Singer bringing 50 years of hits to Laguna Woods.
Melissa Manchester hasn’t performed in the Village since 2013, but those who have been eagerly awaiting her return are in for a treat. On Saturday, March 5, Manchester will be at the Performing Arts Center as part of the Champagne Pops series of concerts. She will present her hits – “Don’t Cry Out Loud,” “Whenever I Call You Friend,” “Midnight Blue” and many others – but reworked into a series she calls “RE:VIEW,” after her new album. The songs are accompanied by video. “Everybody loved her (in 2013) and asked me why I hadn’t brought her back sooner,” said Champagne Pops impresario Millie Brown. Brown books a variety of tribute artists into the Performing Arts Center, but once per season she brings audiences an original performer. While many may think of Manchester,71, as the voice of youth – or theirs, at least – she demurs. “Youth is irrelevant in my music. I prefer to think of it as timeless,” she said in a phone interview last week. Indeed, listening to “Midnight Blue,” for example, anyone can transport themselves into a time and setting of their own choosing. The daughter of a bassoonist for the New York Metropolitan Opera orchestra, Manchester seems to have been born into and for music. At age 15, she began to sing commercial jingles while attending the High School of Performing Arts in New York. Later, she took songwriting classes at New York University from Paul Simon, worked as a staff writer at Chappell Music and made inroads into the city’s club scene.
