Bravo Broadway

Last night I went to the Bravo Broadway concert featuring the Utah Symphony and guest vocalists Scarlett Strallen, Dee Roscioli, and Hugh Panaro.  It was wonderful!  Before the show, guest conductor John Gennaro Devlin told the audience that the first half would feature classic Broadway standards and the second would include songs from popular shows on Broadway today and I'm not sure which I enjoyed more!  The orchestra began with the Broadway Tonight Overture and then all three soloists came to the stage for "Lullaby of Broadway" from 42nd Street.  Strallen, who has a beautiful coloratura soprano voice, continued with a lovely version of "I Could Have Danced All Night" from My Fair Lady, Panaro sang an incredibly moving version of "Not While I'm Around" from Sweeney Todd (all of the lights on stage turned red during this song), and then Roscioli just about blew the roof off Abravanel Hall with her version of "Don't Rain on My Parade" from Funny Girl.  Next came a romantic performance of "Stranger in Paradise" from Kismet and then the orchestra continued with a medley from West Side Story (which included audience participation).  All three soloists performed an amusing version of "Getting Married Today" from Company, Panaro gave a spirited rendition of "Ya Got Trouble" from The Music Man, and then everyone performed "Before the Parade Passes By" from Hello, Dolly! to conclude the first half.  After the intermission, Panaro sang "You'll Be Back" from Hamilton (complete with a crown) and this was obviously my favorite  performance of the night but Roscioli's rendition of "Memory" from Cats gave me goosebumps!  I love that Panaro and Strallen included "The Song That Goes Like This" from Spamalot next because it is such a spoof of Broadway musicals and the fact that they sang it so seriously was hilarious.  The orchestra played a really fun medley from Mamma Mia that got the audience cheering and then Strallen and Roscioli (who has had the longest run playing Elphaba on Broadway and on national tours) sang "For Good" from Wicked.  Roscioli continued with "Defying Gravity" (her dress was pink so she joked that she was wearing the wrong color but at least all of the lights on stage were green) and this was another favorite moment.  A Bravo Broadway concert just isn't complete without Phantom of the Opera so Panaro and Strallen sang "Phantom of the Opera" and then Panaro gave an incredible performance of "Music of the Night" that brought the house down!  For the encore, they performed a medley of love songs for Valentine's Day (my favorites were "Love Changes Everything" from Aspects of Love and "I Don't Know How to Love Him" from Jesus Christ Superstar).  I enjoyed this concert so much and, if you love musical theatre as much as I do, I highly recommend getting a ticket to tonight's performance of the same program (go here) but act quickly because there were very few empty seats last night.