Las Vegas Weekly

May 4, 2010 · 8:11 AM

Photos: Kristi Holden’s benefit concert Singing Outside the Lines

By Don Chareunsy

Kristi Holden's Singing Outside the Lines at Clark County Flamingo Library Theater on May 2, 2010.

Photo: Kristina Pauman/Limelight Photography

By Don Chareunsy, Vegas DeLuxe editor

Soprano and Colorado native Kristi Holden, who portrays Christine Daae in Phantom -- The Las Vegas Spectacular at The Venetian, performed a concert Sunday at Clark County Flamingo Library Theater to benefit the homeless shelter Family Promise of Las Vegas. Pianist Philip Fortenberry and special guests, many of them her Phantom cast mates, accompanied Holden during the two-hour afternoon performance.

Phantom cast mate Bruce Ewing kicked off the afternoon by talking about Family Promise, which is entering its 15th year and has an 85 percent success rate of families leaving homelessness and not returning. The $20 donation for concert admission went to Family Promise, as did a portion of proceeds from the silent auction that included items from Phantom, Jersey Boys and Peepshow.

Our thanks to Kristina Pauman of Limelight Photography, Gary Hanson of Jim Frees Photography and Jim Frees for their photographs for our Vegas DeLuxe photo gallery.

The concert’s set list: “Chi il bel sogno di Doretta” from La Rondine; “Pie Jesu” from Requiem with Kristen Hertzenberg; “Flower Duet” from Lakme and “Belle Nuit, o nuit d’amore” with Hertzenberg, Joan Sobel and Nicole Pryor; “Somewhere” from West Side Story with Andrew Ragone; “Perfect”; a medley of “Where Is Love,” “But Not for Me” and “Love Is Where You Find It”; “Out of This World”; “If I Only Had a Brain”; “Let’s Face the Music and Dance” and “Cheek to Cheek”; “Good Morning” with Rick Faugno and Tony Coppola; selections from “Broadway My Way” performed by Fortenberry on piano; John Denver’s “Sunshine on My Shoulders” with Ben Hale on guitar; “Never Saw Blue Like That”; “Peel Me a Grape”; “Bring on the Men” with dancers Don Bellamy and Luke Lazzaro; Annie Lennox’s “A Thousand Beautiful Things”; “Lay Down Your Head”; “Get Me Through December” with an interpretive dance by Courtney Combs; and “If I Can Dream” with Ewing.

Photo: Gary Hanson/Jim Frees Photography

Kristi Holden's Singing Outside the Lines at Clark County Flamingo Library Theater on May 2, 2010. Phantom -- The Las Vegas Spectacular cast mate Andrew Ragone is onstage with her singing "Somewhere" from West Side Story.

There was extended applause for the opening aria from La Rondine, “Pie Jesu,” “Good Morning” and Fortenberry’s Broadway piano selections; Holden joked about looking “like a soprano” and being jealous of her mother for portraying Maria in West Side Story because she never has; and after her costume change before “If I Had a Brain” (she exchanged her black heels for black tap shoes), she asked the audience, “Did you look up my skirt?” to which an audience member shouted, “Vegas, baby!” (Holden admitted that it was her husband, David Walrod.) Much of the audience also laughed at the reference to Peepshow from dancer Lazzaro.

Holden, who battled a cold right up to curtain call, received a much-deserved standing ovation after her concert and performed as her encore the first movement of a song cycle titled “A Hopeful Place” by composer Dan Redfeld and lyricist John Koladziej that is scheduled to be performed with a 16-piece orchestra in L.A. in August. Jersey Boys stars Deven May and Jason Martinez, Peepshow star Dani Olorenshaw and model and actress Shawna Laing were in attendance.

Photo: Don Chareunsy

David Walrod, Kristi Holden, Deven May and Shawna Laing at Singing Outside the Lines in Clark County Flamingo Library Theater on May 2, 2010.

Robin Leach has been a journalist for more than 50 years and has spent the past decade giving readers the inside scoop on Las Vegas, the world’s premier platinum playground.

Follow Robin Leach on Twitter at Twitter.com/Robin_Leach.

Follow Vegas DeLuxe on Twitter at Twitter.com/vegasdeluxe.

Follow VDLX Editor Don Chareunsy on Twitter at Twitter.com/VDLXEditorDon.

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