By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
From Curly, to Laurie, to Elphaba, to Tony – some of the great roles in musical theater will be celebrated in a performance tonight at the Performing Arts Center.
Rhiannon Guevin and Sam Faustine will take on all the roles in the show “People Will Say We’re in Love: An Evening of Musical Theater.”
The show starts at 7 p.m. and tickets are available at the door. The show will be presented by the Sitka Fine Arts Camp.
Guevin and Faustine are friends from University of Puget Sound, where both of them majored in vocal performance. They have collaborated before on shows in Sitka, including the Queen tribute concert (where Faustine appeared as Freddie Mercury), and musical theater shows “Songs for a New World” and “The Last Five Years.”
Both are fans of musical theater as well as other vocal styles.
The song list for tonight’s show includes music from “Wicked,” “Carousel,” “My Fair Lady,” “West Side Story,” “Oklahoma!” “The Fantasticks,” and “Waitress.”
Guevin, who lives in Sitka and is on the staff of the Sitka Fine Arts Camp, said the idea behind the concert is a simple one.
“I wanted to do a musical theater concert with Sam,” she said. “We built the set list with a little bit of Sam’s favorites, a little bit of my favorites and some that we knew would be crowd pleasers.”
Sam Faustine, right, Rhiannon Guevin and pianist Chris Staknys rehearse for tonight’s musical theater recital, “People Will Say We’re in Love: An Evening of Musical Theater” at the Performing Arts Center. The show starts at 7 p.m. and tickets are available at the door. (Sentinel Photo by James Poulson)
The theme of “love” was an easy one, since Valentine’s Day was celebrated Friday. Guevin notes that the theme is also a natural fit with many of the classic musical theater duets.
Faustine is a professional actor/singer in regional theater and choral groups in San Francisco. But he had a gap in his schedule that allowed him to fit in another show in Sitka. He will perform some of the songs from his recent stage roles, such as Curly in “Oklahoma!” and Tony in “West Side Story.”
Guevin and Faustine have similar tastes in music and enjoy performing together. Some of the songs tonight will be staged as dramatic scenes under direction of Zeke Blackwell, the director of the local Young Performers Theater.
Faustine, who has a master’s degree from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, counts Stephen Sondheim as his favorite musical theater composer and lyricist.
“Nobody has a better marriage between text and music in musical theater than Stephen Sondheim,” Faustine said Monday during a break from rehearsal at the PAC. “That’s important to me, the marriage between text and music. Things should be lyrical for a reason. Steven Sondheim makes the listener earn their melodies.”
He cited “Sweeney Todd” as an example, where “unpleasant intense music” is paid off with the love song between Anton and Johanna.
“It opens up to the beautiful melody,” Faustine said.
Guevin said she believes her vocal qualities are most suitable for Golden Age musicals (“Oklahoma!” “My Fair Lady”) and Disney musicals.
“She has a sweet, innocent tone – a wistful, hopeful soprano,” Faustine said.
“That being said, I have ‘belter envy,’” Guevin said. “Even though I’m a soprano – it’s where my voice is naturally – the last few years I’ve been pushing myself to explore the repertoire outside my comfort zone, that requires me to use my chest voice.”
The vocalists will be accompanied by pianist Christopher Staknys, who came here originally for a Sitka Fine Arts Camp piano assistantship during the summer. He will also have his own concert Saturday.
Tickets are $20 for general, and $15 for students. They are available at Old Harbor Books, online and the door.
