An Evening of Broadway presented two wonderful vocalists, Heather Reba and Richard Hellstern, who truly made you feel part of their
performances.
An Evening on Broadway was held on March 25, by the Department of Music, in Dodds Theater at the University of New Haven. Vocalists Reba, a soprano, and Hellstern, a tenor, both have many years of experience in the performing arts, and Reba is now a faculty member at UNH. The show also included four original compositions by Reba herself.
Reba and Hellstern preformed 15 songs written by various composers, but all were on Broadway. Reba opened with singing “Meadowlark” from The Baker’s Wife.
Most of the songs Reba and Hellstern sang were of love, but all of the songs were fun and entertaining. Reba and Hellstern not only sang, but they performed. They took it to a whole other theatrical level of entertainment and strong emotion that the audience could feel and be a part of.
Hellstern followed Reba with “Run Away with Me” from The Unauthorized Biography of Samantha Brown and “Giant in the Sky” from Into the Woods.
The performers also sang a number of duos; “Our Children” from Ragtime, “Ichabod” from The Legend of Sleepy Hallow, “I Remember” from Fate, and the finale “I’d Give It All For You” from Songs for a New World.
Throughout all the songs Reba and Hellstern preformed, they took the role of the characters in the song and made it come alive; the show was truly an excerpt of Broadway. Reba chose Tyler as a volunteer from the audience to play the role of a customer in her bakery in the song “Worst Pies in London” from Sweeney Todd.
The most exciting performance was by Reba when she sang “Popular”, from the extremely well-known Broadway play Wicked. The crowd was laughing, and she perfected the voice and the portrayal of the character. After her performance, Hellstern said, “Why do you always get the fun songs.”
William Braun accompanied Reba and Hellstern on piano. He has experience in the performing arts and has appeared as a concerto soloist with the New Haven Symphony Orchestra.
