Callaway Comes Home and Chicago Heats Up

Happy Friday!

After a much-needed staycation downtown last week with my pal Noelle, I can safely say Chicago is in the swing of summer. Many, many thanks to the lovely team at the Four Seasons Chicago for making a friends’ weekend so dreamy (more on that in a forthcoming article).

The streets are alive with tours, the Mag Mile is a veritable salmon stream, and even Universal Studios’ Epic Universe is moved in right next to the Apple store on the river. It does a heart good to see so many people loving this magnificent city.

I hope you have something fun planned for the weekend!

Until Next Time,

Amanda

Callaway Comes Home

The melodies of The Swan Princess drifted in and out of my mind. Lying on the carpet in the living room of my childhood home, I was enraptured by Odette. But it wasn’t her story that got me, it was the music. Her soaring voice and turn of phrase had me parroting her repertoire in easy counterstep to my obsession with The Lion King.

Fast forward a few years. There was something ever-so-familiar about Anastasia’s singing voice. A transcendental quality that had me waltzing around the living room with my sister, forever in love with “Once Upon a December”—an infatuation that remains to this day. That cassette tape got so much play time that my player eventually wore it out. The following year, the same fondness occurred when The Lion King II: Simba’s Pride was released.

Time and time again, Liz Callaway became the soundtrack of my childhood.

In the same way that Nathan Lane and Robin Williams inspired my love of plays, Callaway sparked my penchant for musical theater. Even if two-year-old Amanda didn’t know it yet. There was something inescapable about her voice and all of the lives it could portray. So, when the opportunity came to see her perform a one-night-only engagement in Chicago, there was no way I could miss it.

To Steve With Love: Liz Callaway Celebrates Sondheim was a love letter to the maestro himself. It was clear from the start how deeply she admired not just Sondheim as a theater professional, but as a person. Stuffed with his music along with anecdotes about their work together, Callaway dazzled in the magnificent Studebaker Theater last Saturday night. Her tribute had been performed in many parts of the world, but never in Chicago, never in her hometown.

There was something particularly moving about being in that historic theater, full of stage aficionados, humming with the tunes of Sondheim. Every one of us clutching to their love of the man and his work for our own reasons. When Callaway said sometimes it’s hard to remember he’s gone, a soft murmur of agreement wafted through the space. I couldn’t shake the emotion of a performer I’d long admired speaking of the work that inspired her to do what she does, knowing that she is a very similar figure in my life.

Callaway’s one-woman show is a celebration of Sondheim, sure. It’s also more than that. It’s a celebration of the inherent power of music and how it can bring people together in countless ways. A theater full of people who, in vastly different circumstances, have been impacted by Callaway’s artistry and/or Sondheim’s unsinkable melodies. It’s a celebration of that feeling you get as the instruments swell into “Send In the Clowns” or the nostalgia that comes from “Broadway Baby.”

So, while the evening was supposed to be about Sondheim, I was grateful for the chance to celebrate Callaway. Although little Amanda didn’t know Sondheim or his work, those animated film soundtracks she did know got her through a lot. Nowadays, when I need a get-it-out song, I still turn to Callaway. “I Want It All” from Baby is one of my go-tos. Heck, I even had a song from Baby as a processional in my wedding.

You never know where an artist’s work will take you.

I guess “far longer than forever, as constant as a star…” was more than just a lyric for this musical kid.