It was a night full of Broadway in Glidden Recital Hall as Broadway performer Mary Michael Patterson joined OU alumnus Luke Frazier for a cabaret night of Broadway music.
Athens and Ohio University had its own kind of cabaret and Broadway music-filled evening when Broadway performer Mary Michael Patterson sang, in a performance sponsored by the School of Music, in Glidden Recital Hall Thursday evening.
Accompanied by OU alumnus and pianist Luke Frazier, Patterson replaced Rachelle Fleming, a vocal performer, who could not make the performance due to a family emergency. Patterson made her Broadway debut in the 2011 revival of Anything Goes and recently starred in Phantom of the Opera for a year and a half.
Frazier graduated in 2009 and currently works as the principal pops conductor for the Fairfax Symphony Orchestra in Washington D.C. He has worked with Chita Rivera and Rita Moreno.
Frazier and Patterson met a few months ago while doing an event for Michael Bloomberg. Frazier said the two “hit it off” and then did a second show together in New York City.
The duo performed an evening of music from Broadway, kicking off the evening with classics like “I Have Confidence” from The Sound of Music as well as lesser-known songs such as “The Tale of the Oyster” from Cole Porter’s “Fifty Million Frenchmen.”
Patterson and Frazier will teach master classes to voice students Friday.
Patterson also sang Phantom classics “Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again” and “Think Of Me.” Jeralayne Ruiz, a freshman studying music therapy, will perform for Patterson in a Friday master class and said she “was in tears the entire time” Patterson was singing “Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again.”
“I love everything Phantom,” Ruiz said. “I went to see it when I was really little, and it’s always been a part of my life. … It’s such an emotional piece and she was so connected to it.”
The Post caught up with Frazier and Patterson before the show Thursday to talk about their careers, master classes and Athens.
The Post: How are things since Phantom?
Mary Michael Patterson: I finished in December and since have been doing a lot of concert work and auditioning and preparing for the next gig. It kind of goes back to being a real-life actor. When you’re in between things, it’s actually really great to do this kind of stuff. It’s fun to get out of town and nothing is tying me to New York right now.
P: Why do you like doing these types of shows?
MMP: It’s so great because it’s sort of whatever I want to sing and whatever we want to do together. That’s very rare. If you get hired to do a show, you’re doing the show every night. ... It’s fun because it’s out of the ordinary.
P: When Rachelle Flemming couldn’t make it, what made you call Mary Michael?
Luke Frazier: I think anyone that listens to her will hear why I wanted her to come. … (The master classes are) a great opportunity for her to share her knowledge and her background with the students. And, being somebody that’s not that far out of school, it’s great for them to see somebody younger making their way.
P: What are some of the things you’ve learned from your time in Phantom or Anything Goes that you would want to share with the students?
MMP: I think if they want to do this professionally, my biggest advice would be to think about the long term. Always think about the arc of a career … Also, that they should never stop learning and never stop taking a class. … It’s less about the adrenaline for a one-night thing and more about how do you sustain yourself in a long-term sense.
P: And what are you most excited about in coming back to Athens?
L: I just think it’s so great to share and give back to a place that gave so much to me. Mary Michael and I are both very busy, and it would be easy to say, “Oh I don’t have time to do that.” … Really tonight, it’s not really a recital. It’s not really a concert. It’s more of a cabaret, which has a very unique style to Broadway and jazz that they don’t really get to do here. So it’s kind of nice to say this is one of the other paths you can take after you have your degree. … It’s kind of neat to just expose students to a different way of doing things.
P: It’s kind of like our own 54 Below (a famous New York cabaret) moment.
MMP and Luke:Absolutely!
MMP: And that’s very much what we’re doing tonight. And it is sort of unique to New York in a lot of ways because we have so many of those places. It’s fun because you get to see people stripped down without all the bells and whistles…
L: Lights, costumes and choreography. You take it away, and it’s about the person and the music.
P: Mary Michael, have you gotten to visit anywhere in Athens?
MMP: We went to Village Bakery.
L: We’re going to Salaam tomorrow.
MMP: I’m very excited.
L: And we’ll probably end up at Donkey at some point or another.
MMP: I’ll go anywhere. I’m excited to see any of it.
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