Paul Andersen, Enjoy!
SAN GABRIEL -- For soprano Ann Winkowski, it will be a family affair,
an opportunity to sing some songs she might not normally do.
It's a chance for baritone bass Rick Kleber to step from behind the
curtains to in front of them, where he has spent so much time in the
past.
But for Roger Lockie, music director and conductor for the Music
Theatre of Southern California, there will be a simple expectation.
"It's real easy," he said with a goodhearted laugh. "If you don't
cover costs, and you don't make money, then it's not a fund-raiser!"
They are all looking forward to the company's "A Tribute to the Music
of Rodgers & Hammerstein and Andrew Lloyd Webber" at 3 p.m. Sunday at the
San Gabriel Civic Auditorium.
All proceeds will go to the general operating fund for the 16-year-old
nonprofit performing arts organization, which brings each of its
productions to Glendale's Alex Theatre for one weekend.
The concert will feature more than two dozen songs by the esteemed
Broadway composers, sung by Winkowski, Kleber, mezzo soprano Sylvia
Miller and tenor John Holder, with backing from a 26-piece onstage
orchestra. All the singers are veterans of numerous productions with the
theater group.
Company choreographer Rikki Lugo will also have a small group of
dancers performing at junctures throughout the concert.
Lockie first got the idea of staging a Broadway concert for the
company after seeing Sarah Brightman do a Webber revue at the Schubert
Theatre.
"It was a wonderful presentation, and I remember the audience loving
it," he said. He put on the first show for Music Theatre, featuring the
music of Rodgers & Hammerstein, in 1996 to a packed house. This will be
the second concert show the company has presented.
"I wish we could do it every year," said Kleber, who, besides having
appeared in such Music Theatre shows as "Little Shop of Horrors" and "The
Desert Song," is now also the production stage manager for the group.
The veteran actor, who has appeared in more than 100 stage productions
worldwide, injured his knee in an accident at Universal Studios in 1996
while portraying Fred Flintstone, and while rehabilitating he began
working backstage at the theater.
"You realize what a bunch of babies actors are," he said, with a
laugh. "But really, it is a whole different world back there. It is like
being an air traffic controller, with so many things that can go wrong.
You've got all those cues. It is leaves you mentally drained at the end
of the night."
