The Cerritos Center has two upcoming shows — “The Simon & Garfunkel Story” on Jan. 29 and 30 and “STOMP” on Feb. 4 and 5 — designed to delight fans and newbies alike through storytelling and music.
Performers in both shows talked to the Long Beach Post on bringing the stories and their talents to local audiences.
‘The Simon & Garfunkel Story’
Some people hear the first line of Simon and Garfunkel’s 1964 “The Sound of Silence” — “Hello darkness, my old friend” — and drop everything to sing along earnestly about subway walls and tenement halls, nevermind that they may never match the iconic duo’s supreme harmonies.
But performer Elliot Lazar, who plays Paul Simon in “The Simon & Garfunkel Story,” told the Long Beach Post that the show is not just for longtime fans but a great way to introduce newbies to the music.
“There have been a lot of people, especially some of my younger family members and friends, who’ve come and are like, ‘I had no idea how good this music was’ and became fans as a result,” he said.
Even for fans, Lazar says the show offers some “deeper cuts” of familiar songs, and also “real gems” from the duo’s early days that may be unfamiliar, such as “Punky’s Dilemma,” which he describes as a “goofy tune” and “He Was My Brother,” which he calls a “powerful folk piece” written during the Civil Rights Movement,
“I think people always misunderstand how young they were when they got started singing together,” Lazar said of the duo. “They knew each other from grade school and grew up together in Queens [in New York City] and the show takes audiences through their initial collaboration as rock-and-roll duo Tom and Jerry.”
Lazar added that while some think Simon and Garfunkel had overnight success with “The Sound of Silence,” they actually first recorded that song years before it was released.
“They had already been making music together for a really long time and in a number of different ways,” he said. “We take you through that chronology, those humble beginnings all the way through to the height of their fame, and ultimately to the point where they — spoiler alert — break up.”
In the show, the performers represent the singers on stage but use their own names, Lazar said, telling the story in third person with 29 songs. Art Garfunkel himself once came to a show in Staten Island, New York, unbeknownst to the performers, he said.
“At the end of the show, Art got up out of the audience, and you can’t see very clearly from the stage, so you’re thinking, ‘Who is that? What’s going on?’” Lazar said. “And he came up on the stage, and it was like this incredible moment that none of us ever expected to happen. He had a great time and met the guys afterwards and was very nice.”
Lazar’s current favorite song to perform in the show is “Mrs. Robinson,” which Simon and Garfunkel wrote for the 1967 film “The Graduate” and which Lazar describes as “so infectious, really fun to play and sing.”
Getting all the songs’ vocal harmonies right is important to Lazar and involves listening closely to his fellow performer playing Garfunkel, especially since the cast rotates during the show’s four-month tour, with different performers working together on different nights.
“The amount of listening and tuning in with one another that you have to do to get that blend just right — it’s a great feeling to be having that live collaboration with someone,” he said.
Lazar has performed in other musicals such as “Jersey Boys” and “Fiddler on the Roof,” but as a three-year veteran of “The Simon & Garfunkel Story,” he said local audiences can expect “incredible music done very carefully.”
“There’s nothing like live music,” he said. “And this music is so special.”
“The Simon and Garfunkel Story” will perform at the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts, 18000 Park Plaza Dr., Cerritos, on Friday, Jan. 29 at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday, Jan. 30 at 8 p.m. For tickets and information, call the box office at 562-916-8500 or visit CerritosCenter.com.
‘STOMP’
As a lifelong percussionist and electronic-music performer, San Diego native Cade Slattery told the Long Beach Post that joining the touring company of the percussion-heavy “STOMP” fulfilled a dream he’d had since he was 9 years old.
“It was the concept of just being able to beat music with everything, and I remember seeing somebody do body percussion for the first time and I was kind of just blown away,” he said. “You don’t even need drumsticks. Your body can be your own instrument.”
“STOMP” performers also use props such as brooms, garbage cans and even matchboxes and lighters to create rhythmic music.
After joining the physically demanding show 10 years ago, Slattery also learned more about acting, movement, physical comedy, improv and situational comedy since the show narrates its story without dialogue.
“The show has themes of discovery, about finding instruments that are everywhere,” Slattery said. “They’re all around you, you just need to discover them and find different sounds that they have.”
The show features eight performers who come in with different performance strengths, such as dance or acting.
“I’m not a dancer myself, so I can learn a lot about movement from other performers, and there’s a lot of people who join the show who are only dancers and have never picked up a pair of drumsticks,” he said. “So there’s a back-and-forth and this kind of breathing, a feel that we have with each other, that keeps it a super fresh environment for us.”
The main thing local audiences can expect from the show, Slattery said, is how it’s subtly nuanced and will make them laugh and be surprised. Audience members also participate in the show through clapping.
“There are a couple of parts where the audience is more or less the ninth stomper,” he said. “So you’ll get to feel the music in more ways than one.”“STOMP” will perform at the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts, 18000 Park Plaza Dr., Cerritos, on Wednesday, Feb. 4 at 7:30 p.m. and Thursday, Feb. 5 at 7:30 p.m. For tickets and information, call the box office at 562-916-8500 or visit CerritosCenter.com.