Christine Andreas



LOVE IS GOOD (An Evening With Christine Andreas) - with Martin Silvestri at the piano

 

 

This is my favorite evening of song.  In this evening I choose from my entire repertoire those songs most suited to the audience and the occasion….and if I’m working on new material and it fits…that finds it’s way in as well. 

 

I can start softly singing Lionel Bart’s “Fly Me to the Moon” followed by Irving Berlin’s “They Say It’s Wonderful”….. your heart is lifted and opened by the first tune so that the Berlin slips right on in…..soulful and satisfying.

If we need to jump start the evening, we kick right into gear with a rhythmic and latin influenced take on “On A Clear Day”  or maybe “Storybook”, a rousing theatrical waltz I introduced in the Broadway show The Scarlet Pimpernel.

 

If I’m working with a trio or quartet, we might add a few jazz-inflected numbers.

Whatever tone is necessary, we find it…..and everyone is happy.

 

What I love is the opportunity to keep everything fresh and focused on the particular concert I’m presenting. 


What the critics have to say about LOVE IS GOOD (An Evening with Christine Andreas):

 

“…this gifted singer needn’t be concerned about musical boundaries.  She’s good enough to do almost anything she chooses”…

 

“Andreas sang from the Great American Songbook - “I’m Glad There Is You”, “They Say It‘s Wonderful“, “In a Sentimental Mood”….but she also added such offbeat numbers as Rodgers & Hart’s “It’s Got to Be Love” and Dave Frishberg’s “Listen Here.”  Each was rendered in Andreas’ gorgeous bell-tone soprano and interpreted with the insights of a born storyteller.

Other selections displayed her unerring ability to find transformative qualities in her material.”

 

“…a mesmerizing musical presence” - Don Heckman, Los Angeles Times

 

***

The New Jersey Performing Arts Center has been presenting the top cabaret singers in the Metropolitan area to sold-out rooms (seating:  260) for four seasons.  No performer has captivated the audience more than Christine Andreas who appeared at NJPAC on May 15th, 2005.

 

The elegance of Ms. Andreas’ presence and warmth of the twinkle in her eye were surpassed only by the purity of her extraordinary voice.  While other performers in this intimate setting also have wonderful voices, what made the evening so special was the way in which Christine Andreas pulled the audience slowly but surely into her powerful magnetic field.  This is an artist who can do a lot with a look, a smile, a climb onto the piano.

 

When Christine sang of the human condition, and her specialty is expressing the human condition, the room became quiet, not a glass was clinked, and the words of the songs were steeped in sincerity.  This was not an actor playing a role—this was a woman who seemed to be drawing on her own life experiences and expressing them through the American songbook.  Nowhere did the verisimilitude become more apparent than during her Gershwin melody and the highlight of that was a sultry version of I’ve Got a Crush on You  which visibly moved at least this member of the audience.

 

Experiencing a Christine Andreas performance is like compressing the emotions of real adult life into 90 minutes and feeling that you have experienced something deep, real, and very beautiful.

 

 

                                                            Lawrence P. Goldman

                                                            President & CEO, NJPAC