Redheads on the Town

Apres Show

The Redheads with Michele Brourman & Amanda McBroom

What’s better than an evening with one of our favorite singer-songwriters? A double feature, of course; starring two of our favorite people on the planet Amanda McBroom & Michele Brourman. Last Friday night your Redheads trekked downtown to the Metropolitan room to see, hear, cheer on, and yes, even steal a song or two from these virtuosos. Miss. Amanda ruled the first half of the evening singing a great mix of tunes, some she wrote, some she didn’t and several were from her upcoming album of Jacques Brel tunes. She was accompanied by Miss. Michele Brourman her frequent co-writer, musical director, long time friend and the producer of the new Album. If this was the only set we’d seen that evening it certainly would have left us with great smiles on our faces, but then came part II. After a break Michele took the stage solo and wowed us with her great warmth, tender voice, and masterful songs. Both these ladies have long been on the list of people we wish would write songs just for us so our pens were busy all evening making notes of tunes we wanted to add to our repertoires.

The audience was nothing to sneeze at either. It was chock full of other composers on our dream list including Carol Hall, Julie Gold, John Bucchino, and Shelia Rae. Also gliding through the room were Tommy Tune and Robert LaFosse. Ahhh…if only we could move through the world with that much grace… It was a wonderful night with wonderful friends, and we even managed to get a snap shot or two!

Divo Triple Header

It truly has been raining men in these parts. Hot on the heels of Miss Wendy Lane’s weekend adventure comes not one but THREE more of our beloved musicians of the masculine persuasion. And ON THE SAME NIGHT! What’s a Redhead to do? Well, in the case of this titian tressed duo we put on our party faces, fortified ourselves with Cream of mushroom soup and quiche (ahh… the culinary pleasures of fall) and sallied forth. Our first stop was midtown Manhattan where we took in our Aussie Pal, Tyran Parke’s US debut. Tyran has been making a name for himself in his homeland as a premier musical theatre performer. He just wrapped up a run there playing George Seurat in a rapturously received Sunday in the Park With George, A show which holds a special place in your Redheads’ hearts. Just the sound of the opening chords has been known to reduce Wendy Lane to tears. On this night Tyran took the stage as himself, and a charming self it is. To hear him sing is truly a wonderful experience and his performance of Sondheim’s Finishing the Hat (from Sunday in the Park) was one of the great highlights of a memorable evening. A side benefit for us was sharing a table with some of our favorite show folk including Jim Caruso, Alex Rybeck and Julie Wilson. After a quick congratulatory hug to Tyran, and a kiss to his musical director, Christopher Denny (whose talent is only exceeded by his great height, he makes even your vertically advantaged Redheads feel petite) we were off uptown as fast as the NYC transit system could carry us. Our next stop was the final moments of a house concert given by Mandolin Phenom and former Nickel Creek member Chris Thile along with bass virtuoso Edgar Meyer. Consummate musicians and lovely human beings both there is no musical style that these two cannot conquer. It was the perfect end to the evening for your Redheads who returned home to their beds quite tired but absolutely musically sated. The only downside to the evening was that we were so busy getting from one event to the next we had no time to remove the camera from the dark recesses of the bag in which it spent the evening. You’ll have to take our word for it that everyone looked divine, and we’ll make up for it in our next outing. Tomorrow we’re off to teach in DC. We’ll file a full report upon our return.