When Lisa Rock debuted “Close to You: The Music of the Carpenters” in 2010 at Metropolis Performing Arts Centre, little did she know that the show would turn into a full-time career.
“They showed me the way,” said Rock via phone from her Chicagoland home about the Arlington Heights venue formerly led by executive director Jim Jarvis.
“I started with one theater in the database. Now it’s a database of 8,000 theaters. I’m literally booked out through 2019 at this point. You usually book a year in advance. The fact that people are booking a year and two years in advance is overwhelming. I’m still pinching myself.
“I get to sing this music and just perform to make a living. It’s beyond any of our dreams as musicians. It’s a very lucky few of us that get to do this.”
Rock brings “Close to You: The Music of the Carpenters” to Beverly Arts Center in Chicago May 20. The show includes the Carpenters’ 15 No. 1 hits on Billboard’s Adult Contemporary chart plus stories Rock and company culled from Carpenters biographer Randy L. Schmidt and others close to the duo.
Joining her for the performance are Theodore Berry IV (bass and guitar), Bobby Dietz (backing vocals and keyboard), Eric Engelson (drums), Sari Greenberg (backing vocals, rhythm instruments and piano), Dave Orlicz (reeds) and Joey Zymonas (piano and music director).
“This is our eighth year together and this is the first time we’re in the actual Chicago ZIP code. We’re really happy,” said Rock, who discovered the Carpenters through the music collection of her parents, Patricia and the late John Rock.
“I was born in 1969. That’s when the first album came out,” said Rock about “Ticket to Ride” by siblings Karen and Richard Carpenter.
“I always remember it was 48 years ago that they did the first album and recorded ‘Close to You’ that came out in 1970. It is timeless – the lyrics, the hooks, the music, the live musicians. It’s just everything. It was protest music in the 1970s.
“They called it that mellow, sweet, vanilla sound. It was really a lot deeper actually when you go listen to it now vs. back then. This really struck a note because people come to our show and they know every single word to all of the music.
“When you have excellent songs and you have excellent arrangements and musicians it does stand the test of time. We do everything with them. We do their arrangements. We do everything in the original key.
“People are hearing exactly what they grew up hearing. Exactly what they fell in love with at that time, that’s what we do.”
In a set including favorites such as “Rainy Days and Mondays” and “We’ve Only Just Begun,” one song Rock says always stands out for the entire band is “Superstar,” written by Bonnie Bramlett and the late Leon Russell.
“I never tire of it. We’ve done almost 200 shows. ‘Superstar’ really does something to all of us,” said Rock, who was the first in her family to graduate from college after earning a music therapy degree.
“I have the best of both worlds with this show because it’s about the music. I’m singing someone else’s music and putting that out in the audience. It comes back to us a million times over how much people love her and love us for keeping it alive,” said Rock, a union actor experienced in musical theater.
Given Karen Carpenter’s death in 1983 from a heart attack after battling the eating disorder anorexia nervosa, Rock tries to help others via every “Close to You: The Music of the Carpenters” show.
“We take our CD and ask for donations. Only we don’t ask for a specific amount. We take a percentage of that and donate it to a food bank. Everybody’s hungry. That’s not something that people can sit there and turn political,” said Rock, noting that this effort has donated more than 25,000 meals.
“If we’ve left something behind in her name and also in our name, the way we’ve reached people with that really does feel a lot bigger. It’s an amazing feeling.”
Rock, who has a four-octave range, is booked to return to Beverly Arts Center at 8 p.m. Nov. 25 with “A Carpenters Christmas.”
Jessi Virtusio is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.
‘Close to You: The Music of the Carpenters’
When: 8 p.m. May 20
Where: Beverly Arts Center, 2407 W. 111th St., Chicago
Tickets: $25
Information: 773-445-3838, www.beverlyartcenter.org or www.closetoyouonline.com
Etc.: featuring Lisa Rock
