Coasters & Platters

Westchester Broadway Theatre

July 30, 2011

It is the prerogative of every reviewer to comment howsoever he or she wishes on a production.  Broadway, off-Broadway, opera, ballet, circus or movie.  Sometimes we get up on the wrong side of the bed and load up for bear, other times we are kindly and well-disposed.

One can always nit pick, and one can always look at the bright side.  No production is perfect and all have some redeeming qualities no matter how hard you have to look. 

It is in this spirit that I review WBT’s production of music by two groups representing rock and roll legend bands, the Coasters and the Platters.  They are not the Coasters & The Platters, just two groups which emulate them.  Think Elvis impersonators.

I am not going to compare the two and say that the Platters did a better job, that their arrangements were truer, that their lead singer was better or that the band which backed both up didn’t really get the feel of the original arrangements.  No.  I am not going to say there were too many songs of the times recorded by other groups.  No.  I am not even going to say that the cutesy number where they brought a female audience member up and changed the name of Coaster’s famous wascally wapscallion from Charlie Brown to whatever Brown detracted.

And I will not repeat that the WBT’s sound system really needs an upgrade.  I am not going to say any of those things.  Know why?

Because they had us up and dancing in the aisles.  Especially when the two groups came out together for an encore set and rocked the house.  The energy was great, the vibe was party.  We left the theatre smiling and breathless.

And that was the success of the show.  The way they left us.  No nits left to pick.  They were all blown off the stage by these great entertainers.