Sunday, December 9, 2007,  3:00pm

This concert sponsored by
 

Starring
Myra Cochnar, 
Jillian Foster, 
Hi Tillery, 
Virginia Weatherill, 
Joel White, 
& MacLean Zehler  

John Clark, Music Director and Pianist
Wendy Leverenz Barker & Brynlyn Loomis, Choreographers
Arrangements by Joel Gelpe, Mac Huff and John Clark

To make it simple, BROADWAY is the name of the act.  The act consists of six people  who take inordinate pleasure in singing the great songs of the great songwriters.  They hope you enjoy hearing them. The idea for the act was hatched seven years ago by Myra Cochnar, the producer and one of the performers, who, with the invaluable assistance of John Clark, the music director, assembled the company in Albuquerque.  Most of the performers have appeared together in performances of Musical Theatre Southwest, the Adobe Theatre and the Albuquerque Little Theatre.  One member, Virginia Weatherill, was a member of The Company, a quartet of singers who performed for 20 years in New Mexico and throughout the Southwest. BROADWAY has entertained audiences at the Radisson Santa Fe, the Eldorado Hotel and The Bishop’s Lodge, also in Santa Fe; the Hiland and KiMo theaters in Albuquerque, and has performed at private engagements throughout the Albuquerque area. It is delighted to perform once again in  the Placitas Artists Series.  BROADWAY can be booked for private events, conventions and other gatherings.  Have tuxes (and gowns), will travel.

Biographies:

Myra Cochnar

Born in New York City, Myra was a Broadway casting director and a record company executive  before moving to Albuquerque.  She has appeared in several Albuquerque Civic Light Opera productions including Camelot, My Fair Lady, Show Boat, Bells Are Ringing and Nunsense Jamboree. She was featured in Animal Crackers, A Grand Night for Singing  and 100 Years of Broadway at ALT and Working at the Adobe. She studies voice with Kathleen Clawson. She is an associate broker with Coldwell Banker Legacy.

Jillian Foster

Jillian, a native of Kansas City,  has been performing in and around Albuquerque for the past decade, mostly with the Albuquerque Civic Light Opera.  She has had major roles in Evita, The Sound of Music, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Taffetas, Little Mary Sunshine, Nunsense, Swingtime Canteen,  Little Shop of Horrors, How to Succeed in Business…, Jekyll and Hyde, A Grand Night for Singing and 100 Years of Broadway.

Hi Tillery

Hi started singing with ACLOA, now Musical Theater Southwest,  in 1997. He has since appeared at the Albuquerque Little Theater and Opera Southwest. He recently performed at  the Adobe Theater as Honore in Gigi, and Freedom Community Theater where he played Doolittle in My Fair Lady. In his other life he sells fleet vehicles for Tillery Chevrolet and loves to play golf and sing with his grandchildren.

Virginia Weatherill

Born in the Philippines, Virginia has performed in numerous operas including La Boheme, Falstaff, Rigoletto and Pagliacci for the Albuquerque Opera Theater; has been a soloist in Messiah, Mozart’s Requiem, Haydn’s Creation and other oratorios and has appeared in ACLOA productions of The Desert Song, Carousel, Brigadoon, The Most Happy Fella and The King and I.  For 20 years she was a member of The Company, which performed throughout the Southwest.

Joel White

Joel has performed in several local musicals over the last several years, including Jesus Christ Superstar, Bye Bye Birdie, 1940s Radio Hour and Grease. He also sings with a local men’s ensemble that has performed the National Anthem at several major league baseball games around the country. Offstage, Joel is a commercial real estate broker with the Investment Properties Team at CB Richard Ellis–New Mexico.

MacLean Zehler

Originally from Charlottesville, Va., MacLean has appeared in several productions in Albuquerque, including Jesus Christ Superstar, Kismet, Jekyll and Hyde, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, and Working. He performed with the Albuquerque choral group, Quintessence, for eight years. In New York City he was a member of The Harmonic Choir.  When he is not performing, MacLean works at the UNM School of Medicine, training standardized patients for the medical students, and on the weekends he can be seen jumping off high cliffs with his hang glider (fortunately).

John Clark, music director and accompanist

John is the retired professor of music and director of choral activities at the University of New Mexico.  He  is also conductor of the West Side Chorale.  He was the founding  director of the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra Chorus and is currently organist and music director of the First Methodist Church, Albuquerque. He also plays a hot, swinging piano.

 

Brynlyn Loomis, Choreographer
A native of New Mexico, Brynlyn has appeared in several MTS productions such as My Fair Lady, Anything Goes, Kismet, Mame and The King and I and Cabaret. Her choreography has also been seen in three productions on Sandia High School’s stage and one on UNM’s.

2005 Concert Photos 

“Wonderfully talented singers, grouped around a grand piano. Elegant tuxedos and long gowns. Haunting melodies and lovely lyrics. Pure pleasure. These are the lingering images of Broadway. Visit with them when you have a chance.”            

-Barry Gaines

“Sixty or seventy years after being written, the songs have a life in the revue.  The ensemble performs the songs with ease and flair and passion…Some of the songs  make you want to dance, some make you smile and some make you want to cry…The revue offers something for everyone: great musical standards, handsome men,  pretty women, romance, class and even a touch of sex.”    

-Robert Nott, The Santa Fe New Mexican

REPERTOIRE 

Songs presented by Broadway at the concert will be selected from the following list. We hope your favorites are among them.

Lullaby of Broadway

Moonshine Lullaby

The Song That Goes Like This

Can't Help Loving That Man of Mine

I Love a Piano

Everybody Ought to Have a Maid

Send in the Clowns

It Ain't Necessarily So

Take the A Train

Mood Indigo

It Don't Mean a Thing

Taylor the Latte Boy

Black Coffee

Java Jive

Coffee in a CardboardCup

Mr. Cellophane

Get Happy

I Got Rhythm

Beauty and the Beast

It Never Entered My Mind

Stardust

Mack the Knife

Some Enchanted Evening

100 Ways to Lose a Man

Kiss the Girl

Selected Christmas Songs

Harry Warren

Irving Berlin

John DuPrez and Eric Idle

Kern and Hammerstein

Irving Berlin

Stephen Sondheim

Stephen Sondheim

George and Ira Gershwin

Billy Strayhorn

Duke Ellington

Duke Ellington

Heisler and Goldrich

Webster and Burke

Milton Drake & Ben Oakland

John Kander and Fred Ebb

John Kander and Fred Ebb

Harold Arlen

George and Ira Gershwin

Alan Mencken

Rodgers and Hart

Hoagy Carmichael

Brecht and Weill

Rodgers and Hammerstein

Comden, Green and Bernstein

Ashman and Mencken