Review: THE STORY OF A ROSE: A MUSICAL REVERIE ON THE GREAT WAR at NVCC’S Schlesinger Center

A powerful one night only event.

If you were to ask a modern day student what they know about WW1, they probably would give you a short answer seeing as it is rarely taught nowadays.

Powerhouse Broadway performer Melissa Errico wants to change that and has done so brilliantly with her own creation entitled The Story of A Rose: A Musical Reverie on the Great War. Complete with a seven piece orchestra, superb arrangements by Tedd Firth, and mostly top notch technical elements, this show does a lot to teach us all about a forgotten generation of military and the time period in general.

Melissa Errico in The Story of A Rose: A Musical Reverie on The Great War.
Photo by Glenn Cook.

Ms. Errico frames the show around her great Aunt Rose who was a performer in the famed Ziegfeld Follies. As she performs many famous period songs like “Over There” and “Funiculi, Funicula”, she also regales us with many stories about the time period. I was particularly shocked to learn that composer Jerome Kern was so drunk one morning that he overslept and missed his sailing on the doomed Lusitania. Can you imagine how musical theatre would have been if he had stayed sober the previous night?

There are two musical moments in this show that I found to be the most moving. The first being “The Lads in Their Hundreds” which is a song from 1911 by George Butterworth (Music) and AE Houseman (Lyrics) and the other being a poem written in 1919 by Siegried Sassoon called “Everyone Sang” which was set to music by Tedd Firth. These two moments alone summed up what Errico was going for overall.

L-R Melissa Errico and George Abud in The Story of A Rose: A Musical Reverie on the Great War.
Photo by Glenn Cook.

George Abud was a great support for Errico throughout the show as he played several characters within the story. These included performer Eddie Cantor and of course a military doughboy.

Ms. Errico was backed by a superb seven piece orchestra which featured Tedd Firth (Musical Director, Pianist, Arranger), David Finck (Bass), Mark McLean (Drums), Aaron Heick (Reeds, Bruce Harris (Trumpet), Tallie Brunfelt (Violin), and Peter Douskalis (Guitar and Banjo). The ensemble played Firth’s arrangements to musical perfection. There was a lot of music for Firth to arrange but because he is such a high caliber of musician, everything sounded in period and was a pleasure to listen to.

I said at the beginning that the technical elements were mostly top notch. Veteran Lighting/Sound Designer Matt Berman did wonders with only the day of the show to program everything. For those of you who think that’s easy to do, trust me it’s not. It also helped that he brought veteran Sound Mixer/Designer Matt Kraus along for the ride. Those two gentleman represent many years of talent and if they are on your show, there is no need to worry. Kristin Chenoweth can’t be wrong.

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