May River Theatre hits the right notes

Leave it to the amazing Dupuises at the May River Theatre Company to bring a completely charming musical revue about love, affairs of the heart and related issues during the Valentine season. The "love songs," some of the best in memory,performed by a solid and well-known amateur cast of characters, brought smiles to our faces and to our spirits as they created drama through music with compelling ability. What a heartwarming gift -- and what fun!

"Notes of Love" … the mere mention of the term creates memories that run the gamut of emotion. The good news is that this production offers it all, start to finish. I suggest you "bust a move," though, to the Ulmer Auditorium in Bluffton, because there isn't much time. The revue plays through Sunday.

"Notes of Love" is an original show from Jodie Dupuis. I was fortunate enough to see it when she first staged it on Hilton Head Island at the Overlook Dinner Theater in Port Royal, with a cast of four! Hard to believe that was close to 20 years ago. It was great fun then, and I loved it the more so on opening night in Bluffton.

Clearly, the show has upshifted. There are some new, very late-breaking musical pieces, some new settings of older favorites and of course, a fabulous new and expanded cast of 20, most of whom you have seen or heard in performance in the Lowcountry, even on that stage in Bluffton. Divided into the cast and guest performers, everyone brought "Notes of Love" together in the most appealing way, and you'll enjoy just sitting back and letting the evening's experience flow.

Dupuis saw to the performance details with her usual style and panache. She moved the characters through their paces with incredible speed and grace. Musical Director Ted Seamons, for his part from the "pit," did a masterful job. The cast and guest artists were spot-on, too, as they saw to their performances, offered artfully and carefully around a close to stage-filling dimensional heart, which depending on the piece, breaks, comes back together, tilts and supports -- in the most metaphoric way.

We all loved it when the entire cast presented a resounding opener with "I Believe in Love." The stage was successfully set.Beth Woods, Jennifer Green, Mike Palermo and Ken Kolbe, were vocally at home as they contributed some rich new colorings and kept the momentum building in "Happy Together."

It was no accident that Dupuis gave us this "Notes of Love" from an all-ages vantage point. So when the youthful Desiree Duff brought us "For Once in My Life" and "When I Fall in Love," we totally enjoyed it, and of course, got it. Later, we enjoyed a close-up look at a more seasoned group of those in love in "You and I" from Joan Galasso, Barbara Clark, Joe Lapchick and Dick Tyrrell. There was something completely charming about the concept of weathering this life together.

Some of the most memorable and vocally lustrous singing came from Green during her performance of "Leave You."She occupies the stage so impressively, and we enjoyed her rich colorings and involving delivery as she balanced voice and text.

The unbelievably delightful "Get Here If you Can," offered by Gloria Gardner, teemed with energy; and Palermo's "Is you Is or Is you Ain't My Baby" was just so much fun. "Hit the Road Jack" with Green and Woods wastop drawer in every way.

Then there was Jon Krielkamp's "Cheatin' Heart," which absolutely filled the bill. And Sharon L. Walters brought to life the important elements of being in love in "Can't Help Lovin' That Man of Mine."

When you talk about polished comedy performance wait until you experience Gardner's impressively agile "Don Juan." What a trip. She was supercharged as she sang, perched on a chair in a clingy black dress lashing about with a red feathered boa.

There were more action settings as Adam Simoneaux and Kolbeentertained us in the most convincing … ahem … way with "Drinkin' My Baby Goodbye." Those guys were always in compelling, charisma mode every time they occupied the stage, and they were most convincing in "I've Got Love," and "If This Isn't Love," too.

The cast joined Duff in the rhetorical "Why Do Fools Fall in Love," to wrap up the first act, and the second act flew by as Dupuis drew from some outstanding pieces from earlier performances in the Lowcountry. This is where the guest cast joined the cast. Clark and Tyrrell gave the most dramatically appealing,polished setting of "Do You Love Me?" Then Green and Lapchick's "Couldn't Please Me More," offered an indelible look at love from a whole new perspective -- pineapple and all."Two Ladies," with Bryce Cofield, Dawn Rosa and Kim Marcos, was a perfect riot, and everybody loved the music as well as the cavorting.

The evening wraps up with "Side by Side," as the complete cast comes together, one more time. We've, somehow, shared a lifetime together -- we've lived, we've loved, we've lost and we've loved, again -- and they through their generous performance in "Notes of Love" have created for all of us,portraits of those indelible experiences.