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Montgomery Performing Arts Centre-Fab Four

Eddieographer — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 12:45:04 +0000

This was the first time attending any type of show at the Montgomery Performing Arts Centre at the Renaissance. Angela Spangler,the financial and inspirational backer of GNM was in town and joined Eddie to check out the Fab Four, Beatles tribute show.

Before the show MPAC general manager, Allen Sanders announced some of the great upcoming shows to the Centre and it was impressive.

Click here for info

JT and Leanne of Mix103 fame also appeared onstage and had some great things to say about MPAC as well.

Here are some interesting pictures from the evening

Eddie runs into Kim Traff, publisher of RSVP magazine before the show

The FAB Foiur made the crowd work real hard for a tshirt-it was a nice one though

You can buy your own shirt or CD at their online store click here

The Yellow Submarine zipping over the stage

This “Ed Sullivan” sure looks familiar

Who is he really ?

For the answer to that question and a full review of the show see the upcoming issue of

RSVP Magazine.

We are really excited about contributing to the magazine and look forward to adding depth to the already entertaining style and content of

the” River Region Guide for all Things Social”

IN the meantime enjoy the videos

Here is a picture of a car in the parking deck that would have been real appropriate for our Beehive review

Updated 22 Sept 2009

Copy of original review submitted to RSVP

Ed Sullivan welcomed us to his “really big shew” at the Montgomery Performing Arts Centre and introduced the FAB4

Coming out in suits and opening with I Wanna Hold Your Hand and Please Please Me they recreated music that spearheaded the British Invasion of the 60′s

The use of original graphics and period news reels displayed on a big screen behind the band added big time visuals and excitement to the show.

After finishing chartoppers I Saw Her Standing There and Twist and Shout most of the ensemble went backstage leaving Ardy Saraff to display his mastery of McCartney by performing Yesterday in perfect sync with a vintage Paul McCartney video.

Instead of an intermission, Jerry Hobin- Ed Sullivan in Pulp Fiction, came back and cracked joke after joke that kept the audience laughing in stiches.
He announced several upcoming guests that included a male flamenco dance team from Spain called the “Cavorting Cahonies” and apologized that the twins from Tennessee couldn’t make it as Dolly Parton was feeling ill.

Attired in lavish outfits reminiscent of Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band the FAB4 reappeared to jam some more.
Like George Harrison, Michael Amador rocked and plucked the lead guitar while Ron Sandoval mimicked the drumstrokes of Ringo Starr to perfection.

The hippie and trippy Strawberry Fields was a crowd favorite while everyone wanted to ride in a Yellow Submarine that streamed across the stage. After taking much good natured ribbing throughout the evening Ringo deservedly got some spotlight love with a Little Help From My Friends.

Ron Mcneil recollected the tragic and senseless death of peace advocate John Lennon then sang a stirring version of Imagine that left a lump in this reviewers throat and brought tears to the eyes of several audience members.

These blokes looked liked, talked like and sounded like the Beatles so much so that Paul Stanley of Kiss recently said “we sat in the audience and our jaws dropped…and its pretty difficult to have our jaws drop”

The show ended with Revolution and an extended version of Hey Jude that had everyone standing and singing improvised versions of the title.

Great News Montgomery Review of Beehive-played at ASF

Eddieographer — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 13:19:57 +0000

Eddie and Helen stung by Beehive performers at ASF on mother/son date night.

Hopefully we can hang out more in the future

Before the show started it was announced that ASF is adding one more performance to the sold out Scot Bruce Elvis tribute. Check ASF.net for details. This is great news for Elvis and Bruce fans as the original show has been sold out for a while now. This extra show is likely to sell out as well so make that box office move ASAP.

As for the Beehive performance that took place on Saturday July 1 2009 it was all that and more.

Here is the official GreatNewsMontgomery.com one sentence review.

“Beehive drips entertainment honey from every comb”

As an overall performance it was outstanding as expected.
Everything from the stage design to the outfits and costumes of the band/performers was excellent.

I was really surprised at how much energy the ladies were able to transfer to the crowd. Even though every ASF audience that I have had the opportunity to be a part of over the years has been respectful and appreciative of the performers, they are often reserved in certain ways.
That was not the case on Saturday as the Beehive ladies were able to create a level of crowd participation and enthusiasm unseen by me at this venue before.

As much as we enjoyed the show as a whole. It was the individual performances that we talked about the most on the ride home. My mother Helen is very conservative and mostly unexcitable when dishing out praise. When I think something is good she often will describe it as “okay”.
So when she said the show was “good” then that is like me saying “incredible”

Here are some thoughts about the individual performers and things that caught my eye:
First off Terita Redd can hit some serious notes. She could do a one woman show featuring the music of famous soul singers past and present.
Tina Turner, Aretha Franklin, Ella Fitzgerald and Whitney Houston are a few names that she could easily do.
I would love to hear her version of And I am Telling You by Jennifer Holiday, that would be sick and possibly dangerous to your eardrum in a small venue like ASF.

To Terita, in case you have been too busy to check it out yourself here are some sights that you may be interested in.

Dexter Ave Baptist Church and Parsonage museum

The Civil Rights Memorial on Washington Avenue is great as well

If you already found the time Im sure that you learned alot. If you haven’t and want to see them for real one afternoon send an email to Editor@GreatNewsMontgomery.com and we will treat you to a tour.

LOL at Ginger Bess describing Virgina and North Carolina as the South in RSVP Montgomery. Let us know if you want to enjoy a real southern feast one day.
There is no laughing at this girl’s talent though. I loved her role in the Its My Party segment of the show and her A Natural Woman/Do Right Woman duet with Terita in act 2 was super good and drew an extra level of enthusiasm from a number of audience members.

Here are your fireflies

The only let-down of the evening was the Supremes section because it didn’t last long enough. Sasha Sloan is sweet and tempting Cherry Cherry Pie in the Diana Ross role.

Since that part of the show doesnt last long enough here is some more Supremes.

Anna Eilinsfeld’s version of Society’s Child child got my attention because I wasnt familiar with the song but was enthralled by the performance.

The song was originally sung by Janis Ian and this except is from Wikipedia…
At the age of thirteen, Ian wrote and sang her first hit single, “Society’s Child (Baby I’ve Been Thinking),” about an interracial romance forbidden by a girl’s mother and frowned upon by her peers and teachers; the girl ultimately decides to end the relationship, claiming the societal norms of the day have left her no other choice. The song’s lyrical content was too taboo for some radio stations, and they withdrew or banned it from their playlists accordingly; in her 2008 autobiography Society’s Child, Ian recalls receiving hate mail and death threats as a response to the song, and mentions that a radio station in Atlanta that played it was burned down...end Wikipedia

Crazy to see what was considered taboo only about 40 to 50 years ago.

This is a video of 16 year old Janis on the Smothers Brothers show

Robyn Payne served up a heaping portion of talent that the crowd ate up like fried chicken and mashed potatoes at a southern picnic. She is a great setup and guiding voice for the show, the mini skirt story was funny.

Did you cinch your mini skirts this high?

or was it higher?

Finally there is Brooke Jacob who extended her hand, inviting me to dance with her in one of the interactive portions of the show.
I did a very weak mashed potato and was glad that it didnt last too long. Gotta work on my dancing game. If any dance studio in Mongtomery wants to demonstrate their teaching skills then contact the editor and we will give you some publicity in a feature tentatively called “Fred Flintstone to Fred Astaire”. This is a serious offer, if you can teach me to dance then people will line up around the block to sign up for your classes.

I was very familiar with the Janis Joplin tunes sung during Brooke’s solo section of the show, especially Piece of My Heart and Me and Bobby Mcgee .
I was not however familiar with Joplin’s performances.

I looked up some stuff on YouTube and found this.

Watching some of her videos gave me a greater appreciation of Brooke’s performance.

That is about it for now but how can I not give one last ” job well done” for the band. After the show, several audience members went up to the stage to let them know how good they were. It was great to see those giving extra kudos to a fantastic ensemble of musicians.
It was a nice touch to end an enjoyable and entertainment filled night for me and Mom.

IF you would like to add a short review then please do so in the comments. Im sure the ladies of Beehive and ASF would love to hear from you.

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Updated 22 Sept 2009

This great show and the number of times this little blog page has been accessed is amazing. It led to the first print commission by RSVP Momtgomery magazine for Sept/Oct 2009 issue that appears in virtual form below. Page 36 in the Section Titled Applause and Appraise

ASF, RSVP and Beehive are Great News Montgomery!