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‘Grand Night for Singing’ a fresh take on Rodgers & Hammerstein canon

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Rodgers & Hammerstein’s A Grand Night for Singing plays at the Music & Arts Community Center through February 10. Directed and choreographed by Amy Marie McCleary, this first-rate musical revue features Whitney Grace, Kimberly Suskind, Alex Fullerton, AJ Mendini and Alexandra Tarsinov.

The two key ingredients for any first-rate musical revue are taste and imagination. Both abound in this fresh take on the Rodgers & Hammerstein canon, conceived by Tony Award winner Walter Bobbie. Over three decades after the duo’s final collaboration, The Sound of Music, took Broadway by storm, this R&H musical opened the 1994 Broadway season with flair and distinction, garnering wildly enthusiastic notices and earning two Tony nominations, including Best Musical.

Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein may never have imagined “Shall We Dance?” as a comic pas de deux for a towering beauty and her diminutive admirer, nor might they have suspected that one day a lovelorn young lad might pose the musical question, “How do you solve a problem like Maria?” But that’s precisely the kind of invention lavished upon this new revue, with innovative musical arrangements, including a sultry Andrews Sisters-esque “I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair,” a swingin’ “Honeybun” worthy of the Modernaires, and a jazzy “Kansas City,” proving how terrifically timeless the remarkable songs of R&H remain.

Performances run through February 10. Remaining shows are

January 23, 2024.

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