An Evening At The Bowl

Had a nice treat Friday night when my tour boss Philip invited me to join his party at the Hollywood Bowl. We had wine and cheese and meats, and a delicious Key Lime pie for dessert. Philip's friends are all show people and artists, so there was much laughter and revelry.

The program was Great American Women, one of the Bowl's "Great American Concerts" series, and conductor John Mauceri was celebrating his 300th performance at the Bowl.

It was a lovely evening -- amazing how cool Los Angeles evenings can be even in the summer time -- and the show featured the Hollywood Bowl orchestra, three great divas, and fireworks!

The divas were opera star Debra Voigt, jazz maven Dianne Reeves (just off the plane from hometown Denver!), and Broadway legend Barbara Cook. Each woman held the audience captive with their unique interpretations of standard classics, both classical and popular.

Most endearing perhaps was 78-year-old Barbara Cook who forgot her words several times, but shrugged it off like a pro, at one point stopping the orchestra to start over. "This song is too good to mess up. Let's try it again, Johnny M," she said.

My favorite piece of the evening was the very first one played by the orchestra, Fanfare From "King's Row" by film composer Erich Korngold. This was obviously a huge inspiration for the music of John Williams and in fact one part of the theme sounded remarkably similar to the opening notes of "Star Wars".

Another highlight was a specially commissioned orchestral suite of Adam Guettel's The Light In The Piazza, which won a Tony this year for Best Original Score. Guettel premiered this suite at the Hollywood Bowl several years before the Broadway production and his glorious score brings back a romantic style of theater music not heard since the days of his grandfather, Richard Rodgers.

[I became familiar with The Light In The Piazza on my recent trip to San Francisco. After our Sideways tour through wine country, Betty played the cast album for me in the car.]

John Mauceri had everyone in stitches with his witty 15th annual "State of the Orchestra" address. What a charming and articulate man he is -- exactly the sort of person you would want sitting next to you at a dinner party.