Lip Sync Battle

Posted on by Thor

Opera del Sol and Central Florida Vocal Arts hosted a fun evening, of fun-raising, silent auction items, live musical
performances by Opera del Sol Singers and of course Celebrity Lip
Syncing at The Abbey, (100 S Eola Dr #100, Orlando, FL). The catch phrase for the evening was, that it was “for those of us who CAN’T sing- raising money for those who can.” The goal was to have local celebrities compete for the loudest cheers and most outrageous performances.

A single Mic stood on stage along with a drum set. Theresa Smith-Levin stepped up to the mic and introduced the all female Opera leadership team which brought a roar from the audience. Theresa explained that many young performers feel they must leave Orlando to go to larger cities like LA or NYC to pursue their career in the arts. Her hope is that the Opera programs they are promoting might someday find venues and creative opportunities for talent to stay in Orlando.

My expectations were for a pretty tame evening of watching people lip sync. It should be a fun and straight forward sketch opportunity. Those expectations were quickly blown out of the water.  The first act featured news caster, Bob Frier and his support band wearing very fake wigs and lip Syncing to Nirvana. One song involved the submerged baby with a dollar bill dangling in front of it. Giovanna Ciccone danced out and thrashed the plastic baby about with it’s creepy red eyes bulging as it reached for the bill. It was a hilarious moment. A smoke machine billowed a wispy cloud across the stage.

Next Ted Bogert of the Ted Show, took to the stage this time dressed in an opulent rainbow gown and an orange wig that was out of control. Things were happening so fast that I struggled to keep up with the action in my sketch. The crowd went wild when he ripped off the rainbow gown to showcase a tight fitting black dress with fringe that showed plenty of leg. Two sexy backup dancers, Giovanna Ciccone, and Olivia Figh raced on stage to dance behind him.

Next, a county themed Savannah Boan a Gator Land Ambassador, came out with a singing horse. You heard me right, a singing horse. I struggled to get the horse in my sketch, but it was cut in half before I finished getting its misshapen head on the page. Clothes flew off and costumes changed in a blink. The horse team turned out to be two Gator Land Bose including Brandon Fisher first in overalls and then in torn tops and flowing skirts. The audience was up and dancing and clapping to the wild action on stage as I scribbled.

Some sanity returned when Dan Altman and Olivia Figh from Opera del Sol, performed a moment from Phantom of the Opera. She has an amazing range and she brought home Opera del Sol’s mantra to make Opera sexy again. Sabrina Ambra co-host at the News Junkfollowed this up with two amazing back up dancers that were puppets connected to her with a complicated series of poles. I wish she had kept those back up dancers for the duration but like every other act she made a quick costume change which was hilariously difficult to pull off since she got tangles in the web of poles and pant legs. She followed up with some over the top hip rap with two live back up dancers.

Next came a cross dressing bomb shell by Rauce Padgett who is from the Jim Colbert radio show. The crowd absolutely loved him. I sketched madly to try and capture the wild pig tails and skimpy skirt and top. He had a bold, nervous, stiff staccato way of dancing that caught everyone’s attention. Jim Colbert followed up with a fiddle battle with the devil performed by Opera del Sol’s Nichole Dupre. She seemed right at home in her bright red skin and horns whaling away on her fiddle.  Ultimately at the end of the night Rauce won for his stellar performance and he stripped of his top to raise the trophy to the sky. He shouted that he had stripped the prize from Jim Colbert.

This was a fun evening of fun-raising with a flair. As Theresa Smith-Levin said, “We got some strange friends.” That is just what Orlando needs, a taste of strange to keep the arts thriving.

Mikado Mixer

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Central Florida Vocal Arts Presented a Mikado Mixer at Seito Sushi Baldwin Park (4898 New Broad St, Orlando, Florida 32814).  Guest got a drink, a bite to eat and a cast meet and greet from the upcoming production of The Mikado. The Mikado is a comic opera in two acts with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. Members of the Space Coast Symphony Orchestra will be performing live at this upcoming production.

Theresa Smith-Levin the chief executive director of CFVA warmly introduced members of the cast and community collaborators. Part of the cast was missing for this event since they were performing in another production. Pam Schwartz the chief curator at the Orange County Regional History Center explained that the museum  had recently had an exhibit about the Vietnamese community here in Orlando. She and her staff will be setting up a pop up exhibit in the lobby of the Rep Theatre for the run of the Mikado with kimonos and other artifacts along with monitors showing oral histories that were done with members of Orlando’s Vietnamese Community. Ricky Ly of Tasty Chomps gave a lively discussion about Japanese fusion in the local food scene. Nicole Dupre of Opera del Sol is organizing an exhibit of art by Masami Koshikawa which will also appear in the Rep lobby. Thali Sigesawa wearing a blue kimono with a bright yellow sash, spoke about her mixed heritage being part Asian and part Brazilian. Growing up, she didn’t know quite where she fit in, but when she moved to Orlando she finally realized she could just be herself. She choked up a bit as she spoke of Sakado, her grandmother who used to tell her stories over and over again.  She caries her legacy as she grows older.

Gilbert and Sullivan remind us  that
“Virtue is only triumphant in theatrical performances”.  Enjoy an couple of hours of virtue, laughs and beautiful music as
Central Florida Vocal Arts, Opera del Sol and Space Coast Symphony come
together to present a modern concert version of The Mikado. 2019’s
Summer production marks the fourth year that Central Florida Vocal Arts
and Space Coast Symphony have joined forces and they plan to make this
production their most exciting to date!

Mark your calendar! The Mikado, a Concert Version is being staged August 9, 10 and 11, 2019 at the Orlando Rep Theater (1001 East Princeton Street Orlando FL). Ticket are $25 General Admission, $20 Student and Senior and $35 Box Office assigned front and center rows.

Friday,     August 9 2019  

7:30 PM
—
9:30 PM


Saturday, August 10 2019 

7:30 PM
—
9:30 PM


Sunday,   August 11 2019
 
3:00 PM
—
5:00 PM

After the mixer, Pam and I stayed to order diner. I had the Volcano Roll which consisted of a California roll topped with baked kani kama, bay scallops, tobiko, chives, and eel sauce. The sauce had just the right amount of bite setting off the sweet. Pam had the vegetarian ramen which consisted of a vegetable-dashi broth, roasted cherry tomatoes, bean sprouts, sweet corn, scallions, garlic oil, and sweet potato noodles  I tried one sip and it was delicious. She said the corn was the best she has had in Central Florida. She could tell it had been cut fresh off the cob. Seito Sushi, which has another branch in Dr Phillips, is well worth a visit.

Double Jeopardy: A Double Bill of One-act Operettas.

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Producer Theresa Smith-Levin invited me to sketch a Double Jeopardy dress rehearsal. Two one act operettas stood back to back both having a trial theme. The first was The Trial of B.B. Wolf with music by Curtis Tucker and words by Nelson Sheeley. Children’s blocks were on the stage. Part of me thought I was in the wrong place. A giant mushroom tiny house was house left and vines intertwined on house right. The judge in this case was a Leprechaun dressed all in green and with a bright orange beard. Pam Schwartz later explained that the blocks had the letters and colors associated with each character. For instance Little Red Riding hood stood by the red R block and the judge stood by the green J block. Members of the audience were invited to go up on stage to sit on the jury.For this rehearsal only two audience members were picked since there officially was no audience. Nishaa Carson the shows musical director performed on the piano with an iPad for her sheet music.

I was confused by the operetta writer’s motive. Did an adult audience really want to watch a trail build around Grimm’s Fairy-tail characters? The fact that the lyrics were in English was a plus. Of course Stephen Sondheim created the musical Into the Woods, a Broadway musical that was a success, so perhaps it was a viable option. So B. B. Wolf is as it turns out, an actual wolf (Bryan Hayes) in a grey suit and furry skull cap with wolf ears. He was on trial for destroying the three little pigs homes. A chubby little pig (Christina Rivera) took the stand and was interrogated about the incident. She shook in her boots letting out the occasional oink and squeal. Her testimony was overshadowed by the ferocious wolfs stage presence.

The wolf was indited in a second case involving Little Red Riding Hood (Katherine Stenzel). She related the usual tail of gong to her grandmothers house with the unexpected twist that she is an expert in martial arts. When the wolf took of his grandmother disguise, she karate kicked  his sorry butt and brought him in for trial. I am glad I chose to sketch this first operetta since it was visually interesting.

The second Operetta, Trail by Jury was by W.S Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan. Sarah Tellier took over at the piano. The set was transformed into a more traditional courtroom. This was a case of a man, the defendant, (Bryan Hayes) not wanting to marry his voluptuous fiance, the plaintiff, (Christina Rivera) and she brought him to trial to try and force his hand. Some of the language contain references that are unknown to a contemporary audience. For instance that defendant sang, “Be firm, my pecker.” Pecker used to be slang for courage, and in the case of a bird, it’s beak, in other words, “Keep a stiff upper lip.” Even knowing this before hand it was hard to resist a juvenile giggle.

During this performance I was focused on finishing my sketch from the previous operetta so my attention was divided. The defendant was in love with another woman and if forced to marry his fiance he would quickly then marry another. With characters singing over on another and the staging changing so quickly I honesty got a bit lost trying to follow the inn working of the case. I would have made a horrible juror.

Double Jeopardy

CFCArts Black Box Theater 250 SW Ivanhoe Blvd Orlando FL

Tickets: $25 reserved seating, $18 General seating and $16 Student / Seniors

Remaining show dates:

Thursday  November 16, 2017  at 7:30 PM

Friday       November 17, 2017  at 7:30 PM

Saturday   November 18, 2017  at 7:30 PM

Sunday     November 19, 2017  at 3:00 PM