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Contemporary Youth Orchestra @ Lakewood Civic Auditorium 3/14 If the Contemporary Youth Orchestra ever decides to change its name, I have the perfect suggestion for the new one: The High Energy Band. If you're not careful, you can wear yourself out just watching and listening. Saturday evening's presentation was the third installment of their yearly series devoted to Music and its Industry. The emphasis this time was BROADWAY! Under the direction of its founder Liza Grossman, the group also brought in a school-mate of hers, Adam Pelty, part of a program known as MoveAble Arts (an organization which exists to inform students about life in the theater arts).

Brian DeMaris brought his troupe of actor/singer/dancer students from Ithaca (NY) College Department of Theater, to join forces with the CYO, which was expanded to include youthful local singers and dancers. And move they all certainly did! (Mr. DeMaris could also be seen performing on keyboards during the concert. At one point, Ms. Grossman could be seen dancing on stage, and doing a very credible job of it, too!)

In fact, this concert was so big, it required a change in venue! Lakewood Civic Auditorium has a much larger stage, as well as an orchestra pit, plus more seating capacity, than does the group’s usual home --Waetjen Auditorium-- at CSU. For this performance, the orchestra was separated into four groups: winds on stage right, percussion centered across the back of the stage, brass on stage left, and strings (and keyboard) in the pit. Talk about surround sound!

Local composer/arrangers Paul Ferguson and Paul Leary also contributed additional arrangements where necessary. Lighting and technical design was by Jamie Zammikiel, while Victoria Sheehan was the Production Stage Manager, who really had her hands full keeping everything moving smoothly and briskly!

It would take more space than I have available to do full justice to this performance, so here’s a condensed review. (Truly, I wish I could name every participant, but space just does not expand that far.)

I Hope I Get It from A Chorus Line expresses the wish of every theater hopeful, and it was a dandy curtain-raiser, showcasing both singing and dancing. Aquarius from Hair featured the Cleveland kids, who were then joined by the Ithaca troupe for Superstar from Jesus Christ Superstar. The Ballad of Sweeney Todd from Sweeney Todd, and Everything’s Coming Up Roses from Gypsy, used primarily the Ithaca batch. Mama Who Bore Me; I Believe from Spring Awakening (which ran last week at Playhouse Square!) featured Cleveland’s Alexandra Wells. The combined forces gave us Children Will Listen from Into the Woods; Seasons of Love from Rent and Defying Gravity from Wicked ended the first half.

Opening the second half which appeared to me as more sophisticated, was a dynamite and heart-felt Scrap from The Full Monty featuring the men from Ithaca. I Feel Like I’m Not Out of Bed Yet from On the Town had great dancing, and was followed by A Weekend in the Country from A Little Night Music, the opening sequence from Titanic, Too Darn Hot from Kiss Me, Kate (soloist Jeremy Reese was great!) and the grand finale--One Day More from Les Miserables.

However, they did grant an encore -- the rousing You Can’t Stop The Beat from Hairspray. Two local performers were standouts here (along with Ms. Grossman): Alexis Floyd as the big-voiced and fluid-dancing Tracey and her brother, Aric Floyd as Seaweed, who can not only sing well, but showed us some awesome break-dancing! All of the youngsters acted as though the stage was their natural habitat, and the interaction between the older hopefuls from Ithaca and the younger local kids was terrific.

For more information about CYO – (they just announced their next concert which will feature Donnie Iris and the Cruisers in May) go to www.cyorchestra.org. Moveable Arts is at http://www.MoveAbleArtsCorp.org and Ithaca College is at '''http://www.Ithaca.edu

From Cool Cleveland contributor Kelly Ferjutz artswriterATroadrunner.com
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