Forecasting ‘Sunshine’ and ‘Raindrop’ Sunday in Laguna Woods Village
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LAGUNA WOODS — Last November, Laguna Woods resident and singer David “Raindrop” Hartman suffered a stroke. When he bounced back to partial recovery, he had one wish: to spend more time on stage, singing alongside his wife.
“I said absolutely not!” said Sunshine Lutey, president of the 40-member Sunshine Performance Club and wife to Hartman.
Upon second thought, she changed her tune.
“This man sings beautifully, he will be 95 in a few months and in the last show, we only had space for him to sing one solo,” she reflected. “Why am I saying no to this man?”
After a month of strict, two-hour practices post-recovery, the 95-year-old World War II combat veteran will co-star with his wife on Sunday, June 9, in “An Evening of Song with Sunshine and Raindrop” at the Laguna Woods Village Performing Arts Center.
A pre-show video will be screened at 6 p.m., cataloging Laguna Woods Village’s historical establishment since 1964, then leading into a personal history behind Hartman and Lutey’s convergence, now 25 years in the making. The curtain is scheduled for 7 p.m.
Broadway pianist Jackie O’Neil will be the backbone of “the evening.” Over the course of her career, O’Neil has backed the Rockettes at Radio City Music Hall, Carol Burnett, Vic Damone and Sonny and Cher, to name a few.
O’Neil will be introducing the show with a ragtime medley, flowing into two songs from “Annie Get Your Gun.” Show highlights include a cover of “Make Believe” from “Showboat,” “I’ve Grown Accustomed To Her Face” from “My Fair Lady” and three songs from “Fiddler on the Roof,” performed in character.
Additionally, Hartman will be performing an original song with lyrics based on a written poem he found in a foxhole during combat at the Battle of the Bulge, Lutey said.
The couple have performed in over 20 musical variety shows, raising more than $100,000 for local charities including The Foundation of Laguna Woods Village, Alzheimer’s Orange County and Saddleback Kiwanis Foundation.
After moving into the Village one year apart from each other in the mid-1990s, the soulmate singers met through a mutual connection — Hartman was golf buddies with Lutey’s first husband, Lloyd, of 43 years.
After Lloyd died, Hartman reached out to Lutey for dinner, as he had just lost his wife, Phyllis, of 53 years a few months earlier. She hung up.
As time healed the two, Hartman called again, this time inviting her to the golf community’s annual New Year’s party — an event the two had attended as parts of separate pairs.
But it was love at first live performance, as Hartman inquired about the karaoke machine off to the side when he stopped by to pick her up for the event.
He pressed play, but she did him one better and got behind the piano. She followed him into the first few notes of “On the Street Where You Live” from the 1956 Broadway musical “My Fair Lady,” when he blew her away.
“His voice is really something unique,” Lutey said.
As for the dreamy love ballad by Frederick Loewe and Alan Jay Lerner, Hartman will be revisiting that street during Sunday’s program.
“It was probably the first song I played for him on the piano,” Lutey said. “That’s when I think he fell in love.”
An Evening of Song with Sunshine and Raindrop; Jackie O’Neil on Piano
When: Sunday, June 8 (6 p.m. pre-show, 7 p.m. curtain)
Where: Laguna Woods Village Performing Arts Center
Admission: Free; donations to the Foundation of Laguna Woods Village welcome
Note: For Laguna Woods Village residents and their guests only.