“Holiday Treat at Hey Nonny in Arlington Heights”

**** 4Chairs! Seeing that might cause you to think “what is that?” Is it a kitchen furniture store? A dining room furniture store?- “what could it ne?”. The answer is simple. It is a theatrical company that invites you to “pull up a chair, relax and be entertained”. Over the years, the singers who are involved have been performing one-nighters in Arlington Heights at a novel place called Hey Nonny, where you can enjoy great food in the dining room or great entertainments in their cabaret, next door. By the way, they cover it all- check out the variety at www.heynonny.com.

Tonight, the show was a holiday special directed by Lauren Berman entitled “It’s All Relative” and the five singers and piano player truly presented a dynamite show. While it is called 4 chairs , they have had several shows with 5 or 6 performers and recently did a great Sondheim Revue at The Skokie Theatre ( a true run, not a one night concert), but the magic of this company has been the special one night shows where we get to see new talent ( young and old) do their thing.

Tonight’s show was centered around the holiday season and the stress that comes with family, friends and holidays. There were five performers on the stage and they were accompanied by the amazing Tyeese Braslavsky at the keyboards.

The selection of music was a combination of comic songs and theatrical numbers with several duets. This was not your typical “Holiday” concert or even a hint of a Christmas song, but instead 18 musical pieces that dealt with people, personalities and individual issues. These are in fact things that do create fear and tension for many of us when it comes to the “holiday Season”!

I am not going to break down every song in the show, but there were some numbers that truly captured the emotions of the large audience. Each performer had a story that in some cases led them to be on a stage and the voices were perfect for the songs they selected. While I am familiar with almost every musical ever, I had never heard of the adorable “Taylor, The Latte Boy” done by Rachel Carreras, who has an amazing range) in Act 1 and then followed by Mike Weaver’s  “Taylor, the Latte Boy Rebuttal” that started act two. Mike weaver is slightly older than the others in this cast, but his voice and stage presence is young at heart!

Claire Czechowicz is probably the youngest of the performers and was able to pull off a sterling rendition of  “Barcelona” with Nick Arceo who has a powerful voice and is quite good at comedy numbers. The fifth performer is Christine Pfennifer, who  has a great range and knows how to work a comic number to perfection. Her duet with Mike “Therapy” was outstanding and her duet with  Rachel “I Could Always Go To You”, outstanding ( and very funny).

While this is a one night show, you might want to become a subscriber to this company so you can be made aware of where and when they will be performing next. Go to www.4chairstheatre.org, get yourself pn their mailing list and be ready to catch their next show. You will be entertained!