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WPCNR WHITE PLAINS VARIETY. By John F. Bailey. In Rehearsal at “The Roch”. Rochambeau School. January 21, 2003: The Fort Hill Players will be trying out a January show for the first time this week, premiering another of their “original musicals,” More Than Music with airtime at 8 PM on Friday and Saturday nights, January 24 and 25 at “The Rock,” Rochambeau School, 21 Fischer Avenue White Plains. The original book, is basically a radio show you watch, reminiscent of the old time live radio broadcasts by Bing Crosby and Jack Benny, with a not of nostalgia for the old time radio shows.
“ON THE AIR:” Mark Snyder, the White Plains Pianoman, The classic brunette Patti Rome, and Incendiary Blonde, Linda Hendrick with the dulcet tones of Jim Brownold create old time radio. Here they create “The Adventures of Madame X”. Show Premiers Friday at 8 at Rochambeau School White Plains. Tickets are $14, $12 for Seniors, $6 for children. Call 421-0008, or go to www.forthillplayers.com to purchase tickets.
Photo by WPCNR Entertainment
It was conceived as a nightclub act by the Fort Hill Players’ ageless piano man, Mark Snyder, and written by talented professional announcer, Jim Braunold with Snyder beginning last August.
The gimmick of More Than Music is original radio shows, dreamed up by Mr. Brownold and Mr. Snyder, interspersed with songs of the middle three decades of the Twentieth Century .
“SINCERELY,” You’ll believe The McGuire Sisters have come back when stylish songtresses Patti Rome and Linda Hendrick team with Jim Brownold.
Photo by WPCNR Entertainment
You’ll go back to a time when radio was king of the airwaves, hear songs performed by those classy songbirds, the original brunette, Patti Rome and the new incendiary blonde, Linda Hendrick. Youngsters and oldsters alike will get to see how “oldtime radio” was created live on stage, without the aid of tape, just the way it was when singers and actors had one take to reach America coast-to-coast.
The Serials. The Music. The Commercials
Braunhold , working with Snyder, and the ladies has created wonderful, reverent serials with scripts that recall the great radio adventures of the past.
You will thrill to The Adventures of Madame X featuring the exploits of All-American Lieutenant Terry Goodwill of the U.S. Air Force, and the renowned psychic Ophelia Paine. You will be on the case with that hardboiled private eye, Dick Shorts and Wanda Mellons, and the tear-jerker soap opera, The Lying Lips of Laura Languine.
In between, serving as segues will be wonderful commercials and jingles, delivered with the dulcet tones of Jim Brownold who actually does voiceovers in his day job. Jingles such as “Rheingold, the Extra Dry Beer,” when song by the versatile distaff duo of Rome and Hendrick.
“STANDING ON THE CORNER,” Jim Brownold, accompanied by Mark Snyder recreates the classic 50s leading man/crooner style on Standing on the Corner Watching All the Girls Go By.
Photo by WPCNR Entertainment
WPCNR caught the live rehearsal past week, and WPCNR’s “Off-Off-Off-Off Broadway Scribe, Walter Windshield” was wowed by the concept. The audience of More Than Music is treated to a radio program in progress, performed before you, the studio audience.
You watch the scripts read, the shows within a show staged, the clever serials and programs delivered with the actors and actors behind music stands in an old time radio studio.
Sound effects are executed live to create the “theatre of the air.” The programs are linked with station breaks, and the quartet’s recreation of original and created radio commercials of the 40s, 50s and 60s, are a fascinating history of advertising. (That sold products, I might add.)
Shows Within a Show, and All That Music
One of the double pleasures of MTM is you get to watch and hear the two versatile actresses turned songbirds, Patti Rome and Linda Hendrick , helped out by the debonair baritone, Mr. Brownold in intriguing original arrangements of great songs from Big Band to the Big Beat. More Than Music does a devasting parody of American Bandstand, featuring Dina Giordano and the City Center Dancers, and Dick Clark’s old great bit, The Record Review Board. It will give todays’ teens a glimpse of their parents’ childhood.
In previews, your “Off-Off-Off-Off Broadway Insider” heard the trio doing, Standing on the Corner and on Radio WVOX Saturday morning, they did Sincerely catching all the nuances of the styles of those songs just right. Their version of Sincerely, with some original doo-wopping by Mr. Brownold on the radio Saturday morning was simply great.
Charischak: January tryout.
This is the third “original musical with songs you know” that White Plains’ own Fort Hill Players has produced. They did Musical Memories two years ago, and Harmony on the Sea last season. The beauty of these shows is they present a retrospective of musical eras and great songs for those who not only wish to remember them, but also exposing to the great music of America to the young of today. And we’re talking 40 and 30-somethings who have never heard the songs of Cole Porter, Johnny Mercer, Irving Berlin, Lieber & Stroller, Jimmy Van Heusen, Rodgers and Hammerstein, big bands, ballads, the original music of America.
This is the first time in three years that Fort Hill Players has scheduled a January show, according to Joan Charischak, and when the quartet pushed for the open January slot, she decided to try them out to see if a January show could once again be successful.
4 Talents Come Together
Linda Hendrick and Mark Snyder had worked together in Musical Memories, the first Fort Hill original musical revue, and Patti Rome and Jim Brownold had worked together in Harmony on the Sea last year. Last Spring, Mark, a former resident of White Plains and actor for many years with the Fort Hill Players in the 1960s, thought the two ladies, with he, as accompaniest, and Jim Brownold’s versatile voice could come together for a great act.
THE PRODUCERS: Jim Brownold created the mock radio shows and the book. Mark Snyder arranged and plays the songs. The Dina Giordano City Center Dancers cavort to The Twist on stage.
Photo by WPCNR Entertainment
Last August, he and Jim started brainstorming an act, thinking of songs that would suit the ladies’ talents, and this Friday that act hits the footlights.
Brownold and Snyder report the writing of the bits, entirely credited to Mr. Brownold’s pen, the arrangements created by Snyder and the concept, took untold hours reworking and rewriting.
THE LADIES OF MORE THAN MUSIC: Patti Rome, left, and Linda Hendrick harmonize on My Beer is Rheingold one of the many old radio commericals they reprise.
Photo by WPCNR Entertainment
Then came the rehearsing with the ladies mostly at Patti Rome’s home in West Harrison, who we are told makes great cakes. She sings real nice, too, her vibrant and steady contralto harmonizing and supporting Ms. Hendrick’s perky soprano.
The two ladies have a talent for superb mimicry with respect of different vocal groups’ styles of the 40s and 50s. You will hear Patti and Linda bring the styles of the McGuire Sisters live again on Sincerely,. They have The Chordette’s contrapuntal style just right on Mr. Sandman. Mr. Brownhold joins them with some very hip doo-woop harmonies, while holding his own on such baritone standbys of the 50s, as Standing on the Corner The arrangements for just piano and the three voices are truly flights of fantasy created by Mr. Snyder, the “Hoagy Carmichael of White Plains.”
On her day job, Ms. Rome is President of Empire Avionics at Westchester County Airport. Ms. Henrick is an ordained minister and a Reiki Master and massage therapist. Mr. Brownold does commercials for a living. Mr. Snyder is a music teacher and tennis instructor.
More Than Music WPCNR understands is more than the name of a show, it is the name of this new group’s act, that adds original skits and comedy to oldies repertoire, taking you giant steps beyond another group of the past, Manhattan Transfer, whom some of you may remember.
Friday and Saturday nights promise original entertainment, a little bit of history, a lot of nostalgia, combining a little bit of old Bob and Ray, two beautiful women with a lot of versatility.
Children of all ages will gain an appreciation of culture of those years and the music of the last century in the bargain. The debuting quartet hopes More Than Music is the start of something big.
Tickets may be purchased by calling 914-421-0008, or going to the Players’ website at www.forthillplayers.com.