This is a review of Yesterday Once More presented by Jim Brickman.
My wife and I have been married 24 years. It’s been a fabulous journey filled with much fun. When we were first married one of our nightly activities was to snuggle close, move our faces to each other and proceed to sing. Oh, would we sing. We’d sing so much the apartment neighbors would bang on the walls and yell, “Shut up!”
Our favorite song to sing to each other was The Carpenters’ Close to You, so when the St. Louis Symphony emailed to say they were featuring a show on The Carpenters we jumped to go. The show is called Yesterday Once More and features the symphony accompanied by three Broadway singer, two women and one man.
What we liked about Yesterday Once More:
The symphony – The impressiveness and the majesty of the St. Louis Symphony made such an auditory impact to every Carpenters song.
Song selection – All the standard Carpenters hits were performed, so we were very happy. And, yes, Close to You was beautiful.
Medleys – Speaking of songs, they were able to push more into the show through the use of medleys. This worked out great! Sometimes medleys are disjointed, but these went together so well.
What we didn’t like about Yesterday Once More:
Pitter patter banter – The scripted banter among the singers was awkward at times and a little hard to believe. For instance, the male singer said the Carpenters inspired him to start his own group, while one of the female singers claimed she would lock herself in her room and listen to the songs hours on end.
Male singer – It isn’t that we didn’t like him as much as he seemed to stick out when it came to the Carpenters songs. There was a short skit of him playing a mailman that worked well, but most of the other times it seemed he was “inserted” into the program.
Yesterday Once More brings The Carpenters music to life against the backdrop of a symphony. It is emotional, entertaining and a very enjoyable show.