If you like the luscious sound of the oboe, you’d like “The
Oboe Show.” And if you can actually play this legendarily tricky woodwind
instrument, you’d find a lot to identify with in this engagingly silly mix of
comedy (handled mostly by three amusing performers) and music (played by two
excellent oboists, one of whom picks up the English horn now and then).
Oboists have always struck me as a bit nervous, and after
seeing this show, I think I understand why they are the way they are; from the
red-faced hyperventilating required for playing it to the infinite finickiness of cutting one’s own reeds. The creators of
“The Oboe Show” know their stuff, and there’s an educational side to the show:
after all, not many comedy shows name-check Marcel Tabuteau,
not to mention Bizet and Berlioz. The grand finale brought six Eastman students
together — three oboes and three English horns — to perform a tango by Ernesto
Nazareth.
This article appears in Sep 21-27, 2016.
