Josh Young & Emily Padgett

VALJEAN, COSETTE AND A STRING QUARTET

Broadway actors Josh Young (he of Jesus Christ Superstar fame) and Emily Padgett (a one-time Hilton twin on The Broadway among other roles) again test the waters as a married couple concert duo returning for the third time to the Mansion stage.  On their first visit we were sitting around inside the Mansion post performance talking about a dream the couple had to put a show together pulling in some of the greatest music of the Broadway way theatre they were exposed to as they began their journey in the industry.  The result is the show we bring to you on July 13^th.  It is certainly one not to be missed.

VALJEAN, COSETTE AND A STRING QUARTET is a show made up of music from what Emily Padgett and Josh Young declare to be the greatest decade in musical theater history. Whether or not that is, personally, true for any person, seeing this show will make you believe that the Eighties was, in fact, the greatest decade in musical theater history. Josh and Emily (who would excel at singing any song from any musical in any decade) just seem to have a knack for this material, an innate sense of understanding of how to get into these songs, how to, instantaneously, turn on the characters from whence cometh the journey, and how to deliver the whole story in each three to four minute composition, and they both do it with voices that, at times, make a person shake their head in wonder. Padgett and Young are two world-class singers with unbelievable vocal instruments and more: they can act, too. You don't really appreciate the effort of a true singing actor until you really see it, before your very eyes, and get the sneaking notion that much of the time what we are looking at is people singing songs and sounding pretty. Then, along comes a moment like Josh Young's "Finishing the Hat" or Emily Padgett's "The Story Goes On" and you find yourself thinking, "So that's what that looks like." The ability that Young and Padgett have at dropping into character and into the moment within the confines of a concert structure is admirable, and it informed much of their program.