LOGAN – The Simon & Garfunkel Story, which played one-night only at the Ellen Eccles Theatre here on April 12, was no mere tribute band to the folk-rock duo of the 1960s and 1970s.
The show was a staged chronicle of the on-again, off-again career of Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel which has been performed in London’s West End theatre district, on- and off-Broadway and toured around the world to more than 50 countries.
If the sell–out crowd at the Eccles Theatre expected juicy details of backstage conflicts between the legendary artists, they were disappointed. The two-hour Simon & Garfunkel Story offered only brief headlines about the duo’s ups and downs.
But anyone who came to hear sensational recreations of their music by two gifted vocalists and a four-piece band was more than satisfied.
The show combined those note-for-note recreations with large-screen projections that captured the pair’s career from their humble rock n’ roll beginnings in Queen, NY in the late 1950s, through the anti-war era of the 1960s, to the huge success of their “Bridge over Troubled Water “ album in 1970 and finally to their famous “Concert in Central Park” reunion in 1981, with more than a half million fans in attendance.
Vocalists Jonah Bobo and Brendon Jacob Smith, in the parts of Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel respectively, were seemingly ideally suited to play those roles. Like their namesakes, the pair of New Yorkers grew up singing together.
They explained how those turbulent times illustrated by those projections colored the famous duo’s music and then explored the songs and lyrics themselves.
Even for those old-timers with good memories who lived through the Simon & Garfunkel years, the show had some surprises.
Naturally, Bobo and Smith performed the expected renditions of favorites like “I Am a Rock,” “The Sounds of Silence,” “Mrs. Robinson,” “Cecilia” and the haunting “Scarborough Fair/Canticle.”
But they also dug deep into early album cuts like “The Big Bright Green Pleasure Machine,” “The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin’ Grovy),” the slightly psychedelic “Patterns” and the hard-edged tale of a suicide “Richard Cory.”
To simulate the excitement of Simon & Garfunkel’s reunion concert in Central Park, they also performed the upbeat tunes “Baby Driver,” “A Hazy Shade of Winter” and “Keep the Customer Satisfied.”
Finally, for their inevitable encore, the pair launched into the iconic songs “Bridge over Troubled Water” and “The Boxer.”
Bobo and Smith were backed up by equally talented musicians. Their band included Marc Encabo on keyboards and vocals; Joshua Vasquez on guitar and vocals; Collin Keller on bass guitar and vocals; and Billy Harrington on drums and vocals.
Closing out the 2023-24 National Touring Season at the Eccles Theatre, the Cache Valley Center for the Arts will present the Napoleon Dynamite 20th Anniversary Celebration on Wednesday, May 8.
Each year, the CacheARTS organization brings the best of regional, national and international talent to the Ellen Eccles Theatre as part of the CacheARTS season.
Tickets for the Napoleon Dynamite anniversary can be obtained by going online to www.cachearts.org
The Ellen Eccles Theatre is located at 43 South Main Street in downtown Logan