BWW Reviews: David Burnham is a Sensation @ Sterling's

On Sunday October 2 handsome Broadway tenor David Burnham brought his class-A style and overflowing charisma to an evening called Mostly Broadway at Sterling's Upstairs at Vitello's. The evening was mainly to celebrate Burnham's newest CD One Day, on which he and musical director extraordinaire Mark Vogel present several original compositions. To say that Burnham had the audience eating out of his palm is an understatement. The theatre world - both men and women - adore him. Loving the female attention he was consistently receiving, like a craving rock star, he jumped into the audience on a couple of occasions, to tease and seduce, the second time bringing lovely Karen Roberts up to the stage with him to duet on "Suddenly Seymour" from Little Shop of Horrors.

With several appearances on Broadway including Fiyero in Wicked, who he compared to Scarecrow in The Wizard of Oz and Fabrizio in Light in the Piazza, Burnham has learned the ropes at auditions and told a delightful story about his very own for Piazza. Thinking Italian, he brought in a number and played a sexy girating heartthrob throughout its execution. He then proceeded to illustrate his point by singing the song, "Maiden's Breast" by Gilbert sand Sullivan, which was totally wrong for Fabrizio, but after a callback or two, it did land him the role. Persistence and a little seduction thrown in for good measure! Hey, if you've got it, flaunt it! It worked for David Burnham.

Other highlights of the evening included: "Love To Me" from Piazza, Rodgers' and Hammerstein's "I Have Dreamed" and "If I Loved You", "Over the Rainbow", "Unchained Melody", a beautifully touching salute to his deceased mother "Fly Again", "Bridge Over Troubled Waters", "Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You" and as encore Sinatra's "That's Life". There was a wonderful "Proud Lady" from Stephen Schwartz's The Baker's Wife and a wonderfully comic "I Think About..." from Ray Jessel. And of course, his composition with Vogel entitled "Always Have You and Me". It was a slick presentation from top to bottom with Broadway pop and, as you can see, other hit favorites, guaranteed with a title like Mostly Broadway.

David Burnham is so energetic, animated and full of the devil that he can be terribly funny if he wants to be ... and turn it off at a moment's notice. But that distinguishes a good actor from the rest. A good singer is a good actor, and Burnham is blessed with it all. Don't miss him on stage and don't forget to purchase his CD One Day.
www.davidburnham.com

 

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