“New Faces Sing Broadway 1947” reviewed by Julia W. Rath

Recommended *** Ethel Merman’s rendition of Irving Berlin’s “There’s No Business Like Show Business” is one of the best-known songs when it comes to theatre. But did you know that she first performed it in the musical “Annie Get Your Gun”, when it ran on Broadway in 1947? Today Porchlight Music Theatre’s “New Faces Sing Broadway 1947” recreates the excitement of the past by having ten budding singers—Samantha Behen, Anna Brockman, Jonah Cochin, Breanna Ghostone, Nathan Karnik, Austin Nelson Jr., Oliver Schilling, Destiny Strothers, Ciarra Stroud, and Austin Winter—perform songs taken from various 1947 musicals. With its nice balance of meticulously researched history, contemporary production numbers, audience sing-alongs, and a trivia game, this recorded video, hosted by Robin DaSilva, is both entertaining and educational. It focuses on the entertainers, composers, lyricists, writers, choreographers, and producers who made the original musicals possible—while it provides an ample sampling of the melodies from yesteryear.

The show opens with DaSilva and company singing “That Great Come-and-Get-It Day”, from “Finian’s Rainbow.” Some fun highlights include seeing the title song from “Call Me Mister”, performed by the trio of Jonah Cochin, Oliver Schilling, and Austin Winter; and “South America, Take It Away” (also from “Call Me Mister”), performed by the trio of Breanna Ghostone, Destiny Strothers, and Ciarra Strand. DaSilva’s performance of “Anywhere I Hang My Hat Is Home”, from “St. Louis Woman” is done very well. The audience sing-alongs are great, that of “Louise”, as originally performed by Maurice Chevalier, and “La Vie en Rose”, as originally performed by Edith Piaf. All the production numbers have been videotaped using Chicago’s Ruth Page Theatre as the backdrop, including numerous and sundry backstage haunts and the wonderful set designed by Angela Weber Miller from Porchlight’s earlier stage production of “Blues in the Night.”

Director Adrian Abel Azevado brings out the expressiveness of all of the vocalists and provides the audience with lots of variety in the course of this one-hour show. The music throughout is wonderful, thanks to music direction by Linda Madonia, who, in addition, arranged all the original compositions. Furthermore, as a result of Madonia’s hard work and that of audio engineer Matthew R. Chase, the sound mix is perfect between the singers and the various musical instruments accompanying them. Austin Crowley’s videography is great, and excellent lighting by lighting technician Mark Brown makes the video sparkle. Roll-ins of footage and inserts of theatre posters, lithographs, and photographs of actual people and events are handled adeptly by Chollette. Kudos to production and operations director Alex Rhyan for his fine efforts.

Yet there is a problem with the production, and it has to do with the audio. The sound quality and volume are very uneven from segment to segment. The scenes where the singers introduce themselves are much too loud as compared to the rest. Most of this could have been fixed in the editing room, where the audio should have been normalized. Plus, while DaSilva’s lavalier microphone seems to pick up her singing voice just fine, it doesn’t pick up her narration as well as it should. Basically, her lavalier microphone was set too far away from her face and too far off to one side. Either she should have worn a different dress to accommodate the microphone; or, better yet, she should have been given a standing microphone for hosting purposes.

In all, “New Faces Sing Broadway 1947” is filled with music and musical history that may bring back old memories or create new ones. It’s a fine show as it stands, but there is always the temptation to want to vote for the best singers, which I might have done while watching the TV program “American Idol.” In that vein, while all ten of the “new faces” are good, four of them are standouts: Ciarra Stroud, Nathan Karnik, Austin Winter, and Austin Nelson, Jr. Just remember that you’ll need to turn your speakers up and down throughout the performance—and maybe you’ll want to replay portions of the video stream in the event that you may have missed several words in the text or a name or two.

“New Faces Sing Broadway 1947” is available for online streaming through Thursday, May 5, 2022 at 11:59 p.m. CDT via the Porchlight Music Theatre website.

Tickets are $25-$50 and are on sale now. Visit https://porchlightmusictheatre.org/ or call the Porchlight Music Theatre box office at 773-777-9884 for more information and to purchase tickets.

To see what others are saying, visit www.theatreinchicago.com, go to Review Round-Up and click at “New Faces Sing Broadway 1947”. This is your opportunity to see some of our young performers begin their rise in Chicago.