A true musical revue in Spokane Valley Summer Theatre’s production of ‘A Grand Night for Singing’

It’s difficult to express just how prolific Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II were during their nearly 20-year partnership.

Productions like “Oklahoma!,” “South Pacific” and “The King and I” launched what has become known as the “golden age” of musical theater, and the pair have numerous Tony, Oscar, Grammy, Emmy and Olivier awards to their name, as well as two Pulitzer Prizes for “Oklahoma!” and “South Pacific.”

Fifty years after the debut of the pair’s inaugural work together, “Oklahoma!,” director and actor Walter Bobbie sequenced “A Grand Night for Singing! The Rodgers and Hammerstein Revue Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of their Historic Collaboration,” a musical revue with songs from the pair’s illustrious career.

More than 30 years since the revue’s debut, in 1992, “A Grand Night for Singing” continues to celebrate the legendary pair, featuring such songs as “Maria,” “This Nearly Was Mine,” “Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’ ” and “We Kiss in a Shadow.”

Spokane Valley Summer Theatre’s production marks the regional premiere of the revue. It opens Friday and plays through July 19 at University High School.

“A Grand Night for Singing” features songs from “Allegro,” “Carousel,” “Cinderella,” “Flower Drum Song,” “Me and Juliet,” “Oklahoma!,” “Pipe Dream,” “State Fair,” “South Pacific,” “The King and I” and “The Sound of Music.”

The show stars Bee Aaron, Melody Chang, Bryce Clifton, Tobin Eyestone, Sydney Glover, Karlin Kahler, Alexis Meeker, Duncan Menzies, Max Mendez, Lily Miller, Darnelle Preston and Raelyn Toth.

The orchestra features Deborah Rambo Sinn (piano/conductor), Beth Rainey (keys 2), Harmony Young (bass), Taylor Belote (percussion), Sheila McCallum (reeds) and Cheryl Carney (cello).

Spokane Valley Summer Theatre’s production is directed and choreographed by Andrea Olsen and music directed by Rambo Sinn. David Baker is the technical director and scenic designer, Jeanette Brenner is the hair and wig mistress, Daniel Urzika is the senior sound engineer, Logan Tiedt is the lighting designer and Audrey Sylling is the stage manager.

Ryan Patterson is the costume coordinator, and Tayler Smith is the assistant stage manager. Alexa Preston and Claire Scott are spotlight operators and sound assistants, and Amanda Gunn in the men’s barber and hair support.

Having a regional premiere on your hands might seem like an added pressure, but Olsen and Rambo Sinn feel more a sense of excitement at the opportunity to, in a way, set the standard for what audiences might expect from future productions of what Rambo Sinn called “the original mashup.”

“That’s in the back of my mind is ‘OK, if I do a good enough job on this, maybe it’ll catch on,’ ” Olsen said. “It just hasn’t been done a lot. ‘Why is that, and can I help it be done more?’ Because I think it is such a beautiful show. If you’ve got a great singing crew, it can be set anywhere. You’re not limited by set pieces.”

Olsen has set her production in Central Park in New York City. Rambo Sinn said Olsen has turned what can be a “stand and sing” type of show into something even bigger thanks to her focus on not only the singing, but also the dancing and acting.

In this production, the cast, sometimes by themselves or with one other person, sometimes with a small group, are walking through Central Park, enjoying their evening. The audience becomes a spectator of sorts, as if we’re sitting on a bench people watching.

“If you look one direction, you can see a couple holding hands and walking somewhere else,” Olsen said. “You could see a couple having dinner in a gazebo. If you turned another direction, you could see two people walking through the park, bird watching. Somebody else could be riding their bicycle. What I’ve tried to create is these little vignettes within each song that happen, and they kind of dovetail into each other.”

As each song is performed out of context, Olsen crafted her own story for the characters that helps connect the emotion of one song to the emotion of the next. During one song, for example, there is a couple on a staircase, built by Baker, looking at a couple on the apron of the stage. Olsen imagines that one couple is looking at the other and reminiscing on when they were younger.

“That’s been the challenge is finding what I’m calling the connective tissue,” she said. “I made sure to do that right away when we started blocking, so that they could really see that these songs, for the most part, related to each other in some way. If you looked for it, there was a way to get them to relate to each other.”

There is no dialogue between each song, making it nearly nonstop as soon as the curtains rise.

“That’s one of the challenges is for all of us to stay focused, and especially me, because I’m trying to keep track of the singers and the orchestra members and everything,” Rambo Sinn said. “We actually have a bandstand on stage, and the orchestra’s up on the stage. Another little vignette.”

Rambo Sinn and Olsen use the word “timeless” when talking about each song in the show. These songs are classics for a reason, both for the lyrics which touch on emotions we’ve all experienced ourselves and musical choices that make each song so memorable.

And with each piece removed from its respective musical, the pair feels that audiences might have even stronger reactions to the songs, some of which can be overshadowed by other songs in their show.

Everyone knows “Some Enchanted Evening” from “South Pacific,” Olsen said, but not everyone remembers “This Nearly Was Mine” as well.

“A Grand Night for Singing” isn’t a standard recital, however; it’s a collection of songs that when put together with choreography and acting, tell a story, something Rodgers and Hammerstein did so well.

“This is not what you’re going to expect,” Olsen said. “If you say ‘Oh, Rodgers and Hammerstein, it’s a bunch of songs. I’ve heard them all before,’ you have not heard them like this. You have not seen them like this.”