MUSIC REVIEW

Poppins star blows listeners away

"Stormy Weather" wasn't on the program, although it was going on outside Saturday night at Pulaski Academy's Connor Performing Arts Center in Little Rock.

Inside, Ashley Brown was singing up a storm.

Brown, who originated the title role of Mary Poppins on Broadway, was the brightest star of this or any recent Arkansas Symphony Orchestra Pops season. She transitioned apparently effortlessly from belt to warble, repeatedly knocking the audience flat with her phenomenal voice and the warmth and intensity she brought to her performance.

"There's never a moment when I take all this for granted," she said at one point, and it was evident in every note and every lyric she sang Saturday that however many thousand times she's sung "Feed the Birds," it's still at least as special for this audience -- and for her.

Not all the evening's high points were uptempo -- I can't recall hearing "So in Love" from Cole Porter's Kiss Me Kate sung so poignantly (Brown's vibrato and vocal control were superb) -- but the "busier" numbers were among the bigger hits, including "Le Jazz Hot" from Victor/Victoria, "Ring Them Bells" and, of course, Broadway's biggest belt tune, "Defying Gravity" from Wicked.

Three dozen semi-credited kids' voices (from Little Rock Parkview's Madrigal Chorus and the Little Rock Choristers) for a wonderful mash-up of "Our Time" and Stephen Sondheim's "Children Will Listen" and Brown ended, not with a bang, but an achingly beautiful rendition of the standard, "I'll Be Seeing You." Brown's extended Disney medley, however, was well sung but went on rather longer than necessary.

The orchestra, with Geoffrey Robson on the podium, was as good as usual in support, and got its own moments to shine, including Henry Mancini's Jesus Christ Superstar arrangement (with sly trombones opening "C'mon, King of the Jews") and co-concertmaster Kiril Laskarov as the Fiddler in John Williams' opening credits music for Fiddler on the Roof.

Brown, Robson, children and the orchestra will do it all again at 3 p.m. today at Pulaski Academy, 12701 Hinson Road, Little Rock. Ticket information is available by calling (501) 666-1761 or online at ArkansasSymphony.org. (K-12 students get in free with a paying adult.)

Metro on 05/10/2015

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