I first encountered Rebecca Luker in the 2000 revival of The Music Man where she played Marian the Librarian opposite Craig Bierko's Harold Hill. I thought she was merely capable until 'My White Knight' when she bowled my friends and I over, and stopped the show in one of the biggest ovations of many that evening. In 2002 she made an appearance with Keith Lockhart and the Boston Pops for a centennial celebration of Richard Rodgers. The concert showcased Rodgers' collaborations with Oscar Hammerstein and Lorenz Hart, and was aired in two parts on PBS. Here is Luker singing my favorite rendition of "I'll Tell the Man on the Street" from I Married an Angel (lyric by Hart).
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
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3 comments:
I <3 Rebecca! She has the sweetest soprano!
I first discovered Rebecca Luker on the John McGlinn Jerome Kern Treasury CD when I was 14. I subsequently bought the Secret Garden OCR because I loved her (and Mandy too) so much.
I do agree with your assessment of her performance in Music Man - her "My White Knight" was when she won me over as well.
Such a glorious instrument. Those John McGlinn recordings are a treasure. I am entirely smitten with "All the Things You Are" from the Broadway Showstoppers CD - to hear her voice in that original instrumentation? Sublime.
I cannot speak highly enough of her performance in "Mary Poppins." Such warmth and depth to her character, possibly the stand out of the entire Broadway production.
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