By Pam Harbaugh, FloridaTheaterOnStage.com, for SouthFloridaReporter.com, Oct. 30, 2015 – VERO BEACH — Good songs tell compelling stories. And after seeing Riverside Theatre’s stylish, smart and vivacious production of Swinging on a Star, you’ll think no one did it better than Johnny Burke.
A musical revue written by South Florida director-playwright Michael Leeds, it opened on Broadway in 1995 where it was choreographed by Kathleen Marshall and ran about three months. The Riverside production features seven talented professional performers who give a great “pop” of life and substance to the songs.
You’re not just hearing the music, but the emotion behind the songs. In the hands of this wonderful cast, each song becomes a vignette of sorts, filled with stirring emotion and character framed in memorable melodies and unforgettable lyrics.
And wow, is there a lot of music in this two-act revue – 41 songs, in fact, with most of them getting a fully realized production.
