Taking modern Broadway on the road
When you make your living playing show tunes at piano bars, sometimes you don't want to hear that "the hills are alive with the sound of music" yet again. Sometimes, you start wishing that those loudmouth hills would, well, hush up.
"Rodgers and Hammerstein, Lerner and Loewe -- they're all great, but I like to listen to contemporary musicals as well," said pianist Rob Wendel of Wayland. "But there seems to be a freeze-frame. People always request show tunes from the '40s, '50s, and '60s, and then there's this cutoff point once you get to the '80s. No one asks for the newer stuff."
Wendel and tenor Steve SanSoucie, who are married, are sure the time warp is not a result of disdain for new Broadway. Rather, they're certain many of us have simply not heard the scores of the great modern musicals "Avenue Q" and "Wicked." So they hatched a plan and now the "Hairspray"-deprived and "Rent"-needy need suffer no more.
In 2005 the pair founded Broadway 25, a cabaret troupe dedicated to performing music from shows produced in the last 25 years, and it seems they hit a newfangled chord.
For their past three seasons, the six-member troupe has packed fans into Boston's Club Café for shows that feature everything from show-stopping solos to lively four-part harmonies and always at least one rather creative interpretive surprise (such as crooning "Holding Out for a Hero" from "Footloose" while dressed as hero sandwiches).
On Saturday, they venture for the first time into the suburbs with their current production, "One Night Only" (named after the "Dream Girls" song), which is on stage at The Center for Arts in Natick. The show features SanSoucie, baritenor Jaime Blanch of Watertown, alto Debbie Cohen Skelton of Natick, bass Bill Toll of Sudbury, and soprano Keri Boisclair of Somerville, as well as Wendel on keyboard.
"We don't take the safe way with this show. We don't do 'Sound of Music.' We're just a little more dangerous than that," said Wendel.
On the program are scads of their favorites, from the lightning-quick "You Can't Stop the Beat" from "Hairspray" to the soulful "One Night Only." This show's surprise number hails from "Wicked."
SanSoucie "is going to have a unique costume on for part of it," said Wendel. "I won't give it away, but it does involve a ballerina tutu and work boots. But that's all I'm saying."
Silly ballet-wear aside, the pair are quite serious about their mission. "The music is just so good that people need to hear it, but not everyone can afford to see every Broadway show," said SanSoucie. "So Broadway 25 is sort of like a smorgasbord. You buy one ticket and get to hear a sampler of the best songs from the last 25 years."
"I suppose it's just the educator in me talking, but this is music people ought to be exposed to and ought to know," added Wendel, who gives piano lessons by day. "Some of the great songwriters of our time are writing for Broadway."
"One Night Only" plays at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at The Center for Arts in Natick, 14 Summer St. Doors open at 7 p.m. Tickets: $20, seniors/students $18. Call 508-904-7171 or visit broadway25.com.
HEROES AND HEROINES: On the cusp of the Nazi takeover of Austria and sporting the Star of David on their chests, the champion women swimmers of a legendary Jewish sports club, Hakoah, fought against anti-Semitism with every stroke that their powerful arms plied through the water.
They were, in other words, heroes, which is the theme of the Junior Woman's Club of Northborough's first-ever film series, titled "Who's a Hero: Ordinary People, Uncommon Events."
Tonight they screen "Watermarks," a 2004 documentary that follows seven surviving members of the swim team as they return to their old pool in Vienna for one more swim. As they reminisce, their story recounts the harrowing tale of their escape from Vienna as well as that of their friendship, bravery, and verve.
"It's really a powerful testament to these women, who lived through the Holocaust, but it's less about that than it is about aging gracefully," said Laurie LaBrecque of Northborough, who spearheaded the series.
The Woman's Club hopes to make the free film series an annual event. On Sept. 6, they will screen "Iron Jawed Angels," a feature film starring Hilary Swank, about suffragettes Lucy Burns and Alice Paul, who gained their nickname "iron jawed" while imprisoned and on a hunger strike.
"Peace One Day" closes the series on Sept. 20. This documentary follows one man's quest to have the United Nations declare Sept. 21 an annual day of cease-fire.
"Watermarks" will be shown tonight at Whitney Place Community Room, 238 West Main St., Northborough. Free. Sept. 6, "Iron Jawed Angels"; Sept. 20, "Peace One Day." All shows at 7 p.m. Call 774-253-4432.
TUNES AND BLOOMS: Two outdoor highlights this weekend include the Belfast Cowboys performing at the final Concert on the Green in Framingham and the Garden in the Woods family festival, Meadow Madness.
Irish favorites and a few original tunes are not all you'll get when you pack a picnic and settle in for the Belfast Cowboys show. This band, featuring Jerry Robinson of Framingham and his brother-in-law, Father Francis Reilly, donates every penny it earns to Project Children, which flies Protestant and Catholic children from the roughest neighborhoods in Belfast to the United States every summer to give them a chance to make friends and heal wounds between their communities.
Meanwhile, Garden in the Woods has a day full of butterfly walks, beekeeper watching, and close-up bug ogling all set among an outdoor art installation, "Art Goes Wild," which includes 11 destination gardens installed by acclaimed environmental artist W. Gary Smith.
Belfast Cowboys, 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Friday, Framingham Village Green, Edgell Road. Free. Call 508-532-5485 or visit belfast-cowboys.com.
Meadow Madness, noon to 4 p.m. Sunday at Garden in the Woods, 180 Hemenway Road, Framingham. Admission: $7 adults; $5 seniors/children; $3 children 6 through 18; free for children 5 and under. Call 508-877-7630 or visit newenglandwild.org.
Have an idea for the arts column? Please contact westarts@globe.com. 
