Review: Full House Enjoys AN EVENING WITH DIONNE WARWICK at Groton Hill Music Center
This concert was performed at Groton Hill Music Center on March 29
As Dionne Warwick took the stage at Groton Hill Music Center in Groton recently, before she had sung a single word, she was met by a rousing standing ovation. It was clear from the get-go that the capacity audience knew they were in the presence of a legend.
Warwick – who had 62 singles, beginning with 1962’s “Don’t Make Me Over,” on the Billboard Hot 100 between 1962 and 1999 – quickly affirmed just what has made her one of the most successful female pop artists of all time, opening her 90-minute set with what she “affectionately” called “a walk down memory lane.”
From her vast catalogue, the singer – all sparkly in a green bejeweled evening ensemble – served up selections from her hits medley, featuring the Burt Bacharach and Hal David songs she made famous including “Walk On By,” “Anyone Who Had a Heart,” “Kentucky Blue Bird (Message to Michael),” “You’ll Never Get to Heaven (If You Break My Heart),” and “This Girl’s in Love with You.”
Warwick’s trio included music director and pianist Andre Chez Lewis, drummer Jeffrey Lewis, and bass player Danny DeMorales, and her iconic voice, deeper now than it once was, is a musical instrument in and of itself that the six-time Grammy Award recipient knows exactly how to use.
One of the best examples came when the 2023 Kennedy Center Honors recipient performed “Alfie,” the pop hit by composer Bacharach and lyricist David that was recorded by more than 40 other artists before Warwick took it to number 15 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1967, and made it her own. With deep affection for both the song and the singer, the Groton audience all but held its breath as Warwick perfectly delivered every note.
Showtunes were on the set list, too, with Warwick covering two songs from “Promises, Promises,” the Tony and Grammy Award-winning Bacharach and David musical which had a pre-Broadway tryout at Boston’s Colonial Theatre. She did a light and lovely “I’ll Never Fall in Love” in her hits medley, and later a lively “I Say a Little Prayer,” which Warwick made sound as if it were the original 1968 recording. Although she did not perform them in Groton, Warwick also had two other hits on songs from the musical – “A House Is Not a Home” and the title song.
Throughout the evening, the performer employed her considerable warmth and humor to share memories of her long, enduring career. In one such story, she recalled the 1980 Grammy Awards which saw her make history as the first singer to win Grammy Awards for Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female – for “I’ll Never Love This Way Again” by composer Richard Kerr and lyricist Will Jennings, from her Barry Manilow-produced album “Dionne” – and Best R&B Vocal Performance, Female – for "Déjà Vu," written by Isaac Hayes, with lyrics by Adrienne Anderson – in the same year.
With her soaring vocal crescendos, Warwick, recipient of a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and a 2024 inductee into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame – turned up the heat on “I Know I’ll Never Love This Way Again,” and kept the mood simmering with her sultry take on "Déjà Vu.”
The New Jersey native put her own stamp on the contemplative ballad “99 Miles from L.A.,” with music by Albert Hammond and lyrics by David, after introducing it with a warm and humorous warms about her good friend, the recently retired Johnny Mathis, who performed the song in concert for decades.
Following a beautiful rendition of “What the World Needs Now Is Love,” Warwick seamlessly segued into “That’s What Friends Are For,” her 1986 Grammy Award-winning number one single, by Bacharach and lyricist Carole Bayer Sager, that has raised millions for AIDS research and become an anthem of its era.
More than 65 years since beginning her recording career, Warwick recently released the first single – “Ocean in the Desert,” a duet with Tony, Emmy, and Grammy Award winner Cynthia Erivo – from what she says will be her final studio album, “DWuets.” With music by 17-time Academy Award-nominee Diane Warren, the album, which will also pair Warwick with John Legend, Kehlani, and others, is set to drop in August.
One can only hope that while Warwick may be recording her last album, there will still be many more concerts in her future.
Photo caption: Dionne Warwick and Andre Chez Lewis onstage at the Groton Hill Music Center in Groton, Massachusetts. Photo by Julie LeBlanc.
Reader Reviews
Videos