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Four by Four pays tribute to quartet of musical hitmakers

WARREN — Michael Chapman had to make some hard choices with “Four by Four.”

The musical revue, featuring four singers performing the music of The Beach Boys, The Beatles, The Bee Gees and Motown, comes to Packard Music Hall on Tuesday as part of the Warren Civic Music Association’s 2019-20 season.

“Obviously, any one of these groups could fill an entire evening and more,” said Chapman, producer and director of the touring production. “I looked at, one, what are the most recognizable and most popular songs of those groups’ catalogs, and, two, I wanted to suit myself harmonically and choreographically with the songs that would best lend themselves to the production.”

Chapman, who has more than 50 years experience in the entertainment business, conceived the show following the success of the first production he and choreographer Paul Holmquist created, “Oh What a Night!,” a tribute to Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons.

“It’s still going strong,” Chapman said. “On the heels of that, I was asked to bring in more tribute shows and came up with the idea of a retrospective of the four most influential musical styles of the last 50 years.”

Chapman said the Beatles are his personal favorite of the acts featured in “Four by Four,” and one of his favorite moments in the show is the arrangement that ties together “Let It Be” and “The Long and Winding Road.”

“I created it, and it just transitions from one beautiful song into the next,” he said. “I sort of tear up on that one.”

His appreciation for the Beach Boys increased while putting the production together.

“The breadth and scope of the material they put out is so multidimensional,” he said. “They’re not as stereotypical as some people think … Just the range and lyrical dynamics in the narratives of their songs, that was the most eye-opening to me … On ‘Good Vibrations,’ the cast is just sensational.”

Like a touring musical, “Four by Four” has a rotating cast of singers. There’s a talent pool of about 40 to 50 performers who regularly appear in Chapquist Entertainment’s productions, which also includes a Diana Ross & the Supremes tribute and a show called “Yesterday Once More” featuring the music of ABBA, The Carpenters, The 5th Dimension and the Mamas & the Papas.

The men in that talent pool generally have two-to-three-octave vocal ranges, Chapman said, and those Bee Gees hits push those vocal ranges to their limits.

“There is a lot of choreography in the show too. They don’t just stand there and sing the songs,” he said. “And there’s a lot of informational material in the show as well lot of comedic banter.”

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