It's a concert. It's theater. It's a musical retrospective.
Actually, "The Simon & Garfunkel Story" is all of the above.
This show, which stops in the Tivoli Theater on Tuesday, Oct. 29, is concert-style theatre about two boys from Queens, New York, who became one of music's most successful duos of all time.
"We have a group of six people onstage playing the music. But there's a whole backstory, a thread that goes through the story talking about Paul and Art, what they were going through personally at the time they were writing and singing this music," says Taylor Bloom, who sings the part of Paul Simon along with Ben Cooley as Art Garfunkel.
"Ben and I play the roles of the biggest Simon and Garfunkel fans. We are just ourselves; but when the music starts and we start to perform, we do our best to embody the sound of Simon and Garfunkel. Our goal is that when people shut their eyes and listen, they believe it's the real duo onstage," says Bloom.
Bloom says the immersive experience uses a full band, video projections, photos and original film footage to tell the pair's story from their beginning as Tom & Jerry to their breakup in 1970 before concluding with the famous 1981 concert in Central Park.
If you go
› What: “The Simon & Garfunkel Story”› Where: Tivoli Theatre, 709 Broad St.› When: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 29› Admission: $25-$65› For more information: 423-757-5580
Along the way, fans will hear all their favorite hits: "Mrs. Robinson," "Cecilia," "Bridge Over Troubled Water" and "Homeward Bound," for example.
"The show has a narrative where we talk about the songs - some have funny origin stories - but we also talk a little about what music was in response to things going on in the world at the time," Bloom explains.
Bloom won the Simon lead on his first audition for his first national tour.
"I moved to New York right after graduating college in 2017. I auditioned for 'Simon & Garfunkel Story' before actually moving to the city, so I was surfing on family and friends' futons and had to borrow a guitar. It was my first professional audition in New York," the Virginia native describes.
Although Simon & Garfunkel was the soundtrack of baby boomers' youth, Bloom insists this show is for all ages.
"This music is some of the most timeless American folk/pop music ever written. They will understand this music more deeply given the stories we tell between songs."
Contact Susan Pierce at spierce@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6284.