Theatrical star power was on view across Central Florida this weekend, with two concerts fronted by leading men and a leading lady from Broadway.
At the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts, the Residency Festival featuring the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra continued Saturday with a concert starring Tony winners Sutton Foster and Brian Stokes Mitchell. At the Garden Theatre in Winter Garden, Justin Matthew Sargent of “Spider Man: Turn Off the Dark” and “Rock of Ages” fame headlined a tribute to rock band Queen.
Two very different vibes, two enjoyable experiences.
At the arts center’s Steinmetz Hall, Foster went with a winning cabaret-style approach with lesser-known tunes and clever medleys — in one centered on a sense of adventure, she sparkled on “Not for the Life of Me” from her Broadway breakout role in “Thoroughly Modern Millie,” before soaring on “N.Y.C.” from “Annie,” given lovely heft by the orchestra, and bringing it home with a rafter-raising “Astonishing” from the musical “Little Women.”
She crocheted — talking about her love of crafting — during a lilting medley of “Que Sera Sera” and John Denver’s “Sunshine on My Shoulders,” which radiated happiness. And she turned back to musical theater with “Goodnight My Someone” from “The Music Man,” in which she recently starred on Broadway with Hugh Jackman and sang the lullaby nightly both onstage — and offstage to her young daughter.
Jovial and chatty, Mitchell stuck closer to a Broadway greatest-hits playbook and unleashed his beautiful baritone to great effect on such classics as “Stars” from “Les Miserables” (kudos to the Dr. Phillips Center lighting team who made the hall look heavenly), a powerful solo rendition of “Wheels of a Dream” from “Ragtime” and a particularly majestic “I Don Quixote” from “Man of La Mancha,” in which he brandished his microphone stand, ready for tilting at any windmills around.
When he sings those songs, without costume or wig Mitchell transforms into the characters — the fixated policeman, the hopeful new father, the valiant knight.
A grooving basso nova detour, handled deftly by the orchestra under the baton of Edwin Outwater, found Mitchell in the existential realm of “The Waters of March,” during which he added his own accompaniment on the melodica. Then in Stephen Sondheim’s “Getting Married Today,” Mitchell expertly and comically played three separate characters with exquisite diction, before wrapping up with a heartfelt “The Impossible Dream (The Quest),” the song he famously sang from his New York City window to cheer passersby during the COVID-19 shutdown.
The pair’s opening duet, “I’ve Got You Under My Skin,” was muddy as the orchestra and vocals competed in the amplified sound mix. But two closing duets shone brightly: A perky Gershwin medley followed by “Some Enchanted Evening,” with the musicians shimmering on the delicate orchestration.
Meanwhile, out in Winter Garden, Sargent rocked the house with a tight 90-minute show that touched on all of Queen’s best-known hits. The University of Central Florida graduate, who grew up near Tampa, had driving support from the band, a pair of backup vocals and a trio of dancers who made surprisingly effective use of the rather limited stage space at the theater.
Sargent has the charisma and million-watt smile to illuminate the stage as much as the concert-style lighting does. And he has the vocal chops to put the power in “The Show Must Go On” and “Somebody to Love.” While he blazed through the vocal fireworks required of a Queen tribute, Sargent also found the right attitude for the seductive hooks in numbers like the insistent “Another One Bites the Dust” and a jaunty “Crazy Little Thing Called Love.”
Occasionally, his voice sounded too low in the mix, and the occasional use of recorded backing vocals for a fuller sound seemed like cheating — not that the enthusiastic crowd cared. Most jarring to me: Video footage showing clapping hands NOT on the beat to “We Will Rock You.” The disconnect made my brain hurt.
But other videos, with DayGlo London landscapes or images of Queen frontman Freddie Mercury, were right on target. As Sargent said in his introduction, “We’re not here to imitate, we’re here to appreciate.”
And appreciate, they did.
More music
The Residency Festival concludes Sunday, Oct. 8, with a 7:30 p.m. concert by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra with the Bach Festival Society of Winter Park in Steinmetz Hall. More information: drphillipscenter.org. “Queen: Rhythm & Rhapsody” has two more performances, at 2 and 6 p.m. Oct. 8 at the Garden Theatre. More information: gardentheatre.org.
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