This Could Be Our Lady Luck Day

Neal Padgett and Tim Stevens, the co-producers of the award-winning Broadway Voices concert series, broke one of their unwritten rules when they invited Lady Luck to open the 10th season of the innovative series.

“We said we would never have an artist twice in one year,” Padgett said. “But our audience gave us little choice.”

Lady Luck, a trio of Broadway divas and accompanied by remarkable musical director Mark Vogel, sold out the final concert of the ninth season of Broadway Voices in April. But before the last of their gowns were packed, the entertainers were asked to open the 10th season.

“The reaction from our audience as incredible,” Padgett said.  “People loved them. Lady Luck is totally about entertaining the audience and our audience recognized that. Over and over we heard that people wanted to see their Christmas show.

“Unwritten rules need to be broken occasionally.”

Heidi Webster, the redhead of the red, blonde and brunette trio, said it was quite an honor to be invited back so soon.

“We are the first ones? Really,” she said from Los Angeles as she packed the six gowns she will wear in the show. “That is really special. You have had some remarkable performers. We are excited to return and see some of our friends.”

Coming back so soon poses some problems for the group.  They want to do some of the songs that the audience loved, but they want to perform a new show, too.  They want to include lots of Christmas and holiday music, but they know people enjoyed their Broadway selections the last time.

“We really put a lot of thought into it,” said Webster, who is joined by best friends Nicole Kaplan and Rachel Tyler in the group.  “We’ve got a lot of Christmas songs that will help people kick off their holidays in a happy mood, but we’ve included some great Broadway songs.

“We want someone who has never seen us to leave knowing what our usual shows are like, but for people who are coming back to see us again to experience something new. And, of course, the Christmas stuff is so much fun.”

Webster, Kaplan and Tyler met when they were cast in the mammoth “Steve Wynn’s Showstoppers “ in Las Vegas. They became great friends during the run of the show. When the show closed, they wanted to keep performing together.

Thus Lady Luck was born.

“It really is incredible to do all these fun shows and go to these exciting places with your best friends,” Webster said.

The harmony among the group is just as strong off stage as on.

Webster delivered one of the most memorable songs at the Garner Performing Arts Center in the spring. She has a Masters in Musical Therapy degree and has worked with hospice patients. She told the story of a Parkinson patient, who never spoke, suddenly singing “It Had to Be You” to his wife as Webster played.

There wasn’t a dry eye in the building, which Tyler acknowledged by throwing toilet tissue to the audience.

“They know how to entertain,” Padgett said.

Vogel, well known as a music producer as well as composer and entertainer, said Lady Luck is unusual because all three singers are remarkable.

 “I love to watch the audience early in the show,” Vogel said. “The first one sings and the audience is mentally saying that she is the best. Then the next one sings and the audience is thinking, the third one must be the weakest. Then she sings and the audience suddenly realizes they are three great soloists in addition to having incredible harmonies.”

All three had solo careers before striking pay dirt together.

Webster has starred in Grease, The Music Man, Little Shop of Horrors, Into the Woods, Pippin and How to Succeed in Business.

Tyler, who is English, is known of London’s West End for Miss Saigon, Smokey Joe’s Café and the Rocky Horror Show. She spent two years on United States national tours of Mamma Mia.

Kaplan recently made her European stage debut in the Ukraine in Chicago.  Stateside, she has performed in Camelot, Love Letters, Candide, Forum, The Little Mermaid and others.

A limited number of tickets, $35, are available at the Garner Chamber of Commerce or by calling 919-661-4602.

Brian Owens merges the King of Country and the Prince of Motown

Johnny Cash, the King of Country, and Marvin Gaye, the Prince of Motown, come from different genres of musical royalty, but they had the same heart throb.

At least they do in the hands of Brian Owens, who will combine the music of both musical giants in his Thursday night concert at the Garner Performing Arts Center.  The last time he was at the GPAC he focused on Gaye, who helped shape the sound of Motown.

This week, he is combining the sounds of Gaye with the music of Cash.  To Owens, the two legendary entertainers often told the same message in different ways.

Rolling Stone magazine agrees.

Brian Owens played to a sold out crowd at GPAC 2017.

 “Thanks to his passionate delivery and gift for interpretation, Owens successfully proves that the songs of Johnny Cash belong every bit in the soul canon as they do in country,” Rolling Stone wrote in October 2017.

The revelation of the link between Cash and Gaye came to Owens while studying the origins of Soul music. He was struck that Sam Cooke, who is called the King of Soul, and Cash had a shared inspiration.

“Sam Cooke and Johnny Cash grew up singing beneath the cross of Christ,” Owens said. “That was the starting place for both of them.”

From those similar roots, they followed different paths, helping to create distinctive sounds that out-lived either of them.

The lyrics that Cash sang and the music he played touched Owens. Owens was doing a tribute concert in St. Louis a few years ago. In addition to singing the songs of Ray Charles, Sam Cooke, Marvin Gaye and Otis Redding, Owens wanted to include Cash’s “Walk the Line” in his set.

Owens decided to sing Cash’s songs an octave higher and add his on groove to the music.

The reaction of audiences convinced Owens that he wasn’t the only one who could see the connections between the King and the Prince.

Owens said that at the GPAC, you’ll hear “Ring of Fire” and “What’s Going On.” “Mercy Me” and “Man in Black.” “Walk the Line” and “How Sweet It Is To Be Loved By You.”

It all comes together to him.

Owens told Rolling Stone, “‘Folsom Prison’ is a blues song. ‘Sunday Morning Coming Down’ speaks to his ability to interpret the work of others. And ‘The Man in Black’ is the quintessential biographical song. This is why I do the things I do – I identify with every single line in that song.”

Owens will be accompanied by his musicians, The Deacons of Soul.

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Brian Owens

Thursday, Sept. 12

7:30pm

$28 advance, $33 at door

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Or Box Office: 919-661-4602 Tuesday – Thursday 1:30-5pm