By A dramatic voice bounces off the walls and projects its passion upon the audience. The cabaret area intimately fits 250 sold-out seats, filled with audience members with tears in their eyes and their significant other in their arms. The fixed attention surrounds a stage that bares an affluent standup bass, drum set, piano and the voice of Davis Gaines.
The Carpenter Performing Arts Center held venue to Broadway singer Gaines Wednesday night for more than a hour-and-a-half block of a romanticized serenade.
“I’m thrilled and lucky to be back,” Gaines said.
Once on stage, the number one returning artist wasted no time. The versatility of Gaines’ singing brought the audience from swing and jazz, to operatic renditions of familiar tunes.
Gaines even weaved his great sense of humor that evening, playing off patrons who purchased alcohol at the beginning and during the intermission. He addressed them as the “beer and wine people.”
On stage, Carol Anderson (piano), Dave Stone (bass) and John Ferraro (drums) accompanied Gaines. His comical antics made him appear like a 1930s lounge singer as he leaned on the piano and joked with Anderson, suggesting the “wild nights” they’ve had together.
“I have stories,” Gaines said, “but I won’t tell any tonight. At least not about the ones about [Anderson].”
Gaines is best known for his role in the Los Angeles tour of “The Phantom of the Opera,” and as the longest-running Phantom. Patrons picked up on the range Gaines can legitimately control in his tone. When he sang lighter and happier, or comical, songs, his controlled was of a lyric tenor. During the more romantic or gloomy songs, he performed with a tender, dramatic baritone voice.
Multiple times during the evening, Gaines combined two songs administering a sense a familiarity with a taste of his own style and varied in theme.
He said songs like “When You Wish upon a Star” by Leigh Harline and Ned Washington and Harold Alren’s “Over the Rainbow” reminded him of his childhood and meant more now that he’s older. The performances were beautiful takes on vocal distinction from the original version.
He said that Judy Garland’s “By Myself” and the Carpenters’ “I’ll Never Fall in Love Again” were the saddest songs he had ever heard in his life.
“I’m just saying,” he said. “Take the knives off the table.”
Between songs, Gaines openly shared a few personal facts about his love for songs and his career.
“I got my love of [jazz and swing] from my mom and dad,” Gaines said.
Soon after, Gaines pointed out that his mother was in the audience and had flown in from Orlando, Fla., to see him perform Wednesday evening.
Before the night was over, Gaines expressed his pleasure of being able to sing in the Carpenter Center again. He said that The Carpenters was one of his biggest influences, especially for the way they sang in a “warm, clear and fuzzy” style.
As a seemingly highly-anticipated conclusion, Gaines commented on his choice to end the evening with a specific song.
“The last season I was here, I heard there was a riot because I didn’t sing any of these songs,” Gaines said. An audience member shouted from the crowd in question “‘Phantom’?” and he agreed.
“Music of the Night” from “The Phantom of the Opera” was his concluding and most breathtaking song. It caught patrons on the edge of their seats and caused them to hold their breath when his notes were held extensively.
Throughout the performance, Gaines received three standing ovations, including the roaring applause following “Music of the Night,” immediately after his voice hauntingly echoed against the walls and into the ceiling.
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