Ravinia

One Night Only: An Evening with Sutton Foster and Kelli O’Hara – Ravinia – July 13, 2025

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For those of you who might be interested in seeing this power coupling, they will be at Tanglewood on Friday with the Boston Pops (and in Utah and Virginia after that). The flight to Boston probably won’t take much longer than the drive to Highland Park.

Foster has seven Tony nominations for Leading Actress in a Musical, as does O’Hara (who also has one for Featured Actress in a Musical), though Foster kiddingly reminded the audience that she has two wins to O’Hara’s one.

Backed by the CSO, the program included only two songs from their nominated performances (I would have liked more), a duet from O’Hara’s turn in Light in the Piazza (which I actually saw in a pre Broadway run at the Goodman Theatre before I, and most anyone else, knew who she was), and, of course, the required Foster, change into her tap shoes, show stopper of Anything Goes.

I was very happy that O’Hara performed her show stopper They Don’t Let You in the Opera (If You’re a Country Star), which is well worth a YouTube visit if you’ve never seen it.

The rest of the show was rather eclectic, with the ladies demonstrating camaraderie and comedic skills to go along with their famed vocals. Personally, I would have rather heard more Broadway tunes instead of their 1990’s Medley, though, as they stated, they were emulating, in this and other ways, the legendary Carol Burnett-Julie Andrews television special that featured a 1960’s Medley. To that end, there was interaction with an audio recording of the latter two until it malfunctioned (oops), but Foster and O’Hara covered and quickly moved on, as professionals do.

I fully expect to see a video of this concert (probably the longer version done in Carnegie Hall in 2023) on some streaming service in the near future.

An Evening With Michael Feinstein and Betty Buckley – Ravinia – August 1, 2021

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The last time I was at Ravinia was August 2010. In case you don’t remember, that was before the pandemic. I saw Crosby, Stills, and Nash, or at least a video of them on a large screen on the lawn. The place was jammed. Excursions to the bathroom required detailed planning.

Last night was different. Parking was easy, as was wandering the grounds and using the facilities.

I sat in the pavilion (free tickets, so I didn’t have to mortgage my home, though parking was the price of a long weekend in the Catskills), where COVID spacing was in effect, as apparently was disinterest, based upon the number of empty seats around us.

And, as far as I know, neither Buckley nor Feinstein have their own craft cannabis brand, as Crosby does.

This was sort of a make-up game for me, having missed Buckley in Hello Dolly when she decided to take the night off the night I went to that show.

Well, fool me twice, shame on me. Buckley showed up this time, but well over halfway through the show, and then sang only two songs on her own (not including that one) and three or four forgettable duets with Feinstein (not exactly Nat King and Natalie Cole), who was otherwise wonderful (worth the price of parking), singing beautifully even though his facial muscles did seem to be stuck in one position.