Review: MSMT Singers Close Out 2023 Season with Splendid Cabaret at Cadenza

The MSMT Singers, the spectacularly talented group of young professionals in residence at Maine State Music Theatre all summer, bid farewell to Brunswick with two splendidly crafted and performed cabarets at the Freeport venue, Cadenza. The eight performers were able to showcase their triple threat talents and the new skills they honed all summer, in a program of musical theatre song and dance.

Music Director Erik Wakar helped the ensemble program the evening and shepherded them through all the musical preparation. The fleet-fingered Wakar also provided the piano accompaniment for the concert on Cadenza’s Yamaha grand, demonstrating her extraordinary musicality, lyricism, and pianistic virtuosity.  Wakar also shone in a shimmering Debussy solo which showcased her classical training.

The program of twenty-one songs offered variety and the opportunity to demonstrate individual strengths, but it also spoke eloquently to the concept of the ensemble. The seven MSMT Singers - Collin Flannagan, Albert Sterner, Elijah James, Jalen Kirkman, Chelsea Peña, Camila V. Romero, Cari Walton (and Jasmine Gillenwaters who had departed a day earlier)  - clearly had spent the summer not only honing their performing skills and building their repertoire, but they had fused their talents and passion into a collective whole whose commitment to their craft and love for their art and each other were inspiring. Joined by two local Maine actors and veterans of previous summers, - Emily Bartley and Mikayla Jane - the nine-person company delivered an entertaining and moving evening of song and dance, arranged in a seamless flow.

Among the evening’s highlights were: Chelsea Peña’ s winsome “I Feel Pretty” (WEST SIDE STORY), Camila V. Romero’s bilingual Spanish and English “How ‘Bout a Dance?” (BONNIE & CLYDE), Cari Walton’s compellingly decadent “Mein Lieber Herr” (CABARET), Mikyala Jane’s  insightful “Waiting for Life” (ONCE ON THIS ISLAND), and Emily Bartley’s kittenish and seductive “Hit Me with a Hot Note” (SOPHISTICATED LADIES).  Albert Sterner sang a wrenching rendition of “Out There” (HUNCHBACK); Collin Flanagan gave a vibrant account singing and dancing “I Can’t Stand Still” (FOOTLOOSE); Jalen Kirkman sensitively probed Michael Mott’s “Her Embrace,” and Elijah James danced and sang an electric “You Gotta Dance?” (LOOK, MA, I’M DANCIN’).

Several duets and ensemble pieces also proved memorable. Jalen Kirkman and Albert Sterner blended their elegant voices in “Lily’s Eyes” (SECRET GARDEN); Camila V. Romero and Jalen Kirkman soared in Christine and Raoul’s PHANTOM duet, “All I Ask of You”; the women did justice to a catchy gospel rendition of “Up the Ladder to the Roof” (The Supremes), while the men performed a smart quartet version of “What a Game” (RAGTIME). The program opened with a sprightly account of “Company” (Sondheim) and finished with a poignantly lyrical “Song of Purple Summer” (SPRING AWAKENING), adding “Let Your Freak Flag Fly” (SHREK) for a feel-good encore.

Stage Manager Liz Patton worked her usual magic spearheading the event, while Clif  Rogers handled sound.

The Cadenza Cabaret performances, which first began in 2021, make a fitting cap to the season. After an afternoon of reveling in the boisterous, bawdy, brilliant SOMETHING ROTTEN! and bidding adieu to the Pickard Theater and a season of spectacular artistic successes, audiences could come to Cadenza to enjoy a more intimate evening with  young artists who became very much part of the fabric of this company and community in their brief sojourn here.

Nurturing young talent and giving them their first professional experiences continue to be hallmarks of MSMT’s mission. There are few theatres that discharge that mission with more commitment, caring, and skill, and the results are inspiringly impressive.  These are the stars of the future, and they follow in the footsteps of a long and illustrious line of names now basking in the bright lights of Broadway who began their careers at MSMT.  Recognizing talent, nurturing and disciplining that talent, and providing artistic experiences of the highest caliber from which to learn – these are just a few of the attributes that distinguish MSMT’s Artistic Director Curt Dale Clark and which contribute to MSMT’s reputation as one of the finest regional theatres in the country.

Photos by the author

MSMT Singers at Cadenza performed on August 25 & 26, 2023. 

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