WESTFIELD – Westfield on Weekends “WOW! … It’s Cabaret!” music performance series will close with Canoe: the Musical, spotlighting regional performers Mary Brown Bonacci, Bob Plasse and Michael Rheault on Friday, July 7 at 8 pm. in the Great Room of the Westfield Senior Center at 45 Noble Street.
The scripted musical revue traces the course of a marriage through dialogue and songs from Broadway, Hollywood and the American Songbook, everything from classic Gershwin to Rodgers and Hart standards to a couple of Frank Loesser showstoppers… “Close to thirty great songs!” 
Originally created by its cast and produced for the Buffalo Canoe Club on Lake Erie, the show received rave reviews for its funny, yet moving storyline and its use of slide projections providing information on the songs sung and transitions from scene to scene.
Mary Brown-Bonacci
Westfield State University Associate Professor of Music and Mezzo-soprano Mary Brown Bonacci has appeared with companies across the United States and in Europe, including Opera Company Brooklyn, the Utah Festival Opera, the Kansas City Lyric Opera, the Hampshire Choral Society, the Arcadia Players and Opera Perigord (La Perichole).
Recently she appeared with the American Pops Orchestra at the Plaza Hotel in New York, and with Wynton Marsalis for the Jazz at Lincoln Center series.
Bob Plasse
Bob Plasse is the host of a popular Tuesday morning talk show on WSKB 89.5fm (WSU’s radio station) and is known to area residents as WOW’s former president and from his appearances with candles atop his head as the “Narrator” at WOW’s Dickens Dinners. His professional acting career includes appearances in summer stock, regional theatre, commercials; soap operas; and several movies.
James Homan’s professional career as a singer/dancer has included three Broadway shows, including Hello Dolly with Carol Channing, Little Johnny Jones with Donny Osmond and the Goodspeed Opera House production of The Five O’Clock Girl. He has also appeared in Radio City Music Hall productions starring Ginger Rogers and Carol Lawrence, and in numerous touring and summer stock productions, including The Wizard of Oz with Margaret Hamilton.
Michael Rheault
Composer/arranger/pianist Michael Rheault’s resume includes his Off-Broadway musical Fabulous: The Queen of Musical Comedies, that had an extended run in 2014 at the Times Square Arts Center; The Birth, a Christmas musical; and musical direction for scores of area musicals for local colleges and theatre groups.
Tickets for the Canoe: the Musical series are $25 and can be purchased online at westfieldonweekends.com and at the door. Doors will open at 7:00 pm to the Great Room, which has been transformed for the performance into an intimate New York club-like atmosphere. A buffet of desserts will be available prior to the show and at intermission.
Funding for the series has been provided in part with a grant from the Westfield Cultural Council, a program of the Massachusetts Cultural Council and with in-kind assistance from the Westfield Council on Aging.
Westfield on Weekends is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that supports the revitalization of Downtown Westfield, sustains arts and cultural activities and provides resources for groups with like-minded missions in branding Westfield as a dynamic community.
