Broadway at Sunset Makes the Power of a Musical Relevant for our Times

What—and whom—do you believe in? 

Do you have a passion that drives you? An ambition? A partner you trust? 

Or are you living in the service of someone else’s dream? 

The songs in “Broadway at Sunset,” a cabaret show in the upstairs Sunset Lounge at Field Arts & Events Hall, are all about kinds of belief. In the music, we meet dreamers, lovers, immigrants and protegés in pursuit of something better than what they had before. This original production, stirred together by its local cast and crew, is on stage this Wednesday through Friday, July 29-31 at Field Hall, 201 W. Front St. in Port Angeles. It’s a dinner show beginning at 6 p.m. in a reconfigured Sunset Lounge, with tickets available at fieldhallevents.org. 

The show is, above all, playful—with a few moments of heart-clutching pathos mixed in. Kat Agudo, Maggie Jo Chambers and real-life married couple Kyle LeMaire and Morgan Bartholick circulate around pianist Linda Dowdell, performing songs from “Funny Girl,” “Les Misérables,” “Ragtime,” “Hair,” “Guys and Dolls,” “Chicago,” “Wicked” and other Broadway productions across the decades. 

Dowdell, well-known to Jefferson County audiences for her work with Key City Public Theatre and on Port Townsend High School musicals, adds special arrangements to  “Broadway at Sunset,” including a mashup of “We Kiss in a Shadow” and “Somebody, Somewhere.” These are songs from the musicals “The King & I” and “The Most Happy Fella,” respectively, and they take on new life in the “Sunset” performers’ hands. 

While singing and dancing for the audience, LeMaire, Agudo, Bartholick and Chambers also show one another an unmistakable warmth. The foursome saunter together and apart across the plain black stage, clearly delighted, while Dowdell lays down the music like a carpet of silk. 

“Maggie is so versatile. She can act from so many different places,” Dowdell said of Chambers, who recently appeared in “Bark! The Musical” at Key City Public Theatre. Other roles have included “Around the World in Less than 80 Days” and “Men on Boats.” 

As for Agudo, they’re a Broadway baby who attended many shows while in the womb. Born in New York City, they’ve gone on to become a playwright, actor, singer—and karaoke host. Earlier this month, Agudo presided over the karaoke competition at Field Hall. 

Bartholick, who is originally from Port Angeles, met LeMaire while attending Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge; the couple moved together to New York City, where they worked in theater. At the onset of the pandemic, they relocated to the Olympic Peninsula, where both are multidisciplinary artists: Bartholick plays principal second violin in the Port Angeles Symphony and is a cast and crew member in various theatrical productions. This spring, he was musical director of “Urinetown” at Olympic Theatre Arts in Sequim. 

The four actors have shared stages many times in recent years, and tend to gaze at one another like devoted fans. 

 “The best part of this show for me has been working once again with my dear friends Kyle, Morgan and Kat,” said Chambers. 

“The type of ensemble we have cultivated together over the past several years is so special. I hope we continue to work together for many years to come. I had a lot of fun creating this show with them.” 

Weaving the songs, the music, dance and brief spoken-word passages—into three 20-minute sets aligned with appetizers, entrees and dessert—proved to be an adventure for Dowdell too. 

“This isn’t, ‘OK, let’s do ‘Annie,’” she said. Creating “Broadway at Sunset” was a soup-to-nuts experience, concocted by the five performers, choreographer Jen Saul, lighting and sound engineer Jordan Haviland, and directors Denise Winter and Steve Raider-Ginsburg. Winter is the longtime artistic director of Key City Public Theatre while Raider-Ginsburg is at the artistic helm of Field Hall.  

When asked what she hopes to give her audience, Dowdell began with plain old-fashioned entertainment, and added two more ingredients: the chance to see something you didn’t expect, and the opportunity to feel those good old human emotions. 

And what do these artists believe in? Musical theater, naturally. Bartholick said that while a play can affect people, songs have a way of going straight to our hearts—more deeply than a dialogue or monologue. There’s something about the music in “Broadway at Sunset,” and  Bartholick, who sings an intensely romantic duet of “For Good” with his husband LeMaire, should know.

This column was written in collaboration with Field Hall.