Month: September 2026

Chicago, Frampton supergroup provide best Millwald concert yet

September 22, 2026 Zach Cooley No Comments

On the night of Thursday, September 17, I saw the best concert I have ever witnessed at the Millwald Theatre since it became a full-production house four years ago. Two former members of Chicago — guitarist Keith Howland and singer and bassist Jeff Coffey — along with Peter Frampton’s pianist and musical director Rob Arthur and drummer for The Doobie Brothers Ed Toth, came together to form The Players. The Players performed a two-hour show, with a 20-minute intermission, that brought about one of the most incredible rock ’n’ roll experiences our town has ever hosted. The sold-out crowd, made up mostly of senior citizens, was dancing in the aisles to the hits of Chicago, Earth, Wind & Fire, Toto, Peter Frampton, The Doobie Brothers and Rick Springfield. The fact that each member of this incredible group is not a part of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame is an oversight that should be eradicated immediately. Nevertheless, it was their blistering horn section that brought about the slickness and smoothness of the evening. A trio from Long Island featuring Adam Seely on saxophone, Dan Hendrix on trumpet and Michael Rubinstein on trombone, these superbly talented gentlemen could be seen playing their instruments up and down the aisles and even in the balcony for the audience, collectively serving as the heartbeat of the entire evening. As I am a much bigger fan of the Robert Lamm era of Chicago as opposed to Peter Cetera, simply because of the horns, I was thrilled that this group made the Peter Cetera songs even better than the originals by adding horn arrangements to them. Keith Howland also has special ties to Southwest Virginia, as he spent much of his teenage years in Roanoke. He graduated from James Madison University and, after forming his first band in Roanoke, says he played many gigs at Virginia Tech. After retiring from Chicago in 2021, having been the band’s lead guitarist for 27 years — a post he held longer than any other musician in the band’s history — he formed his own band with best friend Jeff Coffey, who served as Chicago’s lead singer beginning in 2016. At 59, the Orlando, Florida, native had no trouble hitting the high notes of Peter Cetera songs, as well as the myriad of other era hits that were played during the two-hour set. Originally from Silver Spring, Maryland, 62-year-old Howland proved himself to be one of the greatest guitarists in the annals of rock ’n’ roll, showing that he has not lost a step in his 40-plus-year career. Nashville native Arthur showed us the workings of a talk box, which is a plastic tube threaded through an instrument and placed in the mouth. When blown through, it can make it sound as though the particular instrument is actually speaking rather than simply emitting notes. He noted that Peter Frampton was one of the first people to utilize this musical tool before launching into Frampton’s most famous 1976 song, “Show Me the Way.” Howland also shared a story about being called “New Guy” by Rick Springfield when he joined his band as guitarist. “Everybody wanted to party in my room,” he recalled. “But I just wanted to go to bed. One night, I decided I would just leave my room, and by the time I went back, the party people would be gone. When I got back, they were gone, but they had sprayed the words ‘New Guy’ all over my hotel room in shaving cream.” Howland told this story before launching into Springfield’s most famous hit, “Jessie’s Girl.” Drummer Ed Toth even took the mic for a minute to relay a story of admiration for the people he plays behind every night. “Never give a drummer a mic unless you’re someone like Phil Collins,” he said, giving a nod to my favorite performer of all time. “We just learned to play this song yesterday, and I hope it works out.” As they launched into Sting’s “If I Ever Lose My Faith in You,” that was enough proof positive that the song indeed worked. Jeff Coffey spoke of his admiration for his best friend and fellow bandmate, Keith Howland. “When we were playing the Hollywood Bowl in Chicago for 20,000 people, we knew that if we were ever not in Chicago, we wanted to be in a band together,” Coffey said. “That’s why we’re here tonight.” Coming on strong with “Stay the Night” as an opener, the Chicago hits continued with the famous progressive suite “Make Me Smile” and “Ballet for a Girl in Buchannon.” Plenty of Cetera hits were featured as well, including “You’re the Inspiration,” “If You Leave Me Now” and “25 or 6 to 4.” Of course, the horn-powered “Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?” was a highlight, as was Earth, Wind & Fire’s “September.” “Call on Me” was another Chicago favorite offered, as was Toto’s “Rosanna.” “The Power of Love” by Huey Lewis and the News was another great horn-heavy cover provided by the supergroup. Each member of the horn section got an opportunity to step down front for his own solo, which was a highlight for the entire evening. The Doobie Brothers’ “Listen to the Music” was offered as a crowd pleaser, bringing many audience members to the makeshift dance floor in the front row. Earth, Wind & Fire’s “Shining Star” provided another funky, horn-heavy number to top off the set list before launching into REO Speedwagon’s “Roll with the Changes” as a rousing encore. It closed out a night that neither Wytheville, Virginia, nor I will ever forget.

Strictly Observing

Mochrie, Sherwood return side-splitting improv to Bristol

September 22, 2026 Zach Cooley No Comments

Colin Mochrie and Brad Sherwood returned to Bristol, Tennessee, on Friday, September 18, bringing their unique brand of improvisational comedy back to the Paramount Theater, two years after their first performance there on March 29, 2024. Once again, they proved why they are legends of improvisational comedy with a tour named after the television show that turned both talented performers into household names. I grew up watching both of these gentlemen on Whose Line Is It Anyway?, and having the opportunity to see them perform live, for my third time, is a genuine thrill. It is a singular honor to know them both and to call them friends, especially Colin Mochrie, who has been generous enough to allow me to interview him five times over the past 18 years. His two appearances in Bristol, along with his 2024 appearance in my hometown of Wytheville, Virginia, where he shared the stage with comedic hypnotist Asad Mecci, have proven that Southwest Virginia and the surrounding region have a genuine appreciation for improvisational comedy. Friday night’s performance was no exception. For 90 minutes, Mochrie and Sherwood delivered entirely improvised hilarity that seemed to fly by in an instant. Despite having undergone knee replacement surgery and surgery for a detached retina, 68-year-old Mochrie proved himself to be in tip-top shape. The show opened with a popular Whose Line game called “Moving Bodies,” in which Mochrie and Sherwood must remain perfectly still unless two volunteers from the audience move their bodies. Based on suggestions from the audience, Colin and Brad found themselves in France preparing to celebrate “Yay for Cheese Day.” Before beginning, Mochrie warned the audience about his recent surgeries. Sherwood then pretended to hand one of the volunteers a piece of paper. “Would you please sign this waiver?” he quipped. That set the tone for the evening. In the next game, “Motivational Speaker,” Mochrie and Sherwood were tasked with delivering a seminar on how to improve your partner. Audience suggestions included being more submissive, naked, quiet and competent. Using the word “juxtaposition” as an acronym, the comedians proceeded to deliver “The 13 Steps to a More Submissive Partner,” with the kind of inexplicable hilarity that only Mochrie and Sherwood can create from audience suggestions. Before choosing a woman from the audience to represent each comedian in the popular “Sound Effects” game, the pair asked the audience to provide a fictitious name for a store. The response was “Bobsleds R Us.” That left Mochrie and Sherwood trying to sell an array of bobsleds in the middle of a blizzard, while their volunteer sound-effects artists provided the noises necessary to bring the increasingly ridiculous scenario to life. In “Interview,” Mochrie and Sherwood once again demonstrated why their ability to work together is so impressive. They acted as one person while bringing various audience members with different occupations onto the stage. Each audience member was instructed to ask the duo a question related to their profession. Mochrie and Sherwood then had to answer by alternating one word at a time or, at times, speaking the same words simultaneously as if they were a single voice. A history teacher asked, “In what era did Homo erectus live?” “Homo erectus lived during the time of large ferns,” the two answered, one word at a time. The response only became more absurd from there, as the comedians constructed a completely improvised history of ferns, Homo erectus and human evolution. Instead of performing a musical dedicated specifically to Bristol, as they had done during their 2024 appearance, Mochrie and Sherwood gathered a new assortment of audience suggestions, including Tennessee football, groundhog, aggressively, desperate redhead, indignant wombats and front desk at a seedy hotel. Those ingredients were then transformed into a musical performed to the tune of Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and a number of other tunes. The song contained a note just a little too high for the now 61-year-old Sherwood, who otherwise had no trouble carrying his tune throughout the evening. Closing the show with their trademark improvised lyrics to Frank Sinatra’s “My Way,” Colin and Brad recapped the evening with an uncanny memory of each game and volunteer. The laughs from the audience during the finale earned the pair a rousing standing ovation in appreciation of the one-of-a-kind evening. As with every show, it was a memory that could never be replicated. A native of Chicago, Sherwood told me after the show that he has step-siblings in Tennessee and that many of his relatives attended the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. He and Mochrie were leaving Bristol that night to perform at the beautiful Tennessee Theatre in Knoxville on Saturday. To have interacted with these two talents personally is among the greatest thrills of my career. Both comedians were once again very pleased with the Bristol audience and said they looked forward to returning within the next couple of years. One can only hope they might bring their show to the Millwald Theatre in Wytheville sometime soon as well. Sherwood genuinely inquired as to whether I thought they were as funny this time as before, a question I considered futile. I consider their work among the greatest comedy I have ever witnessed. Their live performances only heighten the hilarity and joy they have brought to audiences across the country and around the world. Here’s hoping they continue for at least another 30 years.

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Symphony Under the Stars returns to Wytheville

September 16, 2026 Zach Cooley No Comments

The Roanoke Symphony Orchestra provided a stellar concert at Elizabeth Brown Memorial Park in Wytheville on Saturday, September 13, with a beautiful backdrop of a made-to-order sunny evening. Continuing the celebration of the 250th birthday of our nation, which was honored earlier in the year during a concert at the Millwald Theatre, the Millwald hosted an outdoor concert at one of our town’s most beautiful parks. RSO’s “Symphony Under the Stars” was just as big a success as it was last year, opening with the national anthem. The classical piece “The Light Cavalry Overture” by Franz von Suppé, featuring RSO’s new principal clarinetist Amy Hur, was followed by one of two John Williams pieces offered during the first half of the show. Music from one of my late father’s favorite films, Jurassic Park, was accompanied by assistant concertmaster Dr. John Hugo, dressed in an inflatable dinosaur costume. He mingled with some audience members, danced along, and even received his own baton from conductor David Stewart Wiley to help direct the piece. Handel’s “Let the Bright Seraphim” from the opera Samson was next, featuring tenor vocalist Brian Thorsett. Having performed worldwide in live performances and recordings, the Blacksburg-based singer teaches in Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains, according to Wiley’s introduction. Thorsett also sang the most emotional piece of the evening, “Bring Him Home” from Les Misérables. When Wiley introduced the song in the context of a tribute to the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, many audience members wept throughout the number. Remaining in celebration of our nation’s milestone birthday, John Williams was given another nod with a medley from another of his iconic film scores. The Revolutionary War film starring Mel Gibson, The Patriot, featured Williams’ Oscar-nominated score, rendered in full glory by the RSO and capturing the true American spirit. During the “Armed Forces Salute,” Thorsett, along with the Roanoke Symphony Chorus, sang the songs representing all branches of the United States military. As I did for their Flag Day concert, I proudly elevated my chair to “stand” in honor of my late father, who served in the U.S. Coast Guard from 1962 to 1966. I noticed I was the only one who did so for the Coast Guard, and I was not about to let my father or his branch of service be forgotten. The memorable Suite No. 1 from Carmen opened the second of two 40-minute acts, followed by a medley from Gone with the Wind by legendary film composer Max Steiner. “This piece is written specifically for place,” Wiley said. “It encapsulates Scarlett O’Hara’s devotion to Terra and her determination to restore her home.” Next came a medley from Howard Shore’s magnificent score from The Lord of the Rings films. Shore won Oscars for his work on two of the films. This medley featured battle music from the films, with heavy, anvil-like percussion in one particularly rugged section of the often-requested medley as performed by the RSO. A segment of “In Dreams,” featuring the RSO Chorus, was also included. A riveting medley from Leonard Bernstein’s West Side Story delighted a group from the newly rebranded Red Stag Dinner Theatre in Wytheville, who performed the choreography in perfect synchronicity with the music. From the Latin rhythms of “Tonight” to “One Hand, One Heart,” featuring Concertmaster Akemi Takayama on lead violin, who had her very own fan club in the audience, the medley included a swing-jazz version of “Cool,” culminating with “America.” The RSO once again restored my American pride with the patriotic numbers “America the Beautiful,” “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” and “America the Beautiful,” before launching into the encore of John Williams’ Star Wars medley. Complete with his own lightsaber baton, Wiley did his best Yoda impersonation and ended the perfect evening on an incredibly high note. You’ll have one more chance to hear the RSO ensemble, chorus, and featured vocalist Brian Thorsett as they present their holiday concert, “Handel’s Messiah,” on Saturday, December 19, at 7:00 p.m. at the Millwald Theatre. Tickets are available at https://ci.ovationtix.com/36798/production/1273229?performanceId=11799695 or by calling the Millwald box office at 276-284-2958.

Strictly Observing

Improv legend to return to Bristol

September 10, 2026September 10, 2026 Zach Cooley No Comments

Having the opportunity to interview Colin Mochrie for the fifth time in my career is a thrill that is difficult to put into words. The first time I interviewed him was in 2008. I simply sent an email requesting an interview and was absolutely thrilled when he accepted. The four interviews that followed came in connection with performances he gave in Winston-Salem, North Carolina; Bristol, Tennessee; and, finally, my hometown of Wytheville, Virginia. On Nov. 2, 2024, Mochrie performed in Wytheville with famed hypnotist and comedian Asad Mecci. The show was sold out. “It was a fun show,” Mochrie remembered. “We had a good time.” Whether Mochrie and his Whose Line Is It Anyway? veteran co-star Brad Sherwood will ever return to Wytheville remains unknown. For now, however, the pair are making a second appearance at Bristol’s Paramount Theatre, where I was fortunate enough to see them with my wife on March 29, 2024. As always, the improvisational legend was every bit as kind as he was funny. Mochrie was extraordinarily generous with his time, giving me twice as long as he had originally allotted for our interview so I could turn it into a double episode for my podcast. “It’s really not a chore,” he told me. “It’s always fun to talk to you.” He had no idea what those words meant to me. Mochrie’s book, Not Quite the Classics, was inspired by a Whose Line Is It Anyway? game called “First Line, Last Line.” In the game, performers were given the first and last lines of an existing piece of writing and had to improvise everything in between. When I asked Mochrie if he had any interest in writing another book, however, he was less enthusiastic. “It’s something I really hope doesn’t happen,” he admitted. “It was the hardest thing I have ever done in my career, and I’m glad it turned out like it did, but I would be afraid to try something like that again.” That doesn’t mean Mochrie is completely opposed to putting another book together. He and Sherwood have discussed the possibility of writing a coffee-table book about their adventures on the road together called We Are Not the Rolling Stones. “It’s something we keep talking about,” Mochrie said. “But we’re too lazy to do anything about it.” I offered my services as a ghostwriter, an offer for which he graciously thanked me. We’ll see if a career opportunity comes out of that. Mochrie has also never seemed to mind my occasionally excessive enthusiasm for his work. He once regarded me as completely nuts for memorizing the improvised songs performed by Wayne Brady during the one season of Whose Line Is It Anyway? that was released on DVD, but he has always been gracious about my gushing over his talent and kindness. Most importantly, he has always been willing to talk with me. “I think you have finally proven yourself as my number one fan,” he assured me. There is no higher accolade I would rather receive from Colin Mochrie. I immediately asked him to put that in writing. With a chuckle, he said he would be happy to do so. I haven’t forgotten that he later inscribed his book for me: “Thanks for loving me.” “I’m truly grateful that you continue to enjoy my work,” he told me. He has no idea just how much truth there is in that statement. His journey to Whose Line Is It Anyway? began more than 40 years ago when he and Ryan Stiles were friends and aspiring comedians at Second City in Toronto. Stiles heard about a touring company that was being assembled for a new comedy program that would eventually become Whose Line Is It Anyway? As it turned out, Mochrie wasn’t auditioning for merely another television show. He was auditioning for a role that would change his life in ways he could never have imagined. The woman heading the touring group was Deb McGrath, the woman Mochrie would marry 37 years ago. “It was a very tough audition,” he joked. “It went on for a while.” Mochrie doesn’t view Whose Line Is It Anyway? simply as the television show that made him famous. “Whose Line Is It Anyway? not only gave us a career,” he explained. “It gave us a joy in coming to work. We were all great friends who worked together well and enjoyed being around each other.” Drew Carey served as the moderator of the American version of the program, and his infectious laughter became almost as recognizable as the comedy itself. “Drew was the moderator of the show, and he had such an infectious laugh that we all figured if we can make him laugh to the point of crying, we’ve done our job.” In many cases, Mochrie was the one responsible for bringing those tears of laughter to Carey’s eyes. Although Wayne Brady frequently found himself responsible for the musical games, including “Irish Drinking Song” and the ever-popular “Hoedown,” Mochrie became particularly renowned for the one-line zingers and perfectly timed responses that left audiences and his fellow performers laughing uncontrollably. “Those moments came out of sheer panic,” he said. “When you have to come up with two or three rhymes to make sense with the audience suggestion, it was horrible. I think audiences loved the hoedowns because we hated them.” To know Colin Mochrie, to have had the opportunity to interview him repeatedly over the past two decades, and to be able to call him a friend is a blessing than he’ll ever know.

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