Mississippi Bend Players Streaming ‘Mary And Ethel’ Through Aug. 8
Due to the abridged past summer season, there’s a good chance you may have missed the small, stellar offerings of Mississippi Bend Players, the professional regional theater at Augustana College, Rock Island.
Shelley Cooper starred in the one-woman musical revue, “Mary & Ethel: How I Learned to Sing.”
Well, you are in luck, as one of the three shows in the 2021 season (which only ran for one weekend apiece) will have a virtual encore, “Mary and Ethel: How I Learned to Sing.”
“Mary and Ethel: How I Learned to Sing” will stream through Aug. 8. Conceived and performed by Shelly Cooper with musical arrangements by Mason Moss, the show pays homage to two of the great muses of the Golden Age of musicals.
Cooper belts out favorite tunes from hit shows as she entertains with stories about the lives of Mary Martin and Ethel Merman, their material, and how they influenced her own career as a performer. Featuring songs from “Anything Goes!,” “Hello, Dolly!,” “The Sound of Music,” “South Pacific,” “Annie Get Your Gun,” “Peter Pan,” and more, you can feel free to sing along while watching from the comfort of home!
A QuadCities.com review said: “Her passion and enthusiasm for theater… is simply infectious, both in songs and speech.”
“Beyond her overpowering, impressive, self-assured vocal technique, the visual flair of the MBP revue was a perfect complement to help Cooper tell her inspiring story.”
