row-ese) and gave us the tough Girl Friday from City of Angels ("You Can Always Count On Me"), Audrey from Little Shop of Horrors (in which she played for a year at the Charles Playhouse), the Mother Superior from Sister Act, and Donna from Mamma Mia!, a role she played for 1600 performances!

However, the character Carmello played best was herself, opening a window into her heart and mind when she talked about her experiences in the aftermath of 9-11. At the time, she had been cast as Kate in the Broadway revival of Kiss Me Kate and the show was shut down for a couple of nights in the wake of the attack. When they were called back to work on September 13th, there were only about one hundred people in the audience in a theater with 1500 seats. She described wondering if it was silly to stage the show in light of the tragedy and how strange it felt to face such a small house, but their mission was to help return New York to normalcy, small step by small step, and she seemed to feel good about her part in that. Carmello followed with her lovely rendition of "So In Love," and no one in the audience will ever hear that song again without thinking of her story.

One of Carmello's three Tony Award nominations (and a Drama Desk win) was for playing Lucille Frank in Jason Robert Brown's Parade. Having originated the role, she described it as one of her favorite theatrical experiences and sang "All the Wasted Time" with great power and conviction. This time Reno sang the male part, but it would have been nice to bring Dad back for an encore. After all, she credited him with passing along his natural talent to her. Carmello never intended to be a Broadway star, never took acting or singing lessons as a child, and studied Business Administration in college. From the sound of things, I'd say she should make the Dean's List for administering this business of show.

Photo: Carolee Carmello

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