Fans, friends, and supporters of Cal State Long Beach had a rare experience Saturday as the university celebrated the 30th anniversary of the Carpenter Center for Performing Arts.
As attendees walked past the glass-encased metallic drum set once played by the late Karen Carpenter as they crowded into the Carpenter Center Saturday for a concert to honor her and her brother Richard, whose music powered the legend and supported the launch of the Performing Arts Center.
Thirty years later and still, Karen Carpenter is considered to have had one of the best voices on the planet,” said Renee Elise Goldsberry, the Grammy® and Tony Award-winning Broadway star who performed a 90-minute concert.
“This show is a blatant attempt to manipulate you to fall back in love with love,” said Goldsberry.
“All kinds of love,” she said, “there’s romantic love, spiritual love, love of brotherhood, love of sisterhood, love of your hood, love of yourself, love. It’s in all of our music, every single kind. So we’re going to play a little bit of everything tonight,” said Goldsberry, before breaking into a medley of musical theatre classics.
Goldsberry received widespread acclaim most recently in her role as Angela Schuyler Church in the blockbuster Broadway hit Hamilton, a role that also won for her a Tony Award and a Grammy® Award for the cast’s album.
Before introducing Carpenter, whom she called “royalty in the house,” Goldsberry, a California native, told the story of how after graduating from the USC Thorton School of Music, she went to New York seeking a role and how she nearly gave up.
She returned to California and started doing whatever she could until years later, she finally got a call for an audition as a simple replacement in “The Lion King.” Her audition was scheduled for Sept. 11, 2001.
Obviously, that was postponed but eventually, she said, the producers finally rescheduled and after an emotional try-out, they offered her a leading role in the long running hit.
“All you need is one yes,” she said, encouraging many musical theatre students attending to never give up.
Goldsberry became somewhat of a breakout star on Broadway in the Lion King, earning starring roles in Rent, The Color Purple and acting roles in Ally McBeal, One Life to Live and other shows.
As expected, the most momentous event of the evening was the introduction of Richard Carpenter.
“I think it is time,” said Goldsberry about 40 minutes into the concert. I have the honor of my life to now bring to the stage Richard Carpenter,” she said, as Carpenter made a modest entry from a back curtain and walked to the piano on stage.
Most of the fans in a 1,000-seat auditorium came from Carpenter’s generation and gave the philanthropic producer a goose-bump standing ovation before he even sat at the piano.
“Thank you, Renee,” said Carpenter.
Carpenter, now in his late 70s, acknowledged the audience before modestly sitting down at the piano to play a single song with Goldsberry.
“We thought about which of our songs would be best suited for Renee,” said Carpenter, noting that he had discussed it with the university. “We thought about this one, and that one, the other one” he said.“I came to the conclusion that the song would work best for Renee is Rainy Days and Mondays,” said Carpenter, as Goldsberry positioned herself near the piano and Carpenter looked down at the piano and began playing one of the duo’s most popular songs.
Carpenter’s sister Karen tragically passed away in their native Downey on Feb. 4, 1983, and Goldsberry said she would do her best to honor Karen’s memory, saying the late singer had “one of the greatest voices the world has ever heard.”
The moving tribute to the Carpenters was rewarded with a sustained standing ovation as Carpenter and Goldsberry held hands, faced the adoring crowd, and took a bow.
Over their career, the Carpenters released 14 studio albums, 2 live albums, 49 singles, and numerous compilation albums, according to Wikipedia.
And just as quickly as he appeared, Carpenter took the bow with Goldsberry and walked carefully off stage to thunderous applause.
“It is great to be here,” said Barb Straub, of Long Beach, of the hundreds of people who attended the event. “I haven’t seen Richard Carpenter for 30 years, not since he opened this place,” she said.
Megan Kline Crockett, Executive Director of the Carpenter Center, took a moment to thank everyone who played a role in celebrating the Center’s 30th Annivesary.
“This is probably the favorite part of my job,” she said, “not the fundraising part, but having a chance to feature what we do for Long Beach.”
She thanked those attending along with the other donors for their dedication and support of a performing arts center that she says basically exists to support the students.
“I really appreciate that support,” she said, noting that “it goes to pay to bring young artists into Long Beach Unified as part of our Classroom Connections program,” said Crockett.
“We focus on Title One schools that don’t have any money for arts education. We bring artists in for residency so they can work with the students, and then we pay for busing to have the students come into this theater to see performing arts production, which is truly life changing,” she added.
“These are the experiences that these kids remember,” said Crockett, noting that following the pandemic, “we got notes from kids saying this had been the only field trip they’d ever been on.”
“They felt so welcome here,” she said.
“This is also the first time they’ve come to campus, and we explained the Long Beach promise, and I tell them, this is your campus, this is your theater. This belongs to all of you.”