“I Am Woman, Hear Me Belt”

[rating=5] The big problem with one night concerts or Cabaret evenings, is that they are indeed “one time”, which means that I can tell you about them, but it is highly unlikely that you will ever have this experience. I apologize for that, but try to take in the info as you are going to hear about six young female performers, whose names will be heard for years to come, should they opt to take the path that I hope they will.

For years I have been saying , “where do we get all of our young actors/singers from?”. I know that many come to Chicago from smaller cities, but the truth be known, we have a great deal of young, raw talent right here and all it takes is a nurturing hand to bring them forward for all to see. Does the name Lauren Rawitz ring a bell? She is one of the few directors that has put something on the stage of The Metropolis Theatre in Arlington Heights that was well done. When I recently ran into her at the opening of “The Producers” in Aurora, she told me of her new company  4 Chairs Theatre. She told me that she was planning to do something unique at a little spot in Arlington Heights, Hey Nonny ( I reviewed this when they opened about 5 months ago) a Cabaret Club/Restaurant combo- very cool place located at 10 South Vail ( right around the corner from The Metropolis) www.heynonny.com.  They are worth checking out for both their vittles and their entertainment!

The show was a one night show, featuring six enchantingly talented young ladies doing Broadway songs.  She said, “You will be amazed by these young talents”. She was right! They were amazing!

These are truly talents that if they opt to stay in the world of theater and or music, will become well-known names:

Emmie Ginsburg ( a sophomore at Stevenson)

Francesca “Frankie” Walsh ( a senior at Stevenson),

HanakoWalrath ( another senior),

SamhitaMadduru ( a junior, again at Stevenson)

Kaitlin Feely ( a junior at Illinois Wesleyan University)

and

Jennifer Baker who appears to be out of school and working her way up the ranks in local theaters.

Six lovely and extremely talented singers doing songs from “Dear Evan Hansen”, Les Miz”, “Waitress”, “Wicked”, “Phantom of The Opera” and all in all over one hour-thirty five minutes of Broadway tunes performed as they should sound by this terrific group f young women. The music was supplied by a lone piano ( played to perfection by Katie Rockwell)- it was a glorious night indeed! Thank you Lauren for finding these young ladies and bringing them forward. If you can do this again, let me know and I will help you spread the word so that maybe more of us can bear witness to these talents. Thanks to Chip and his Hey Nonny staff for working with the local community on bringing an evening like this to reality. Lauren can be found at www.4chairstheatre.org