I saw Kelli O'Hara in South Pacific a few years ago, and she was so radiant as Nelly Forbush. I also saw her at Seth Rudetsky's Sirius XM's Live on Broadway radio show, singing a really cute song They Don't Let You in the Opera (If You're a Country Star).
She has a popular cabaret act that she has taken across the country, and now a CD of that show, Always, has been released on Ghostlight Records. To promote the CD, O'Hara appeared at the Barnes & Noble 86th St. store to sing five songs, and she was wonderful.
She opened with What More Do I Need?, written by Stephen Sondheim for the show Saturday Night. Then she sang a song by Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey, the creative team behind Broadway's Next to Normal. The song was written for Sondheim's 80th birthday celebration, and you could hear the Sondheimian influence.
The CD is named Always, and of course she sang the Irvin Berlin classic, a song her grandparents had at their wedding, and one that she has sung at weddings herself. It gave me goosebumps!
Another Sondheim song, Finishing the Hat, from Sundays in the Park With George was heartfelt, and she finished with her comic masterpiece co-written by her accompanist Dan Lipton, They Don't Let You in the Opera (If You're A Country Star). This is an incredible feat of singing, and you have to hear to really appreciate it. The video below is from the radio show, courtesy of YouTube.
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