'NIGHT ON BROADWAY' IS ONE YOU'LL REMEMBER (THEATRICAL REVIEW)

From the bizarrely comic feast of cannibalistic delights in "Sweeney Todd" to the show-stopping trio "You Could Drive a Person Crazy" from "Company," Thursday night's musical revue "A Night on Broadway" proved that contemporary musical theater is thriving both on the Great White Way and at One University Plaza.

Presented by the Music Theatre Workshop at Southeast, the revue of 17 recent Broadway songs from 11 musicals drew an equally lively audience of 800 to 900 to Academic Auditorium.

So much was good it's difficult to pick somewhere to start. How about with Jessica Hency, a Notre Dame High School alumnus in a Gone with the Wind dress who mesmerized the house on the delicately powerful love song "Someone Like You" from "Jekyll & Hyde." Hency sang and held the stage like someone who's already on Broadway.

Southeast's music department also boasts some female singers who deserve to be described as bonafide "belters." They include Julie Stoverink, who played the prison matron in the raucous and racy "Mamma's Good to You" from "Chicago," and Beth Roethemeyer, the powerfully-voiced witch in the intricate Sondheim piece "Your Fault/The Last Midnight" from "Into the Woods." The sashaying Stoverink was stopped at one point in mid-song by all the applause.

Stoverink also teamed up with Brianna Nicholson in "Take Me or Leave Me" from "Rent," in which lesbian lovers have their first fight."A Little Priest" was the delectable number from "Sweeney Todd" performed adroitly by Matthew Kiesling and Jennifer Cooper. They sang gleefully of "a politician so oily it comes with a doily."Some of the scenes were simply charming, such as "Happiness" from "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown" with an endearing performance by David Schneider in the lead role.

The trios were intriguing, beginning with Kristi Whitaker, Beth Roethemeyer and Caroline Kraft in the smartly sung and snappily choreographed "You Could Drive a Person Crazy," as three women who've shared the same boyfriend compare notes.

That performance was bookended after the intermission by Laura Huusko, Roxanne Ackerman and Brianna Nicholson in the melancholy "At the Ballet" from "A Chorus Line," a tune that showcased three of the company's prettiest voices.

Also affecting was the duet "Take Me As I Am" from "Jekyll & Hyde." Caleb Zustiak showed off a sweet tenor he would later match with Kiesling's on "Agony" from "In the Woods."Partner Kim Westrich has been known mostly for her acting while at Southeast, but she sang skillfully in this and the gorgeous "Miss Saigon" duet "I Still Believe" with Nicholson.

More memorable moments were Jennifer Cooper's rendition of the bittersweet ballad "Losing My Mind" from "Follies" and Caroline Kraft's vulnerable take on "Once Upon a Dream" from "Jekyll & Hyde."Kristi Whitaker and Brian Privett introduced their more operatic voices in "Green Finch and Linnet Bird/Ah Miss," also from "Sweeney Todd." For a bunch of singers and actors supposedly short on dancing skills, the company hoofed admirably well, especially to Dr. Marc Strauss' inventively comic choreography on the closing number, "All That Jazz."Dr. Christopher Goeke and Dr. Leslie Jones, with assistance from student Bria Nicholson, packaged the show expertly. And the Southeast Jazz Combo and pianist Tim DePriest provided just the right accompaniment, never overpowering the singers.

Dennis Seyer's tasteful lighting framed a show that received and earned a standing ovation at the end.