The Tennessean from Nashville, Tennessee • Page 49

ARTS THEATER Making the world go away Golden-voiced Mike Eldred 17 P5 s5 comes into his role, new album I own with 'West Side Story' By KEVIN NANCE Staff II 'rilfir He's not a magician, but Nashville singer-actor Mike Eldred has a knack for making the world go away. He did it at Broadway's St James Theatre during the run of the Frank Wildhorn musical The Civil War. Night after night, Eldred appeared as the soldier who sang Sarah, a farewell to his young wife before heading off to his death. His amazing voice a high-flying, full-bodied tenor, intensely romantic, alternately wrenching and joyful was so compelling that you forgot you were in a theater, forgot everything but the sound pouring out of his throat. He did it again one night last year in Nashville at Belcourt Theatre when, following Larry Gatlin and other members of the touring Civil War cast, he stepped to the microphone and, stock-still delivered the same number.

Again, the walls and ceiling seemed to fall away, leaving nothing behind but that voice. Wildhorn, seated a few feet from Eldred on the stage, rocked back and forth in an ecstasy of disbelief, as if he were hearing the song for the first time. "Boy," the stunned composer said afterward, "can he sing." And Eldred did it a third time last spring, at a news conference in an east Nashville restaurant during which Tennessee Repertory Theatre and Nashville Symphony announced plans for a joint production of West Side Story. Guests were charting and laughing and eating. Pans rattled noisily in the kitchea But when Eldred quietly walked onto a makeshift plat- Mike Eldred (standing) oversees the recording of his new album, Me, with the help of musical director Stephen Kummer and engineer Brent King.

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XS5' V. VUworeji, M.O. 3 121 imf 104 Nosbvilk TN Member of American Society of Bonqttk Physifiom Sine nas taugm dance lor more than 15 years. Sunday, September 2, 2001 THE TENNESSEAN www.tennessean.com.