INGERSOLLS OFFER BEAUTIFUL MELODIES MIXED WITH A BIT OF NORMAL COUPLE RAZZING

Courier-News, A. Alleman, ELGIN, IL: Chicago performers Michael and Angela Ingersoll have had quite a bit of success in their solo careers. Now, the musical power couple will join forces in a new show.

He’s the former star of Jersey Boys (original cast San Francisco, Los Angeles and Chicago) and the group Under the Streetlamp. She’s the Emmy-nominated actress known for her Judy Garland shows (End of the Rainbow and Get Happy on PBS). Artists Lounge Live presents Happy Together: Michael and Angela Ingersoll Sing Songs You Know By Heart May 4 at Elgin Arts Center.

“Michael and I have been asked quite a lot lately to appear together at some of the theaters where we each have been able to tour,” Angela Ingersoll said. “We used to do a show together a few years ago that we’ve put on the shelf while we were focusing on other projects, so we’re revving up a new evening.

“The shows he and I do together are very light-hearted and fun. Our husband-and-wife shtick is … one producer that we worked with compared it to a George (Burns) and Gracie (Allen) vibe. Kind of George and Gracie, Lucy (Ball) and Desi (Arnez). We very lovingly poke fun at one another all night and people seem to identify with that kind of old-fashioned good humor.”

They’ve been married 14 years and together for 18. The music they choose is broad, from the jazz and pop songs she likes to the rock and roll for Michael. “We sing songs that spread from the ’40s to the ’80s,” she said. “Love-pop standards that we always make sure everybody knows the words to. We do some of our signature songs we’ve both done on our PBS specials. He’ll probably do ‘Save the Last Dance For Me’ … I’ll sing ‘Over the Rainbow’ at some point. There will be lots of fun duets and surprises. We tend to always at some point of the evening sing ‘I’ve Had the Time of My Life’ together and that always brings the house down.”

Other songs they will do include “Love Story (Where Do I Begin)”, plus “God Only Knows” by the Beach Boys and “Just the Way You Are” by Billy Joel. And obviously, “Happy Together” will be on the docket. “They’re largely songs about cherishing one another while the shtick in between tends to be ribbing one another,” she said. “So it’s a good balance.”

A lot has changed in the years since the previous show they did together. Michael was the one touring with Jersey Boys and Under the Streetlamp while Angela was holding down the fort. “The tables have really turned now. We have Artists Lounge Live and he’s doing more producing than performing and I’m out on the road,” she said. “I think we are more equals now.

“We’re both a little older now. We’re both over 40 and we have different priorities,” she said. “This is the refresh of all of the old versions of this show that we’ve done. Before, our shows were very much kind of a cocktail party on the stage — we might’ve had a cocktail in our hand in years past. I think we’ve grown up a little more and we are bringing something a little more wholesome than we used to bring. No less fun but perhaps a little older and hopefully slightly wiser.”

Her other shows have prepared her for this new show by allowing her to take risks and explore different emotions, she said. “I take really big emotional risks,” she said. “I sing so whole-bodied I can barely walk some nights after the show. I really throw it out there. That has taught me about how much the audience really want a connection that feels real. A live connection … and a new kinship.

“Talking about Judy and my love of her helped open up quite a lot of vulnerability and a Pandora’s Box of pain. And to work on healing that pain, the music does that for us. The humor and the music and the storytelling allows us to realize that none of us has a monopoly on pain. We can work through it together as a group in that live experience.”

She thinks audiences will see themselves onstage in the husband-and-wife dynamic. “We’re not trying to project perfect versions of ourselves,” she said. “He and I are pretty warts-and-all as performers and I think people can relate to the regular husband-and-wife familiarity. We don’t take ourselves too seriously. But I think people will appreciate that underneath the jokes (there is) gratitude that you have someone to stand next to in life and have someone to get through it with.”