Singing at Odette's

posted by: Erika

This past weekend, I performed in a cabaret act called Two Hits and a Miss at Odette's in New Hope, PA. One of my professors and the head of our music theater department, Dr. Jay Kawarsky, e-mailed me over winter break and asked me if I would be interested in performing in a cabaret act he was putting together. I jumped at the opportunity and I am so glad I did. Two of my friends, Christian and George, were also ask to guest star in the show. The three featured performers were Ashley Wayne Barlow, Jane Arthur, and Deryl Johnson (the "two hits and a miss") who are all regular performers at the Cabaret at Odette's. They were so much fun to work with and gave us an insight on what it’s like to perform in a totally different setting. A cabaret is so much fun to do simply because the audience is right there practically on the stage with you and the intimacy allows the performer to really connect with people. Our cabaret was comprised of "songs lifted, borrowed, and stolen from some of the best cabarets around." The three headliners sang songs by Maltby and Shire, William Finn, among others. George, Christian, and I, affectionately called the three WCC "kids", sang back up for Ashley’s rendition of Weird Al Yankovich’s "One More Minute" and we sang a trio called "Fugue for a Menage a Trois". We did an entire coffee sequence in which I sang a solo called "Taylor the Latte Boy" and we all sang "Heart and Music" from A New Brain as our finale. My family drove down from home in New York to see the show on Saturday night and some of the teachers from school like Dr. Hemmel, a theory teacher, and Tina Vogel, the tap teacher, also came to see us. Bobby Egan, who produced the cabaret, really enjoyed our performances and wants us to come back and perform again soon. Hopefully we’ll be able to do an entire showcase of talent from Westminster. I can’t wait for my next trip out to Odette's. FUN TIMES!

pictured from left George Colli, me & Christian Stuck, all Westminster students