Review: 'SONGS FOR NOBODIES' at PCPA: Solvang Festival Theater
PCPA Closes Its Season on a High Note with "Songs for Nobodies"
The names of the divas—Garland, Piaf, Cline, Holiday, Callas—sparkle like the dangling lights on Solvang’s Theaterfest stage. But PCPA’s production of “Songs for Nobodies” gives equal voice and light to the stories of its titular “nobodies.” The constellation of all these characters revolves around actor-vocalist Bethany Thomas, its sole performer.
The evening's stories move in a tidy rhythm: a sharply drawn vignette from an ordinary woman, then a song that encapsulates her needs and dreams. Thomas makes the most out of her ability to vocally interpret the texture of each singer’s voice. And it is more of an interpretation than an imitation. Although her rendition of “Crazy” did make me think I might be in the midst of a fever dream because of its dead-on similarity to Patsy Cline’s original. Thomas shows a remarkable range from Judy Garland’s punchy vibrato in “Come Rain or Come Shine,” then the emotional pull of Maria Callas’ aria from “Tosca,” “Vissi d’arte.”
What elevates the production is the way the stories and songs work almost contrapuntally, with one element answering the other. The show refuses the “jukebox” musical trap of treating the story elements as verbal stepping stones from one hit song to another. Instead, we absorb the songs as the emotional vehicles of each woman’s memoir. The audience experiences “Vissi d’arte,” for example, as the expression of vulnerable women from Tosca through Callas to the unnamed nanny through Thomas.
The English librarian’s tale was a standout. A demure librarian talks about her father’s life in the French Resistance during World War II and Edith Piaf’s brief and decisive intersection with it. When Thomas launches into “Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien,” the rolling, rising melodic line creates a stirring climax, perfectly pairing text and tune.
Catch this play while you can. “Songs for Nobodies” plays outdoors at Solvang’s Festival Theater through September 7. It’s a sparkling evening of song rendered with the depth of humanity
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