I was sitting in the second row of the orchestra when I first heard Rebecca Luker sing. It was in The Music Man, the piano lesson song “If You Don’t Mind My Saying So,” which is hilarious but not exactly one to showcase such a grand voice as Rebecca Luker’s. But when she sang the first note in “Goodnight, My Someone,” my jaw literally dropped. It was an automatic, uncontrolled physical response to what I was seeing before me. And it was more than this amazing voice; it was this amazing voice singing this song that was completely removed from my life but that I could connect to. To me, I could identify with Rebecca Luker’s Marion because, like her, people don’t understand that it’s not that I hold impossibly high standards. I just want a woman (in my case, it was a man in hers) who shares interests with me, which is rather hard to find in these here parts. It was like Rebecca Luker was playing a female version of me on stage.
I had seen the show before and the movie, but I had never felt connected to the character like that. It was Rebecca Luker who made Marion real.
Her singing and characterization, naturally, were amazing in addition to a smashing show where she got a chance to dance like a Stromaniac and show off her Broadway stage presence. She’s like a Broadway star from yesteryear thriving today.
Like many others, I’m a big fan of Rebecca Luker through her recordings as well. You can never hear enough of her pure but sweet soprano voice in The Secret Garden, Show Boat, and Brigadoon. I also love her stuff on the two My Favorite Broadway DVDs. If you didn’t get the revival cast recording of The Music Man with Rebecca Luker as Marion, don’t hesitate! It is now only available used. Get it while you can!
Website: www.rebeccaluker.com
the Broadway Mouth
August 2, 2007
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