Colorado Mesa University Department of Theatre Arts performed part two of their cabaret series on Friday Oct. 19 and Saturday Oct. 20 in the Mesa Experimental Theatre in the Moss Performing Arts Center.

Fascinating Rhythm: Jazz and the Broadway Musical featured 19 songs from George and Ira Gershwin, Duke Ellington, Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer.

The band included Douglas Morrow on piano, Karen Caton on drums and Lucas Bingham on bass.

The show began with the song “Fascinating Rhythm” by George and Ira Gershwin performed by Doug Morrow Trio. There were no lyrics, just sound which helped set the tone for the rest of the show.

The next song was “I Won’t Say I Will (But I Won’t Say I Won’t)”, also by George and Ira Gershwin and performed by Alyssa Gose. This was the perfect song to follow up the opening and Gose has an amazing voice.

A few of my “what in the forgetful uncle Chris Kringle” moments started happening between the second and the third song. I understand the whole concept of walking on and off stage with a microphone but bringing an entire microphone stand on stage and taking it back off stage when you’re done singing?

This kept happening too. Like, why not keep the mic stand on stage and while Jeremy Franklin was talking, have someone in the background adjust it? I mean all eyes were on Jeremy at that point, it would have been extremely easy.

Another was that Franklin was making long introductions about songs and the performers, but out of nowhere Katelyn Craig got one sentence. Just one. Also, Brooklyn Buhre was introduced after she performed. She literally just walked out there and started singing. Speaking of late introductions, the band wasn’t introduced until almost the end of the show.

The most random moment was when Franklin himself walked out between songs and grabbed the microphone and then started singing. I mean, I’m not complaining, he has an amazingly wonderful voice. I think it was just more shocking than anything.

Maybe it was because I didn’t read the program sheet beforehand, or the maybe because where I was sitting it was too dark to see the program sheet.

Also, everyone came out after they were introduced and set their microphone stand down and just started singing. Afterwards, they grabbed their stand and walked off. No hi, no wave and no thank you – just all completely professional.

Now for the actual songs and performances, they were amazing. My favorite of the night went to Q McElroy performing “It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing)” by Duke Ellington.

McElroy was the third to last song and the last to do a solo performance. Boy did she do it spectacularly. If you were looking for that old school jazzy voice and style, she delivered.

My second favorite was the song “Moon River” by Johnny Mercer. Performed by Joe Castinado, it was the only one in which a student gave some background on a song.

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Brooklyn Buhre was one of the few that did not use a microphone stand. She performed marvelously with a smile on her face the entire time and was very animated. She preformed the song “My Cousin in Milwaukee” by George and Ira Gershwin on her own, and three more songs with Mesa Outloud!.

Alexis Bonsante, who is graduating in December, sung her heart out in her last performance at CMU with the song “Skylark” by Johnny Mercer with music by Hoagy Carmicheal.

Anna Dworkin and Joe Castinado did a get duet with “That Old Black Magic” by Harold Arlen and lyrics by Johnny Mercer.

Kylie Carroll, the only freshman in the show, sung “I Let a Song Go Out of My Heart” by Duke Ellington. Her voice is incredible and I’m looking forward to seeing how much see grows as a singing in the coming years.

“Somewhere Over the Rainbow” by Harold Arlen was sung as a duet by Murphy Baker and Heidi Snider. As one of my guilty pleasure songs, I was absolutely thrilled by it.

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The final two songs were done by Mesa OutLoud! which includes members Brooklyn Buhre, Katelyn Craig, Anna Dworking, Alyssa Gose, Kris Karns, Q McElroy, Heidi Sniderand Brandon Sutorius.

Over all the entire show was about 80 minutes long. The last song was an acapella version of “Thinking Out Loud” by Ed Sheeran as a sneak peek for the Best Song Ever Cabaret at Charlie Dwellington’s. I am completely looking forward to it.