March 31, 2019: Keeping it Casual with Sarah & Bradley; Featured Art – Steve Cost

On Thursday, March 21, Sarah Beckham-Turner and Bradley Behrmann with James Gardner accompanying, presented a program entitled Keeping It Casual with Sarah and Bradley: Featuring Favorites from Musical Theatre in the Fine Arts Complex Recital Hall at WTAMU. Far beyond the pale of classical sophistication, this program provided the audience with an hour of entertainment and easy listening.

In some fifteen numbers, these artists demonstrated their range of vocal, dramatic and comedic talent, singing both solo and duet.

The two performed People Will Say We’re in Love from Oklahoma with exuberant naivete to render the song credible without being mushy.

Sarah, on the faculty at WTAMU, gave a moving performance of I Dreamed A Dream from Les Miserables, exploring the full range of dramatic pathos inherent in the lyrics, making the work the most impactful of the evening.

What could be more diametrically opposed to Les Miserables than Spamalot? A rhetorical question, but in Divas Lament she revealed that she could wallow in the outrage of affront to unrequited artistic vanity. Aspiration to indignation is an epic journey that SBT negotiated with aplomb and finesse.

Bradley Behrmann similarly showed his comedic flair singing the sarcastic Laughing Matters from When Pigs Fly about the current deluge of bad news, and by turning the noun into a verb is where ‘laughing matters’ most of all.

Then, in You’ll Be Back” from “Hamilton,” the audience, comprised mainly of music majors, spontaneously took off on the chorus, showing that it’s not only in social media that millennials are ahead of baby-boomers.

Sarah and Bradley, along with James Gardner, demonstrate not only the range of talent in this community, but also illustrate the myriad art forms available to the public to just kick back and enjoy.

That’s why we happily say, “Keep Amarillo Artsy! Keep Austin Weird! Keep Lubbock in the Rear View Mirror!!!”