Joining Seth Rudetsky this week in The Seth Concert Series was Broadway superstar Norm Lewis, a man who’s theatre credits includes some of the biggest musicals ever written. His career started out with the 1992 production of Once on This Island playing Agwe, a role he revived in 2018 at The Circle in The Square Theatre.
Agwe’s big number in that musical is ‘Rain’ and that’s the song that opened the concert, Seth Rudetsky, as always, throwing his guest straight to work without giving them any kind of clue what the running order might be. It’s just one of things that make these live concerts so thrillingly intimate to watch.
A Jazz version of My Fair Lady’s ‘Wouldn’t It be Loverly’ was to follow, along with ‘The Impossible Dream’ from Man of La Mancha, giving us an indication that this was to be no ordinary concert. As ever, all of these wonderful songs were punctuated with engrossing stories from Rudetsky and Lewis’ past, such as how Lewis moved to New York thanks to a cruise liner job, and tales from the audition room for Phantom of the Opera and Les Miserables.
Having played both the Phantom and Javert, it was these two musicals that featured most heavily, with a stunning rendition of ‘Music of the Night’ followed swiftly by ‘Stars’ from Les Mis. The audition story for the latter involved some confusion over whether Lewis would actually be playing Javert or Jean Valjean and so Rudetsky prompted Lewis to give us a wonderful performance of ‘Bring Him Home’.
By this point Norm Lewis was practically begging Rudetsky to let him sing an up-tempo number, to which Rudetsky eventually relented, breaking into an incredible arrangement of The Gershwin’s ‘I Got Rhythm’. During this number Lewis (a baritone) surprised the audience and Rudetsky by hitting an incredible sounding B Flat.
Songs from Porgy and Bess and Hello, Dolly! also featured along with ‘We Live on Borrowed Time’, a song that seems very apropos given the current situation, but a situation which has driven these fantastic concerts online, reaching a wider audience. Norm Lewis hasn’t spent as much time on stage this side of the Atlantic, but the wonders of technology meant that UK audiences were able to enjoy this rare treat, for one night only at least.
In the next concert in the series, Seth will be joined by star of Wicked and 9 to 5 Megan Hilty.
