The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

WALLA WALLA -- The way divo Morgan James sees it, putting four big guys with big voices and big egos on a stage together can be a recipe for disaster.

But it doesn't have to be.

It wasn't for the three classic opera tenors - Placido Domingo, Jose Carreras and Luciano Pavarotti. And it isn't for the Four Tenors who are currently stealing the limelight at the Powerhouse Theater, James said.

"We complement each other," he said. "We're very much a group of four strong individual singers. Everyone is a pro."

If last week's rehearsals are any indication, audiences are in for a treat. The group was practicing "Ghost Riders" in silhouette against the low-hanging smoke and blue-lit stage with each singer taking on a refrain and harmonizing on the chorus. It all came together in a rich vocal texture that did the cowboy classic more than justice.

Directed by "Marilyn: Forever Blonde" star Sunny Thompson, the Four Tenors musical review kicks off the 2012 season at the Power House as the first of five pop performances that punctuate the classic Shakespeare plays this spring and summer.

The Four Tenors opened Friday and runs through Feb. 26. The others in the pop series are "Big Daddy's Bar-BQue," "Fiesta Caliente," "All American Country" and "A Blue Mountain Christmas."

"The tenors are a great way to kick off the pop series," said Thompson, who was encouraged by Power House Artistic Director Stephanie Shine to bring them up to Walla Walla from Southern Oregon where the men performed more than 140 of their shows at the Seven Feathers Casino in Canyonville.

After Thompson performed in "Marilyn: Forever Blonde," which was a runaway success here, she decided she wanted to return. Thompson visited Waitsburg and Dayton before the play, a drama about the intimate life and times of Marilyn Monroe, began at the Power House last fall.

"I really enjoyed it here," she said. "The theater is great. It's beyond intimate. It's immediate. There's a strong of community and I want to help make Walla Walla a destination (with good shows and theater)."

The divos are expected to perform about 30 songs. Two thirds will be solos, the rest quartet songs and harmonies. Michael Scott Brooks, a professional singer and pianist since he was 15, is the classical tenor whom you might expect to burst into a moving rendition of Danny Boy and probably will when you see the show. Brian Damson, has the pop rock voice from such shows as "Sweeney Todd" and "La Cage Aux Folles." He was educated at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music and the University of Kentucky.

Ken Nielson, a singer, actor and dancer from Salt Lake City, was raised in the tradition of the Osmonds, loves his Michael Buble, Elvis, Maroon Five and Bon Jovi. James himself is more of the country tenor who has done many of the Western classics and worked as a soloist with the Roger Wagner Chorale and the Reno Philharmonic Orchestra.

"People will be very surprised by the breadth of the show," James said. "There will be something in it for everybody."

For more information about the Four Tenors, visit www.PHTWW.com.