SEQUIM — “People Will Say We’re in Love.” “A Whole New World.” “Marriage Tango.” “Tonight.”
And those are just the duets.
Yes, two vocalists are about to drench Saturday evening in romance. This year’s model of “Broadway and Bordeaux” runneth over with love, in all its crazy forms and tempos as soprano Jaie Livingstone and baritone Joel Yelland arrive on the main stage at Olympic Theatre Arts, the community playhouse at 414 N. Sequim Ave.
Show time is 7:30 p.m., tickets are $15 and proceeds will benefit OTA. Tickets are on sale at the box office, open from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays, and remaining seats will be sold at the door. The playhouse wine bar will open at 6:30 p.m. so patrons may have a beverage beforehand.
The pair have done “Broadway and Bordeaux” before at OTA and other venues around Washington state. And this time out, Livingstone and Yelland are changing it up, refreshing their repertoire with new duets as well as solo numbers. With accompanist Darrell Plank backing them, the singers will offer highlights from musicals such as “Aladdin,” “West Side Story,” “Oklahoma!,” “Wicked,” “Frozen,” “Into the Woods” and “The King and I.”
As an enticement to OTA’s production set for February — “I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change” — the trio has mixed in a few songs from that musical comedy. Along with the “Marriage Tango” duet, the solos are Livingstone’s “I Will Be Loved” and Yelland’s “Shouldn’t I Be Less in Love with You?” The singers will do a quick costume change for this preview, which opens the second half of the show. For the rest of the evening, they will be decked out in semiformal attire.
The idea for “Broadway and Bordeaux” was born years ago when Yelland asked Livingstone to put together an evening of musical theater for a winery in his hometown of Omak. The pair have been making music together ever since.
“It’s been an evolution for both of us,” said Livingstone, adding that she and Yelland have developed a strong friendship — “and a ton of trust as performers.”
Both have classical training. Livingstone earned her bachelor of music in vocal performance at Ithaca College in New York, and Yelland completed a music degree at Central Washington University before pursuing a career in medicine. He’s now a family physician at the Lower Elwha Health Clinic.
This being the third annual “Broadway and Bordeaux” for OTA, “we are bringing back a few favorites from our previous two seasons, [and] we have a whole lot of songs you haven’t heard,” Livingstone noted.
“We build a new revue based on what we feel each year.”
While Livingstone has “Shall We Dance” from “The King and I,” “Ain’t It Good” from “Children of Eden” and “Human Heart” from “Once on This Island” on her list of solos, Yelland will bring “I Confess” from “Footloose,” “C’est Moi” from “Camelot” plus “South Pacific’s” “Some Enchanted Evening.”
“We love sharing this music with people — giving them the opportunity to feel,” she added. The lyrics, the melodies: They provoke real emotion, just as live theater does.
The trio created this show as a fundraiser out of devotion to OTA.
“Having a place where performers can share their skills is so important to a community,” Livingstone said. “And a place where you can experience live theater and music like this — it’s what gives us humanity. It was important for us to give the theatre our show as a gift.”
For details about “Broadway and Bordeaux” and other activities at OTA, visit www.OlympicTheatreArts.org or phone 360-683-7326.
