Seth Drury, Baritone
Morning Melodies
Series
Q Theatre, Queanbeyan
9 March
Review by Len Power
When you think about it, it’s usually the tenor voice that
gets most of the good songs for men in the entertainment world from opera
through musicals to pop music. Baritone,
Seth Drury, has capitalised on this fact with his fast-paced show and demonstrates
that baritones can be just as memorable.
A young, handsome singer, Seth Drury is a bundle of energy
onstage and has a winning way with his interaction with an audience. For the most part his choice of songs works
well for him. Especially memorable were ‘If
Ever I Would Leave You’ from the musical, ‘Camelot’, in which he not only sang
the song well but showed he has acting ability, too. Again, his acting made the moving song, ‘Stars’,
from ‘Les Miserables’ a stand out in his show.
His opening number, ‘Oh What A Beautiful Morning’ from ‘Oklahoma!’
was a perfect show starter, sung simply and with feeling and he made a couple
of Johnny Cash numbers his own without trying to emulate Cash’s style. In these numbers he was accompanied nicely by
the voices of his musicians, Daniele Buatti, on piano and Anyerin Drury on
guitar and keyboard. However, his version of ‘Old
Man River’ in the style of Bing Crosby did not work well for him at all.
More attention needs to be given to the script which had
some Broadway theatre history inaccuracies – ‘Old Man River’ is not a ‘barely
remembered tune’ – and there were some mistakes made in the lyrics as well. Drury also has some nervous habits which need
working on - fidgeting with the microphone stand and frequently touching his
nose. Being more settled with his
narration between songs would also enhance his performance. I may be wrong, but I would have thought he
had the voice range to hit the high notes at the end of ‘I Am What I Am’. Singing it lower took away the opportunity for
a big finish to his act.
Overall, his show had a good story angle with a nice choice
of songs and was quite entertaining. Song
arrangements were appealing and his musical accompanists did an excellent
job. Seth Drury is a young man with a good
musical future.
Len Power’s reviews
can also be heard on Artsound FM 92.7 ‘Artcetera’ program from 9.00am on
Saturdays.