It’s a unique being walking the Earth who can sing 10 vocal styles with two pairs of vocal cords. The three women of “3 Mo’ Divas” sing from Puccini to The Pips; from arias to “I’m Every Woman.”
And even creator Marion J. Caffey admits, “I have no idea how they do it.”
The Denver Center Theatre Company closes its 29th season with this theatrically staged concert inspired by a 1994 Three Tenors concert at Dodger Stadium.
Imagine Domingo, Carreras and Pavarotti starting to mess around with new musical forms. The opera impresarios take on a Broadway show tune . . . and they’re awful.
“They were so stiff,” said Caffey, “I thought, ‘Oh my; if these guys weren’t icons, this would be bad.’ ”
But if three of the most celebrated singers in the world can’t sing Rodgers and Hammerstein, Caffey began to wonder, how rare might it be to find singers who actually can capably bridge vocal specialties?
“I knew classically trained African-American tenors that sang other styles of music and maintained the integrity of each,” Caffey said. “Then it hit me: Nobody’s ever done that.”
So was born “3 Mo’ Tenors,” which has sprouted the sister project, “3 Mo’ Divas,” in which three women tackle 10 vocal styles that together constitute a 35-song, 233-year timeline of pop music itself. The demanding score spans the 1770 opera “Paride ed Elana” to the 2003 Broadway musical, “Wicked.”
Talk about mo’ . . . that’s mo’ music than any one singer — or three — should be expected to sing. Two styles? Maybe. Four? Possibly. But 10?
“Ten is completely crazy,” said Caffey. We’re talking opera, spirituals, jazz, R&B, blues, show tunes, pop, rock, soul and disco.
Caffey has gone through no fewer than 16 Divas and 150 productions before finally, for Denver, settling on his first permanent cast of Laurice Lanier, Nova Y. Payton and Jamet Pittman. Their performance will be videotaped for later national broadcast (and sale) on PBS.
And Caffey said it was insane getting to this point.
“I don’t want to scare people when I say this, but I think God sends me the right people eventually,” he said.
Each are, of course, classically trained, but when it comes to finding opera singers who can sing soul, Russian-born musical director Annastasia Victory said, “some things you can’t train. Some people are just able to manage their voice in ways most people can’t.”
Caffey said authenticity is paramount. “Each individual style must sound exactly like it’s supposed to sound,” he said, which is why there’s no country or hip-hop in the present incarnation.
“If it even sounds almost bad, I’m like, ‘Oh no,’ said Caffey. “I don’t want to get caught bastardizing someone’s style of music, because that’s just not the point.”
When Caffey says his show “smashes musical barriers,” and that its brilliance lies in its diversity, in neither instance is he referring to race — even though his show affords a powerful opportunity for three black women to shine together.
That’s because his cast has never been limited to African- American women. It just worked out that way in the end.
“We’ve had Cubans, Asians and Caucasians” in previous productions, he said.
” ‘3 Mo’ Tenors’ was originally intended to be performed by African-American males, but after that, I just grew. My mind opened. I was like, ‘Well, what if there is a South African woman who can sing this, or a Nordic woman?
“The truth is, more African-American women have been able to negotiate this minefield of music than any other women,” Caffey added, referring to soul, blues and R&B. “But this show has always been open to anybody who walks into the room.”
So to Caffey, smashing barriers is all about the music.
“It’s a barrier that actually surrounds a lot of classical artists,” he said. “They can probably venture as far as singing spirituals, but that’s about it, because the vocal technique for those is basically the same. Anything past that, there’s a barrier that society has put up. People have said, ‘Well you belong in this box.’
“These women are saying, ‘No, I’m much more than that. I’ve got jazz and blues and soul and disco in my soul.” Hence the latest addition to the score: “It’s Raining Men.”
And diversity isn’t limited to the range of titles. It’s evident in individual songs. “Summertime,” for example, starts classical and moves into R&B funk.
Even though his catalogue is deep and known, Caffey’s second-biggest challenge has been marketing. He doesn’t have a built-in audience like, say, the Four Seasons megahit “Jersey Boys” — though he insists audiences respond in the same, raucous way.
“You can’t get whiter than Edmonton, and we got the exact same reaction there as we got from a primarily black audience in Washington, D.C.,” he said.
But the best audience, he said, is racially mixed. “That’s because the black people come in, and they’re more vocal, so they give white people immediate permission to have more fun than they normally would,” he said with a laugh.
Caffey has no desire to see “3 Mo’ Divas” take on the cold vagaries of Broadway. But he would love to send his Divas to Russia, Sweden, Japan, Africa and beyond.
“That’s because, other than a heartbeat, music is the one thing that absolutely crosses every racial barrier and every religious barrier in the world,” he said.
“You can take a person from Tennessee and put him in China, and if he hears drums, he’ll stop and listen. And if you take a person from Sweden and put him in New York, he’ll pay $200 to see ‘Jersey Boys,’ but he’ll also stop for the guys on the street beating their buckets.
“Music makes you forget barriers. It’s the beast that soothes us all, and I just love that.”
John Moore: 303-954-1056 or jmoore@denverpost.com
How the songs span the centuries
The “3 Mo’ Divas” tackle 10 vocal styles that together constitute a 35-song, 233-year timeline of pop music itself, from opera to rock to Broadway. Here are samples from each vocal styling:
Opera:“O Del Mio Dolce Ardor,” 1770
Spiritual/Gospel: “His Eye Is on the Sparrow,” 1905
R&B: “Summertime,” 1935
Blues: “Strange Fruit,” 1937 Jazz: “My Funny Valentine,” 1937
Television*: “Harlem Nocturne,” 1939
Film*: “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy,” 1941
Pop: “My Boyfriend’s Back,” 1963
Rock: “Proud Mary,” 1969
Soul: “Best of My Love,” 1977
Disco: “It’s Raining Men,” 1979
Broadway*: “Defying Gravity,” 2003
*Categorized together as “show tunes”
The complete song list
Here is the complete song list in chronological, not performance order:
“O Del Mio Dolce Ardor,” Opera, 1770
“Una Voce Poco Fa,” Opera, 1816
“Quando M’en Vo,” Opera, 1896
“Mon Coeur S’ouvre A’ Ta Voix,” Opera 1877
“Je Veux Vivre, Opera,” 1867
*Note: Not all arias sung every performance
“His Eye is on the Sparrow,” spiritual, 1905
“Io Son L’umile Ancella,” opera, 1902
“Downhearted Blues,” blues, 1922
“Solitude,” jazz, 1934
“Summertime,” opera, jazz, R&B, 1935
“Lullaby of Broadway,” showtunes, 1935
“Strange Fruit,” blues, 1937
“My Funny Valentine,” showtunes, jazz, 1937
“God Bless the Child,” blues, showtunes, 1939
“Harlem Nocturne,” jazz, television, 1939
“Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy,” film, 1941
“Let the Good Times Roll,” R&B, showtunes, 1946
“Moody’s Mood for Love,” jazz, 1952
“Lady Sings the Blues,” jazz, blues, 1956
“Sweeping through the City,” gospel, 1962
“It’s in His Kiss,” pop, 1963
“My Boyfriend’s Back,” pop, 1963
“Feeling Good,” showtunes, jazz, 1965
“Proud Mary,” rock n roll, 1969
“Everything Must Change,” R&B, 1974
“Something He Can Feel,” soul, 1976
“Best of My Love,” soul, 1977
“I’m Every Woman,” disco, 1978
“It’s Raining Men,” disco, 1979
“It’s Got To Be Real,” disco, 1979
“Little Shop of Horrors,” showtunes, 1982
“I Believe in You and Me,” soul, 1982
“Style,” showtunes, 1986
“Seasons of Love,” showtunes, 1996
“Your Daddy’s Son,” showtunes, 1996
“Get Ready,” soul, 1966
“Defying Gravity,” showtunes, 2003
“3 Mo’ Divas”
Theatrical concert. Presented by the Denver Center Theatre Company at the Space Theatre, Denver Performing Arts Complex. Created and directed by Marion J. Caffey. Starring Laurice Lanier, Nova Y. Payton and Jamet Pittman. Through June 29. 6:30 p.m. Mondays-Thursdays; 7:30 p.m. Fridays; 1:30 and 7:30 p.m. Saturdays (after May 27: no Mondays, but 1:30 p.m. Sunday matinees added). $36-$46. 303-893-4100, King Soopers or .
This weekend’s theater openings
“3 Mo’ Divas.” Marion J. Caffey’s “theatrical concert” featuring three female singers performing 35 songs that span from 1770 to 2003. See story, above. Through June 29. Denver Center Theatre Company. Stage Theatre, Denver Performing Arts Complex, 14th and Curtis streets, 303-893-4100 or
“The House of Yes.” Wendy MacLeod’s dark comedy treads the line between disturbing and hilarious, profound and absurd. The Pascals are a dysfunctional family whose world is permeated with secrets and mind games. The play explores tragedy on simultaneously intimate and national scales. Through May 24. Square Product Theatre, ATLAS Center, University of Colorado, Boulder,
“Greater Tuna” Two actors play 24 residents of Tuna, Texas’ third-smallest town, Through Aug. 17. Nonesuch Theatre, 216 Pine St., Fort Collins, 970-224-0444 or
“The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui” Bertolt Brecht’s morality tale basically recasts Hitler as a 1930s Chicago mobster. Through June 14. Countdown to Zero Productions. At the Bindery Space, 770 22nd St, Denver, 720-221-3821 or
“John Gabriel Borkman” Henrik Ibsen’s penultimate composition, written in 1896, is based on an incident from an earlier period in his life: The attempted suicide of an army officer who had been accused of embezzlement. Through May 31. Upstart Crow, Dairy Center for the Arts, 2590 Walnut St., Boulder, 303-444-7328 or
“Fiddler on the Roof”The classic musical about the small town of Anatevka as it comes together to celebrate life, mourn death, rejoice in marriage, and care for one another. Through July 6. Union Colony Dinner Theatre, 802 9th Ave., Greeley, 970-352-2900 or
Running Lines turns 2! …
John Moore is on assignment but next week we’ll kick off the first of four straight special episodes marking two full years of “Running Lines” podcasts with the local and national theater communities. First up: Find out who John met up with trolling the streets of New York City. The audio fun begins Thursday, May 22.
