Hitting Those Hollywood Highs

Ahead of his Sunday afternoon concert with soprano Kelli-Ann Masterson, pianist NIALL KINSELLA maps the duo’s Tinseltown tribute.

Kelli-Ann and I are so excited about bringing our concert, A Soprano in Hollywood, to the Whale Theatre in Greystones this October.

Putting this concert together was a complete joy for both of us, because it was basically an excuse to choose our favourite songs from the golden age of Hollywood movie musicals- which is music we both love!

Kelli-Ann is a classically-trained, operatic soprano, but also has a natural affinity with
musical theatre repertoire, particularly the classics, and this era also really lends itself to the youthful and glittering sound of the soprano voice.

These musical films
featured many glorious soprano voices, such as Julie Andrews, Shirley Jones, Kathryn Grayson, Jeannette McDonald… and one of the must glorious but under-sung of Hollywood vocalists, legendary vocal double, Marni Nixon, who sang for Deborah Kerr in The King and I, Natalie Wood in West Side Story, and Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady. In the concert we also talk about the back-stories behind the making of the films.

The challenge with creating a programme like this is deciding what to leave out!

There is such vast choice that we cannot include everything we want to – however, we have tried to pack as much in as possible, with plenty of audience favourites. We are including numbers from Mary Poppins (A Spoonful of Sugar, Feed the Birds), West Side Story (I Feel Pretty, Somewhere), My Fair Lady (Wouldn’t it be Lovely, I Could Have Danced All Night) and, of course, the title song from The Sound of Music.

The concert sold out when we did it at NCH in June, so it just shows that these songs still get to people.

Come find out why on Sunday, October 13th at 4pm in The Whale. Tickets here: https://whaletheatre.ticketsolve.com/ticketbooth/shows/873647586