The best of … the best: The Divas take of Hamilton Listening Studio on Friday and Saturday
While singing in a jazz festival in Big Bear Lake, California, Sandra Marlowe participated in something called the “diva night”: Female singers from the various jazz bands performed on stage together. The event was so popular, the singers repeated this at a few more festivals, packing the house each time. When she moved back to Coeur d’Alene from the Bay Area in 2018, Marlowe knew she wanted to grow her musical community.
“I believe in blooming where you’re planted,” Marlowe said of her return to the area. “I’m a teacher as well, so I was trying to get out and perform a little bit and meet people … I started meeting a lot of really good women singers, and I had this idea of wouldn’t it be fun if we put all these different women on the stage.”
This Friday and Saturday, the Divas will be performing “What She Said … Best” at Hamilton Listening Studio. The interactive cabaret performance covers multiple musical genres, and is meant to be a collection of the group’s greatest hits, as well as member recollections from life on the road in show business.
The group members span ages from early 20s to 70s.
Marlowe giggled at the idea that the group is already putting out a “best of.” The Divas’ first show was meant to be a “one night only” in 2022 at the Jacklin Cultural Center in Post Falls. Of that show, Marlowe said, “I thought let’s throw it out there and see what sticks to the wall. … It was such a good response, and the women enjoyed it.
“Everybody had a good time, the creative process was really cool,” she said, “so we just kept doing it.”
There’s a “diva” for various genres: pop diva, country diva, Broadway diva, jazz diva. Marlowe falls into the jazz diva category, but she said the members all end up blending into each others’ genres.
“Carol, who’s normally our blues diva, said, ‘Hey, you’re stepping on my toes’ and she was kidding. We said it on stage because our show is very interactive with the audience,” Marlowe explained.
Beth Rainey started as a pianist for the group, but when the pop diva ended up not being able to perform, Rainey stepped up to do that as well, and has been doing it ever since.
“I showed up to their first rehearsal still pregnant, I think,” Rainey said. “Or maybe I just had my kid.”
Rainey said part of what drew her to the project is that she’s always looking for strong, female-led projects. At 34, Rainey already has a decade of performing under her belt, but said this experience has pushed her to grow.
“Being a singing soloist, that’s taken me for a bit of a ride emotionally,” Rainey said.
Being surrounded by people who understand her identity as a mother and an artist has been a boon.
“It’s been the hardest part of this whole thing is just navigating my gigging lifestyle around a new priority, and they’re a really safe bunch to navigate that with,” Rainey said.