SHIRLEE BUNTING
Reagan Richards sings, with a photo of her and her late mother Harriet behind her, at The Avenel Performing Arts Center.
Reagan Richards’ Oct. 28 concert at The Avenel Performing Arts Center was billed as “Good Morning, Heartache: Torch Songs and Timeless Standards From the Great American Songbook.” But it was hardly as uniform in tone as that title would suggest.
The vocal powerhouse — well known to New Jersey music fans through her work in the country-pop group Williams Honor and many other projects — did sing a lot of torch songs. But the evening was not all about heartache. The show, which featured a versatile six-piece band — and felt, for the most part, more like an intimate cabaret show than a rock concert — represented a surprise-filled journey through songs that have deep personal meaning for Richards, with lots of casual, autobiographical storytelling between them.
The setlist was totally different from what you would get from Williams Honor. But the show came off more like an exploration of another side of Richards than something totally different. As she has done consistently with Williams Honor, she impressed with both the raw emotion she puts into every song, and her ability to connect with listeners via her down-to-earth monologues.
RICK FORTUNE
Reagan Richards sings “Over the Rainbow” at The Avenel Performing Arts Center, with Ron Haney on bass.
That said, it was a pretty elaborate show, with photos and videos projected on the screens, guest performers, lengthy set-ups for some of the songs, instrumental interludes during Richards’ costume changes, and more.
She opened with Judy Garland’s “(Dear Mr. Gable) You Made Me Love You,” complete with a word-for-word recital of the soliloquy that Garland addressed to the movie star when she was a teenager, in the ’30s. A long story about Richards’ own unsuccessful audition for a reality show preceded the “A Chorus Line” song, “Nothing,” which evokes the difficulties of auditioning, among other things.
“I Am What I Am,” from “La Cage aux Folles,” was a high-spirited romp, and the “Annie” anthem, “It’s the Hard Knock Life,” was presented in a boisterously theatrical way, with eight singer-dancers joining Richards to cavort around the stage with brooms (like Annie’s fellow orphans did in the Broadway show and movie). Some of these women returned for the show’s encore, to join Richards in forming a chorus line for “New York, New York.”
“Lila’s Theme (Do You Remember Me?),” from the animated film “Snoopy Come Home,” was accompanied by footage of adorable dogs and cats, and Richards held her impressively calm and well-behaved dog, Huey, as she sang the “Dumbo” ballad, “Baby Mine.”
The LeAnn Rimes hit “Blue” touched on the country influence that is such a big part of Williams Honor’s sound. A film clip of Bing Crosby and Louis Armstrong singing “Now You Has Jazz” in the film “High Society” preceded “Is That All There Is?,” with Richards evoking the world-weary quality in Peggy Lee’s delivery.
CONNIE FREESTONE
Reagan Richards and Huey.
Richards’ Williams Honor partner, Gordon Brown, joined her to sing harmonies on the “High Society” song “True Love,” after a pair of Billie Holiday songs: an a cappella “Good Morning Heartache” and another somber ballad, “Always,” on which the band created a big, quasi-orchestral sound.
As Richards explained during the show, she debuted the first version of “Good Morning, Heartache” — originally titled “With Love, Reagan” — in 2021, as a tribute to her mother Harriet, a big band singer who worked with Les Paul and others.
“It was because of her that I know all of these songs like the back of my hand,” Richards said in Avenel. “These are the songs that I knew, that I grew up with, and I knew that these were the ones that I had to do.”
Harriet attended that first show in 2021, and jumped onstage to sing the last song, “We’ll Meet Again,” with her daughter. But by the time Reagan performed the show again, in 2023, Harriet had died.
Reagan closed the Avenel show, again, with “We’ll Meet Again,” fighting back tears as she gazed at a projected image of her and her mother singing together.
Here is the show’s setlist and, below it, a list of the show’s performers, and some videos:
JOHN WOODING
From left, Layonne Holmes, Taylor Hope, Sandi Joy, Reagan Richards, Anna Kasun and Conni Freestone form a chorus line for “New York, New York.”
“(Dear Mr. Gable) You Made Me Love You”
“If He Walked Into My Life”
“Nothing”
“Lila’s Theme (Do You Remember Me?)”
“Baby Mine”
“I Am What I Am”
“Blue”
“It’s the Hard Knock Life”
“Is That All There Is?”
“By Myself”
“Good Morning Heartache” (a cappella)
“Always”
“True Love” (with Gordon Brown)
“Over the Rainbow”
Encore:
“New York, New York”
“We’ll Meet Again”
Musicians: Mark Baron (piano, musical director), Joe Parisi (keyboards), Johnny Kasun (guitar), Ron Haney (bass), John Martin (horns, woodwinds), Joe Bellia (drums)
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