Linda Eder, Tom Wopat Are Crowd Pleasers at CSUN

By the time she reached her second encore, Linda Eder could have phoned it in. The full house at CSUN's had already rewarded her with a standing ovation, which capped round after round of enthusiastic applause.

Eder didn't phone it in, though. She belted out Man of La Mancha with the same fire and passion she brought to practically every song in her set Sunday night, following Tom Wopat's opening performance.

Eder has been stunning audiences since at least 1987, when she was selected top Star Search singer 12 weeks in a row. Her uniquely beautiful sound has been so widely praised that she is able to call her fan newsletter The Voice without a shred of immodesty.

Though she is capable of handling virtually any musical genre, Eder's bread and butter are theatrical tunes and popular music, all of it infused with her own unique phrasing and arrangement. Even within those two categories, Eder boasts a wide-ranging repertoire. "If you don't like one style," she told the admiring audience, "just wait a minute."

Among the old favorites to which she brought new life were such numbers as If It Takes Forever, Blue Skies, The Street Where You Live, Every Little Thing and Charade, the latter written by Henry Mancini just a few blocks from where Eder performed it.

Eder also sprinkled her set with at least four numbers from Now, her latest album, released this year. The CD was born of a collaboration with Broadway and pop composer, Frank Wildhorn. Eder took pains to  emphasize that this reunion with her ex (they married in 1998 and divorced six years later) was limited to musical teamwork.

Among the cuts from Now performed by Eder were The Mad Hatter, A Woman in His Arms, More than Heaven and No Finer Man.

Clad in a thigh-hugging mini-dress with sequin waist and neckline, Eder looked every bit as appealing as her publicity photos. Wopat, on the other hand, would have been unrecognizable from his. Gone were the mustache and the thick mane of hair from the time in the 1970s when he played Luke Duke on The Dukes of Hazard.

Gone, too, was his satchel full of country songs. Wopat said he changed his style about 12 years ago, when he starred opposite Bernadette Peters in a revival of Annie Get Your Gun.  During his hourlong set, Wopat's style was fresh and jazzy. His opening number, Cool, and his penultimate song, Jet Song, both from West Side Story, were delivered in a breezy style.

A rendition of Let's Fall in Love had plenty of swing. George and Ira Gershwin's But Not For Me was delivered with a smooth, confident feel. Also enjoyable were Wopat's own composition, love ballad Thailand Sea and A New Town is a Blue Town from The Pajama Game.

Even at 60, Wopat's voice was still strong and evocative. His showmanship between numbers, however, left a little something to be desired. When he wasn't merely announcing his next number, he was praising over and over and over again the three musicians who backed him onstage.