Multitalented performers Michael Ingersoll and wife Angela Ingersoll have been creating one-person shows about musical legends for other singers through their company Artists Lounge Live since 2015. Now they have come up with a legend who is a perfect fit for Michael.
He will be performing “Southern Nights: Michael Ingersoll Sings Glen Campbell” Oct. 17 and 18 at Marriott Theatre in Lincolnshire. Performances are 7:30 p.m. Monday and 1 p.m. Tuesday.
Audiences will hear such Glen Campbell favorites as “Gentle on My Mind,” “Rhinestone Cowboy,” “God Only Knows,” “Southern Nights,” “Wichita Lineman,” “By the Time I get to Phoenix,” and “Dreams of an Everyday Housewife,” among others. That includes songs that Campbell performed during the year he filled-in with the Beach Boys — “I Get Around” and “God Only Knows.” They will also learn about the singer’s life and career.
Michael Ingersoll, who starred in the original San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Chicago casts of “Jersey Boys,” is primarily a producer these days, but he made an exception for this show.
“We’ve developed shows for lots of other folks but I’d never done a catalog show where I was doing what I have asked all these others to do,” Ingersoll said. “Occasionally, I still really do like to sing and tell stories.”
He recalled hearing “Gentle on My Mind” on the radio several years ago and thinking, “That song has got such a sweet, easy, folksy, genuine feel to it,” Ingersoll said. “That felt like the sort of energy that I feel onstage and it felt like the sort of people I come from. It felt like a catalog I could sing authentically and stories I could tell authentically.”
That led both of the Ingersolls to do extensive research on Glen Campbell.
Angela Ingersoll, who has a busy, award-winning performing career, writes all of the Artists Lounge Live shows.
“I was really bowled over by the richness of his catalog, how many people he had worked with, and how many genres he had worked,” Angela Ingersoll said. “Everybody considered him the best musician they knew. It is amazing to hear his mastery across genres — how he could speak to and touch so many people. The genius and the music that poured out of him was really God-given.”
Deciding which songs to include in the show was a difficult task, she admitted. When writing the Artists Lounge Live songs, Angela Ingersoll said, “I take their lead on what kind of songs they really like to keep in their show.”
Surprisingly, Angela Ingersoll also interviewed her husband, as if she didn’t know him, as she would when writing any of these shows.
She does that, she said, “To see where those connections are between their backgrounds, or their point of views, or life experiences.”
The couple learned many interesting facts about Campbell, including that he was considered one of the five best guitarists, especially in the country genre, Michael Ingersoll noted. He played guitar on recordings for many famous people, including Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra.
They also discovered that his music crossed over to other genres. “He was on country and pop and contemporary charts at the same time,” Michael Ingersoll said. “There was a larger following for this music than I could have ever anticipated.”
There was another factor that surprised and delighted Ingersoll. “He was one of the first that was featuring nonwhite people on his show,” he said.
The Ingersolls learned another touching thing about Campbell, who died in 2017 after suffering from Alzheimer’s disease.
“In his last tour and his last recording session, while he was in the thick of dementia from Alzheimer’s, and he was touring with his son and his daughter, he allowed his film crew to document all of it,” Michael Ingersoll reported. It became a documentary called, “I’ll Be Me.” He wrote a song for the documentary called, “I’m Not Going to Miss You,” which won a Grammy award.
Ingersoll will be accompanied by a six-piece band.
Ingersoll said he enjoys performing this show because, “I feel it’s the best work I’ve ever done.”
He added, “The music is so life-affirming and joyous.”
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Southern Nights: Michael Ingersoll Sings Glen Campbell
When: Oct. 17-18
Where: Marriott Theatre, 10 Marriott Theatre, Lincolnshire
Tickets: $59.83
Information: 837-634-0200; marriotttheatre.com/show/southern-nights
Myrna Petlicki is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.