Onstage, the Mantini Sisters are ideal siblings in perfect harmony. For the moment, their beautiful voices are all the audience needs.
Drayton Entertainment presents The Ladies of Broadway, a new production hailing a menagerie of much loved Broadway hits from as far back as 100 years ago.
The audience is taken on a musical journey, remembering the songs that moved them throughout the years, expertly guided by the guiles of Sandra, Barbara, and Ann Mantini.
The sisters move eloquently through operettas and vaudeville, theatrical drama and modern day mega-musicals with class, warmth, and humour.
The audience surrenders to their powerful and moving voices, each in their own world as the nightingales sing.
The Mantini Sisters have been singing together for close to 20 years. Originally from Niagara-on-the-Lake, they were discovered by Alan Lund, one of Canada’s greatest ever theatre directors.
He helped them get their start at the Charlottetown Festival in Prince Edward Island and they have been singing across Canada and the U.S. in symphony orchestras and other venues ever since.
The Ladies of Broadway is a natural follow up to Moments to Remember, their last successful venture. Following the winning formula, The Mantini Sisters collaborated again with creator and director Caroline Smith and music director Mark Camilleri.
Though their vocal chords are all finely tuned and practiced instruments, and their voices and countenances genetically gifted, the sisters do not resemble each other in the least.
Barbara may be small and fit as a fiddle, but her voice is powerful and strong, often sounding operatic. Her control and range is amazing. She has performed as a featured soprano with symphony orchestras, in many theatrical roles, and also does voice-over work for animation.
In The Ladies of Broadway it is the audience’s pleasure to hear and see her agile moves in solo favourites from The Man I Love clear to I Hate Men in the Gershwin Tribute segment.
Sandra is tall, earthy, and elegant in her motion; her voice deep, powerful, and perfectly played.
She has performed across Canada in big bands and symphony orchestras and many will remember her in Swing! with the Drayton Festival Theatre. The audience is mesmerized by her solos including You’ll Never Walk Alone from Carousel, and I Could Have Danced All Night from My Fair Lady.
Ann, well touted as the youngest one, brings humour and consistent beauty with her lively demeanor and moving, clear voice. She has performed with theatre companies across Canada, inclusive of roles such as Wendy in Peter Pan and Sister Mary Amnesia in Nunsense. Deeply felt was the solo Bill from the Showboat Medley.
Though each of the Mantini sisters have proven themselves as individual talents, their voices are thrilling together in old Broadway classics such as Friendship, a definite improvement on the Ethel Merman classic; Memory from Cats; and I Feel Pretty from West Side Story. Later, the audience wistfully joins in on Edelweiss as they did in The Sound of Music.
Audience opinion was likely divided on the inclusion of the Gypsy medley, and specifically You Gotta Have A Gimmick, complete with glow-in-the-dark pasties. Perhaps the thinking was the number would provide some needed comic relief or risk taking, but for the most part, the “gimmick” is just not needed.
The enthusiastic musicians and their imposing instruments are right onstage throughout the performance – piano, bass, and drums.
With only some romantically-draped gauzy material, the stage is practical and elegant, with the working props speaking for themselves.
For tickets call the box office 1-888-449-4463.
