By Denny Dyroff, Entertainment Editor, The Times
Mary Fahl
Once you’ve heard Mary Fahl sing, you have her voice etched permanently into your memory bank. From that point on, if you hear a song by Fahl, you immediately know who is singing.
When Fahl performs her annual Christmas shows, which she has been doing for more than a decade, those in the audience hear holiday music in a whole new way.
On December 10, Fahl is returning to the Sellersville Theater (24 West Temple Avenue, Sellersville, 215-257-5808, www.st94.com) with “Mary Fahl: Wintersongs Holiday Show.”
“I just got back from doing a show in Seattle,” said Fahl, during a phone interview Monday afternoon from her home in Upper Bucks County.
“This weekend, I’ll be in Old Saybrook, Connecticut on Friday, North Andover, Massachusetts on Saturday and Sellersville on Sunday.
“It’s my annual holiday show. I do a lot of Christmas shows every year.”
The Christmas show focuses mainly of her holiday album “Winter Songs and Carols,” which was released in 2019.
“The Christmas record – I didn’t want to do it,” said Fahl. “My husband made me do it. Now, it’s become my favorite album.
“I made a Christmas record for people who don’t like Christmas with songs like Joni Mitchell’s ‘Urge for Going’ and a song by Sandy Denny.”
Some of the album’s other songs are ‘In the Bleak Mountains,” “Ave Maria,” “Wexford Carol,” “What Child Is This,” “Walking in the Air” and “Oh Holy Night/Silent Night.”
“On my current tour, the first half is holiday music,” said Fahl. “The second half is mainly songs from ‘Can’t Get It Out of My Head.’ I also do songs from my previous albums, and I still throw in one or two October Project songs.”
Fahl has honored her favorites by making an album of special tunes — a collection of songs that she calls “essential” to her development as an artist.
The album, which is titled, “Can’t Get It Out of My Head,” was released on July 22, 2022, on her own label, Rimar Records.
“I made it in Syracuse with my band and my producer Mark Doyle,” said Fahl, during a phone interview Tuesday afternoon while returning from a gig in Maine.
“We finished it in early 2022. We mixed and mastered it in March 2022 and then released it in July 2022.”
These are the album’s 10 tracks and the artists who made the original versions — “Can’t Get It Out Of My Head,” ELO; “Ruby Tuesday,” Rolling Stones; “Tuesday Afternoon,” Moody Blues; “River Man,” Nick Drake; “Got A Feeling,” Mamas and Papas; “Don’t Let It Bring You Down,” Neil Young; “Comfortably Numb,” Pink Floyd; “Since You’ve Asked,” Judy Collins; “Beware Of Darkness,” George Harrison; and “The Great Valerio,” Richard and Linda Thompson.
According to Fahl, “On top of all the madness that was happening in the world, I was grappling with the loss of my mother and sister this past year and was feeling completely rootless. In an effort to find an anchor, a link to the past, a sense of home, I began to immerse myself in the comfort of music from my youth.
“These were such essential songs for me… like old friends… my musical home in many ways. I fell in love with each of them at the quintessential coming-of-age moment when music goes straight into your heart with no filter and these songs became part of my musical DNA… I learned to play guitar with several of them – especially the early Neil Young songs.
“Most of these covers come from the first albums I ever bought using one of those Columbia House ‘get 12 free albums for a $1’ mail order programs. I played these records endlessly… and the lyrics on many of these songs still have a powerful resonance for me.”
Fahl knew exactly where she was going.
“I wanted to make a record that was special to me,” said Fahl. “I wanted to live in a place with all the music I grew up with. I learned guitar with Neil Young albums. I learned songwriting with Richard and Linda Thompson songs. Each song on this record has a very special meaning to me.
“I lost my mother and my older sister in the same year – lost a link to the past. I chose these songs because I still sing them and love them. They are part of my musical family. They got me out of a funk.”
The songs provide a comfort level for Fahl and her fans.
“The best compliment that I’ve been getting is that it brought people a lot of joy,” said Fahl.
“People really like my cover of ‘Tuesday Afternoon.’ That song gets the best audience response of anything I’ve done.
“I still like singing these songs — and the band loves playing them. It’s more rock and roll. It gives the boys in the band an opportunity to rock.”
Fahl’s band features Mark Doyle and his Syracuse musician friends – drummer Josh Dukaney, keyboardist Jim O’Mahoney and bassist Edgar Pagan.
In 2011, Fahl recorded her own version of one of rock’s all-time classics — Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon.” Fahl re-interpreted the songs on an album she titled “From the Dark Side of the Moon.
Fahl, who was a member of the October Project 20 years ago, went solo in 2001. Prior to this year, her recorded output as a solo artist has been slim — “Lenses of Contact” EP in 2001, “The Other Side of Time” album in 2003, “Classics for a New Century” in 2003 and “From the Dark Side of the Moon” in 2011.
Fahl’s solo releases include “Love and Gravity,” “Four Songs,” “Winter Songs and Carols,” and “Mary Fahl: Live from Mauch Chunk Opera House,” which is a project that included a live album, a performance DVD and a PBS special.
Many of Fahl’s fans have been with her ever since her time with October Project which lasted from 1993-1996.
For many artists, the task of re-inventing songs from an album as iconic as “Dark Side of the Moon” could have been too much of a challenge. Not so for Fahl who crafted a disc that honored its roots but established an identity all its own.
“After making the Sony classical album (“Classics for a New Century”), I wanted to do something that was fun,” said Fahl. “An independent filmmaker I knew wanted to use me in a performance piece. I wanted to do something that I didn’t have the ability to write.
“That’s when I decided to do the ‘Dark Side’ recording. It’s like a classical piece of music. I did not intend to make a cover record. It’s my version and it doesn’t sound at all like Pink Floyd’s version. But a lot of die-hard Pink Floyd fans have responded well. They like the album — and my live versions of the songs.”
Fahl has written and performed songs for several major motion pictures, including the lead song (“Going Home”) for the Civil War epic “Gods and Generals.” Her music can also be found on the original soundtrack of the 2003 movie “The Guys.”
Fahl is a singer, a guitarist and a songwriter. More than anything, she is a performer.
“Performing is my primary form of self-expression,” said Fahl. “When I do a show, I want to take you on a complete journey. I want to transform you.
Video link for Mary Fahl – https://youtu.be/8AOaV5Af2ZM?list=OLAK5uy_lhTOW8-IiA3wOw4iwXFbd5OVj46vjfNEw.
The show at the Sellersville Theater on December 10 will start at
Ticket prices range from $35-$59.50.
Back in August, indie/folk band The Lone Bellow announced a special series of fall and winter tour dates. The shows celebrate the 10th anniversary of the release of their self-titled debut album as they perform back-to-back dates in the intimate rooms they used to frequent over a decade ago.
The Lone Bellow
The Lone Bellow – Zach Williams, Brian Elmquist, Kanene Pipkin – are on the road with tour stops in Evanston, Madison, Minneapolis, DC, Boston, Philadelphia, and their hometown NYC among others.
On December 8 and 9 at Johnny Brenda’s (1201 North Frankford Avenue, Philadelphia, www.johnnybrendas.com) will host “It’s (Still) Alright: The Lone Bellow 10 Year Anniversary Tour.”
“It’s a two-week tour and we’re a week in,” said Elmquist, during a phone interview Tuesday from a tour stop in Rochester, New York.
“Am I surprised that we’ve been together for 10 years – yes and no. “It can be hard working with friends but we do all right. Our kids are growing up together.”
The Lone Bellow began as a songwriting project for Williams, whose wife Stacy had suffered temporary paralysis following a horseback riding accident. During his wife’s recovery, Williams coped with the experience by writing in a journal. At the urging of his friends, Williams learned how to play the guitar and turned his journal entries into songs. Following his wife’s recovery, the couple moved to New York City.
Previously, Williams had been performing as a solo act around Brooklyn and New York City, occasionally being backed by a hired band. Williams recalls when he and old friend, Brian Elmquist met at Dizzy’s Diner in Park Slope. Williams invited fellow singer Kanene Pipkin to join them at the diner and it was then that the trio was initially conceived.
Initially known as Zach Williams and the Bellow, the band shortened its name to The Lone Bellow before putting out any official releases. In 2012, the group signed with Descendant Records, a newly formed imprint of Sony Music, and, in January 2013, released its self-titled debut, produced by Charlie Peacock. It was recorded at local NYC venue Rockwood Music Hall over the course of three days.
“Zach was making a name for himself in New York,” said Elmquist. “Zach and I had been friends since we were 18. I lived with him for a summer in a guest apartment at his parents’ house. Kanene came back from China, and we got together.
“Kanene had been in New York studying to be a culinary chef. She been in China to do a show. She is an insanely good pastry chef. Her macarons are the best I’ve ever had.
“We got together as a band. Our first show was at the Rockwood Music Hall in New York. Four months later, we were making a record with Charlie Peacock.”
The Lone Bellow made their auspicious debut in 2013 with the self-titled, Charlie Peacock-produced album featuring the breakout singles “Green Eyes and a Heart of Gold” and “Bleeding Out.” It reached #64 on the Billboard 200 as well as #5 on the Folk/Americana Chart, #13 on Alternative Albums, and #19 on Top Rock Albums.
It earned widespread critical acclaim from The New York Times, NPR Music, Rolling Stone, Entertainment Weekly, and Paste Magazine among many others. The band also made appearances on NPR’s Tiny Desk as well as The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, and MTV’s Big Morning Buzz.
In 2015, the band released “Then Came The Morning,” produced by The National’s Aaron Dessner. The album was nominated for an Americana Music Award and took the band to numerous late night shows including Jimmy Kimmel Live, Late Show With David Letterman and Later…with Jools Holland, among others. In 2017, The Lone Bellow returned with “Walk Into A Storm,” produced by legendary music producer Dave Cobb (Chris Stapleton, Brandi Carlile, Sturgill Simpson), followed by 2020’s “Half Moon Light,” an artistic triumph the band worked toward for years.
Last fall, The Lone Bellow released their fifth studio album “Love Songs for Losers” through Dualtone Music Group. Their first self-produced effort as well as their most expansive and eclectic body of work to date, the trio stepped outside the familiar studio setting and recorded over the course of eight weeks at Roy Orbison’s former home in Nashville.
It featured their latest chart-topping single “Honey,” which hit career highs at #4 on Triple A and #2 on Americana Radio. The album earned praise from NPR’s World Cafe, Relix, People Magazine, No Depression, PopMatters, and American Songwriter who called it a “stunning record.”
“We recorded our second and third albums in Nashville,” said Elmquist. “Our fourth album was done in upstate New York at Long Pond. “We moved around because we were just trying to chase the inspiration. We matched producers to the kind of sound we wanted.
“With our latest album, my friend reached out to the owner of Roy Orbison’s house. We asked if we could borrow it for eight weeks and he agreed.
“We were writing a lot of songs during the pandemic and got a lot of love songs. The mansion is on a lake in Hendersonville, Tennessee, and we brought a studio into the old pool house.
“We borrowed it for eight weeks and made three recordings there. One was a thing for Ralph Lauren, one was an album we did for a friend and one was our album.
“The acoustics were different there. We had to find the right spots. We always wanted to make the house part of the record.”
Five albums over 10 years and The Lone Bellow is still firing on all cylinders.
“I think the reason we’re still a band is that we still like each other,” said Elmquist. “And we never put ourselves in a box with the sound.”
Video link for The Lone Bellow – https://youtu.be/Z5hed5L-_Uw.
The shows on December 8 and 9 at Johny Brenda’s will start at 8 p.m.
This weekend, Ophira Eisenberg will bring her comedy to the Arden Gild Hall (2126 The Highway, Arden, Delaware, ardenclub.org) for a show on December 9.
Eisenberg, a native of Calgary, is a standup comic and host of NPR’s nationally syndicated comedy trivia show “Ask Me Another,” and a regular host and teller with “The Moth.” Her stories have been featured on “The Moth Radio Hour” and in best-selling books, including the most recent – “Occasional Magic: True Stories About Defying the Impossible.” Eisenberg’s comedic memoir, “Screw Everyone: Sleeping My Way to Monogamy,” was optioned for a feature film.
“I’ve been doing comedy a long time – almost 20 years,” said Eisenberg, during a phone interview from her home in New York City.
“I started in Toronto. I left Calgary after spending a year in college at the University of Calgary. I went to Magill University and was in Montreal for four years.
“Then, I was living in Vancouver for four years and Toronto for five years. I made my way to New York slowly. I’ve been in New York since 2005. It took many years to feel like I was living here.
“I think I always wanted to do stand-up, but it took a few years until I realized that it was really what I wanted to do. I took ballet when I was growing up and won ‘Miss Personality’ with the company – which probably meant I wasn’t a very good dancer.
“I only went to a comedy club once with my parents when I was a kid. Later, when I was in Vancouver, I volunteered with the Vancouver Comedy Festival as an usher. That got me interested in doing stand-up.
“I signed up for an open mic 20 years ago in Toronto at the Laugh Resort. I had 15 minutes and I talked about my family and my name. I still talk about my name along with my mother and being single.”
Slowly and surely, Eisenberg established her career in comedy in Toronto.
“It’s a little different in Toronto in terms of trajectory,” said Eisenberg. “There was a small group of us starting out and only a few women at the time. A couple years into it, I had the opportunity for paid guest spots.
“With my comedy, I’ve always been autobiographical – what do I have in my life that is funny. Over time, you build up confidence. Now, I talk about what is going in my life.”
Eisenberg’s show with special guest Marc Kaye will start at 8 p.m. on December 9.
Tickets are $30.
The mainstage show at Candlelight Theatre is “It’s a Wonderful Life,” which is running now through December 23.
“It’s a Wonderful Life” is a 1946 American Christmas supernatural drama film produced and directed by Frank Capra. It is based on the short story and booklet The Greatest Gift self-published by Philip Van Doren Stern in 1943, which itself is loosely based on the 1843 Charles Dickens novella, “A Christmas Carol.”
The film stars James Stewart as George Bailey, a man who has given up his personal dreams in order to help others in his community and whose thoughts of suicide on Christmas Eve bring about the intervention of his guardian angel, Clarence Odbody. Clarence shows George all the lives he touched and what the world would be like if he did not exist.
Today, “It’s a Wonderful Life” is considered to be one of the greatest films of all time and among the best Christmas films. It was nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and has been recognized by the American Film Institute as one of the 100 best American films ever made. It was No. 11 on the American Film Institute’s 1998 greatest movie list, No. 20 on its 2007 greatest movie list, and No. 1 on its list of the most inspirational American films of all time.
Capra revealed that it was his favorite among the films he directed and that he screened it for his family every Christmas season. It was one of Stewart’s favorite films.
In 1990, It’s a Wonderful Life was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress for being deemed as “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”
The story starts on Christmas Eve 1945 in Bedford Falls, New York, with George Bailey contemplating suicide. The prayers of his family and friends reach Heaven, where guardian angel second class Clarence Odbody is assigned to save George in order to earn his wings.
Clarence is shown flashbacks of George’s life. He watches 12-year-old George rescue his younger brother Harry from drowning, leaving George deaf in his left ear. George later prevents the pharmacist, Mr. Gower, from accidentally poisoning a customer’s prescription.
In 1928, George plans a world tour before college. He is reintroduced to Mary Hatch, who has been enamored with him since childhood. When his father dies suddenly, George postpones his travel to settle the family business, Bailey Brothers Building and Loan.
Avaricious board member Henry Potter, who controls most of the town, seeks to dissolve it, but the board votes to keep the Building and Loan open if George runs it. George acquiesces and works alongside his uncle Billy, giving his tuition savings to Harry with the understanding that Harry will run the business when he graduates.
Harry returns from college, married and with a job offer from his father-in-law, and George resigns himself to running the Building and Loan. George and Mary rekindle their relationship and wed. They witness a run on the bank and use their honeymoon savings to keep the Building and Loan solvent.
Under George, the company establishes Bailey Park, a housing development surpassing Potter’s overpriced slums. Potter entices George with a $20,000/year job but realizing that Potter’s true intention is to close the Building and Loan, George rebuffs him.
On Christmas Eve 1945, the town prepares a hero’s welcome for Harry, who, as a U.S. Navy fighter pilot, was awarded the Medal of Honor for preventing a kamikaze attack on a troop transport. Billy goes to Potter’s bank to deposit $8,000 of the Building and Loan’s money. He taunts Potter with a newspaper headline about Harry, then absentmindedly wraps the cash in Potter’s newspaper. Potter finds and keeps the money, while Billy cannot recall how he misplaced it.
With a bank examiner reviewing the company’s records, George realizes scandal and criminal charges will follow. Fruitlessly retracing Billy’s steps, George berates him and takes out his frustration on Mary and their children. George appeals to Potter for a loan, offering his life insurance policy as collateral. Potter scoffs that George is worth more dead than alive, refuses to help, and phones the police.
George flees Potter’s office, gets drunk at a bar, and prays for help. Contemplating suicide, he goes to a nearby bridge. However, before George can jump, Clarence dives into the freezing river, and George rescues him. When George wishes he had never been born, Clarence shows George a timeline in which he never existed.
Bedford Falls is now Pottersville, an unsavory town occupied by sleazy entertainment venues, crime, and callous people. Mr. Gower was imprisoned for manslaughter because George was not there to stop him from poisoning the customer. George’s mother does not know him.
Uncle Billy was institutionalized after the Building and Loan failed. Bailey Park is a cemetery, where George discovers Harry’s grave. Without George, Harry drowned as a child, and without Harry to save them, the troops aboard the transport ship were killed. George finds Mary, now a spinster, and when he grabs her and claims to be her husband, she screams and runs.
George flees back to the bridge and begs Clarence for his life back. The original reality is restored, and a grateful George rushes home to await his arrest. Meanwhile, Mary and Billy have rallied the townspeople, who come into the Bailey home and donate more than enough to cover the missing money.
Harry arrives and toasts George as “the richest man in town.” Among the donations, George finds a copy of “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer,” a gift from Clarence and inscribed, “Remember, no man is a failure who has friends. Thanks for the wings!”
When a bell on the Christmas tree rings, George’s youngest daughter, Zuzu, explains that “every time a bell rings, an angel gets his wings.” George looks upward smiling and says, “Atta boy, Clarence!”
“It’s a Wonderful Life” is running now through December 23 at the Candlelight Theater with shows on Friday and Saturday evenings and Sunday matinees.
Tickets, which include a buffet meal, beverages, dessert, and free parking, are $71.50 for adults and $33 for children.
Another theater production with a lot of history is currently visiting Philadelphia.
Jamey’s House of Music (32 South Lansdowne Avenue, Lansdowne, 215-477-9985, www.jameyshouseofmusic.com) will present Drivetime with Andrew Neu and Jason Long on December 8 and John Nemeth and the Blue Dreamers on December 9.
Tickets are $25 at the door on Friday and $40 at the door on Saturday.
A special event is scheduled for December 10 – “The Memphis Stomp.”
According to the venue’s website – “The Memphis Stomp is A blues benefit extravaganza with top groups to raise funds to help send off our friends Johnny Never and John Colgan-Davis to Memphis for The IBC Competition!”
The IBC is The International Blues Challenge, which is a music competition run by the Blues Foundation
Tickets for the event, which will run from noon-3 p.m., are $20 in advance and $25 at the door.
Now through December 10, The Kimmel Cultural Campus and The Shubert Organization is presenting the Broadway revival of Stephen Sondheim’s and George Furth’s “Company” at the Forrest Theatre.
Winner of five 2022 Tony Awards including Best Musical Revival, this is the revival’s premiere in Philadelphia as part of the 2023-2024 North American tour starring Britney Coleman as Bobbie. The Kimmel Cultural Campus, as a member of the Independent Presenter’s Network, was a producer of the original Broadway revival production and shares in the Tony Award win.
The tour follows the critically acclaimed, sold-out engagement in London’s West End and Tony Award-winning run on Broadway. The most honored musical of the 2021-2022 Broadway season is directed by three-time Tony Award winner Marianne Elliott (War Horse, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Angels in America).
“Company” is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by George Furth. The original 1970 production was nominated for a record-setting 14 Tony Awards, winning six. “Company” was among the first book musicals to deal with contemporary dating, marriage, and divorce, and is a notable example of a concept musical lacking a linear plot.
In a series of vignettes, “Company’ follows Bobbie, a single woman, interacting with his married friends, who throw a party for his 35th birthday.
Furth wrote 11 one-act plays planned for Kim Stanley. Anthony Perkins was interested in directing and gave the material to Sondheim, who asked Harold Prince for his opinion. Prince said the plays could be a good basis for a musical about New York marriages with a central character to examine those marriages.
In the early 1990s, Furth and Sondheim revised the libretto, cutting and altering dialogue that had become dated and rewriting the end of act one. This synopsis is based on the revised libretto.
“Company,” the musical comedy masterpiece about the search for love and cocktails in New York, is turned on its head in Elliott’s revelatory staging, in which musical theatre’s most iconic bachelor is now a bachelorette.
At Bobbie’s 35th birthday party, all her friends are wondering why isn’t she married? Why can’t she find the right man? And why can’t she settle down and have a family? As Bobbie searches for answers, she discovers why being single, being married, and being alive in the 21st-century could drive a person crazy.
This smart musical comedy, given a game-changing makeover for a modern-day Manhattan, features some of Sondheim’s best loved songs, including “Company,” “You Could Drive a Person Crazy,” “The Ladies Who Lunch,” “Side by Side,” and the iconic “Being Alive.”
Sondheim and Elliott collaborated to update “Company,” bringing Bobbie’s array of friends and lovers into the 21st century.
Paul is waiting patiently for his fiancée Jamie to get over his frantic wedding day jitters. Sarah and Harry try jujitsu to keep their marriage alive. Joanne is on her third husband with younger man, Larry. Peter and Susan seem to have the perfect marriage, until perfection proves impossible.
Jenny and her square husband David can’t understand Bobbie’s perpetually single status and are not shy about telling her. All while Bobbie juggles three men — sexy flight attendant Andy; small-town boy Theo trying to find his way in the big city; and P.J., the native New Yorker who is more in love with his hometown than Bobbie.
“Company” began preview performances on Broadway on March 2, 2020, and, following the shutdown, resumed previews on November 15, 2021. The production was in previews when on November 26, 2021, Broadway suffered the devastating loss of the titan of the American musical, composer Stephen Sondheim.
This production of Company was the last Broadway production of his work that he saw to fruition before his passing at the age of 91 on November 26, 2021. “Company” played its final performance on Broadway on July 31, 2022, having played 300 performances.
The National Tour opened on October 8, 2023, at the Proctor’s Theatre in Schenectady, New York and is slated to close on August 18, 2024, at the Pantages Theatre in Los Angeles, California.
Video link for “Company” – https://youtu.be/qd3ztClLQr0.
“Company will run now through December 10 at the Forrest Theater.
Ticket prices start at $58.
Kennett Flash (102 Sycamore Alley, Kennett Square, 484-732-8295, http://www.kennettflash.org) will host Lenape Brass Ensemble on December 8, and John Flynn on December 9.
