Sydney Philharmonia Choirs. Sydney Town Hall. 16-17 November, 2024

Reviewed : 17 November, 2024

There was buzz as friends and families met on the steps of the Town Hall. It grew as the foyer filled and people made their way to their seats or climbed the stairs to the galleries. Philharmonia audiences are always excited whatever the program. They know that Brett Weymark makes every concert special.

This concert was dedicated to the memory of his mother, Judith Weymark, who loved the musicals of composer Richard Rodgers and lyricist Oscar Hammerstein, regarded as the ‘most successful partnership in Broadway history’. The Philharmonia Orchestra, four brilliant musical theatre soloists and the wonderful Philharmonia Choirs conducted by the incomparable Weymark took the audience on a “showstopping” carousel of memories from eight of their eleven musicals.

Rodgers and Hammerstein heralded a new era in musical theatre. Their musicals, beginning with Oklahoma!, had a real plot as well as a love story – and in some cases a moral or message. Community rivalry in Oklahoma!; domestic violence and crime in Carousel; racial intolerance in South Pacific; the infiltration of fascism in The Sound of Music.

They also had a variety of music, from toe-tapping comic pieces to serious love songs and songs like “You’ll Never Walk Alone” that Sarah Noble described in her notes on the ‘showstoppers’ as passing “beyond the bounds of musical theatre to become a pop song, an inspirational hymn and a hallowed football anthem”.

Picture the orchestra and choir! Men in dinner suits and black ties. Women in black and white evening dress with touches of sparkle and pearls and fur! Weymark himself in black tails, white waistcoat and patent shoes. The organ and columns behind them lit and the audience expectantly quiet as faint notes, birdsong and bells introduce soprano Ashleigh Rubenach and the overture from The Sound of Music. A real “show starter” followed by “Do-Re-Mi” and the haunting message of “Edelweiss”, where one could imagine the “brown shirts” reacting to Rob McDougall’s defiant delivery.

Johanna Allen and the choirs took the audience to an earlier time and summer in America with “June is Bustin’ Out All Over” from Carousel. Daniel Belle sang the very haunting “You Are Beautiful” from Flower Drum Song.

Rodgers and Hammerstein’s humour sounded clearly as Belle, McDougall and the male members of the choirs filled the building with the clever lyrics of “There is Nothing Like a Dame” from South Pacific, answered quite resonantly – and comically – by Allen, Rubenach and the women of the choir as they “Washed that man right out of their hair”.

Daniel Belle singing the “Soliloquy” from Carousel was very special, as was the choir with Belle and McDougall singing “It’s a Grand Night for Singing” from State Fair.

There were many special moments like that! “Whistle a Happy Tune” and “Something Wonderful” from The King and I recreated the unusual story of a young British schoolteacher and King Mongkut of Siam. Will Parker’s description of “Kansas City” and “what the modern world was comin’ to” brought a smile to many faces.

This wonderful concert ended with the four soloists and the choirs singing “Climb Ev’ry Mountain”, the notes rising high above the audience to the tops of the columns and ceiling of the venue. But of course that wasn’t all – as the applause and the call for “more” led to the rousing, optimistic theme song from Rodgers and Hammerstein’s very first musical Oklahoma!

The Philharmonia Choirs continue to entertain and charm with concerts that offer something for everyone.

In December they return to the Concert Hall at the Opera House for Handel’s Messiah and  to St Philip’s Church in York Street to present Alleluya, a “treasure trove of a cappella Christmas gems from around the world’.

Check their website sydneyphilharmonia.com.au or socials for details.

First published in Stage Whispers magazine