Members of the Lyric Repertory Company performed the 4th Annual Vosco Call Spotlight Concert in memory of their late founder and artistic director, Vosco Call (left).

LOGAN – The late Vosco Call would have been proud of the Lyric Repertory Company performers who sang in his honor on Tuesday, July 19.

Their professionalism and talent – like his – was remarkable.

The theme of the 4th Annual Vosco Call Spotlight Concert was movie musicals and the show opened with an ensemble selection of tunes from the Hugh Jackman film The Greatest Showman – an obvious tribute to Vosco Call that was strikingly performed.

The spotlight concert is an annual event by the Lyric troupe honoring their founder and first artistic director, Vosco Call.

In an amusing video clip that served as a prologue to the concert, masters of ceremonies Richie Call and Jason Spelbring got to show off their vocal chops and introduce a few self-deprecating, inside jokes.

“This event was created to celebrate our patrons and feature the talents of our company,” Richie Call added, speaking in-person to welcome the audience. “We also hope to raise awareness and money for the Lyric Repertory Company Endowment Fund.”

Call said that donations to that fund can be made through the Lyric website at http://www.usu.edu/lyricrep

He also urged members of the audience to “talk up” the Lyric Repertory Company with their friends and neighbors.

Call had promised popular, family-friendly songs ranging from the Golden Age of Movie Musicals to present-day blockbusters, but the selection of tunes brilliantly arranged by music director Lawrence Laureano were all relatively contemporary.

After the introductory remarks by Richie Call and Spelbring, the performers first turned to tunes selected from the inevitable Disney musicals. Timo Rasmussen performed “Out There” from the score of The Hunchback of Notre Dame; Kelly McGaw did “Show Yourself” from Frozen II; and Carolina Flores Parada sang “La Llorona” from Coco in Spanish.

Those performers and others in the concert cast were all from the Lyric’s ongoing production of Freaky Friday.

Moving on to the more meaty music of composer Stephen Sondheim, Kat Lee performed the amusing “I Know Things Now” from Into the Woods, followed by the concert’s ensemble singing the haunting “Children Will Listen” from that show’s finale.

Also by Sondheim, Dan Webb performed “Being Alive” from Company and the versatile Blake Bundy beautifully sang “Not a Day Goes By” from Merrily We Roll Along.

Then Laureano brought down the house with a touching rendition of “Losing My Mind” from the Sondheim musical Follies.

Other high points of the evening were Keaolani Hosino singing “I Didn’t Plan It” from the musical Waitress by pop star Sara Bareilles; a dramatic performance of “I Am Changing” from Dreamgirls by Jimmy Haynie; a Les Mis mash-up duet by Sydnee Fullmer and Grace Garner; and McKenna Walwyn and Preston Rowland performing the “Elephant Love Medley” from Moulin Rouge!

Other cast members of the Spotlight Concert include Kaito Davis, Mia Gatherum, Christopher Klinger, Lacy J. Dunn and Carlwell Redman.

The 4th Annual Vosco Call Spotlight Concert will be reprised at 7:30 p.m. on July 26 in the Morgan Theatre on the campus of Utah State University.

In a sense, the late Vosco Call was the grandfather of the entire performing arts community here.

A native of Cache Valley, Vosco Call was already an accomplished stage actor when he joined the faculty at Utah State decades ago.

He was one of the founding members of the university’s modern theatre arts program, where he helped to mold multiple generations of future performers.

Vosco Call also played an instrumental role in the acquisition and restoration of the Caine Lyric Theater. In 1967, he founded the Old Lyric Repertory Company and the rest, as they say, is history.

The theater patriarch passed away in 2019 at the age of 91.



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