‘Tenderly’ brings Nat King Cole’s music to Sunset Lounge

Published 1:30 am Friday, August 14, 2026

PORT ANGELES — Young Duane Forrest grew up surrounded by reggae rhythms. His Jamaican family lived in Toronto, Canada, and brought Bob Marley with them on records and the radio.

“I’d change the station,” Forrest recalled. “I listened to a lot of classical music. I heard jazz, but it didn’t really capture me until I heard his voice.”

The voice was that of Nat King Cole. The sound led Forrest into a place he’d never been before.

Weaving together songs such as “Nature Boy,” “The Very Thought of You” and the show’s title number, “Tenderly,” Forrest will bring Cole’s story to the Sunset Lounge at Field Arts & Events Hall from Tuesday through Thursday.

This is brand new, the singer and guitarist said, a production that has been performed just a few times, at the fringe festival in Hollywood, Calif., in Calgary, Alberta, and at Canada’s Winnipeg Fringe Festival, where it earned a five-star review.

Tickets to the 6 p.m. performances are available at fieldhallevents.org and at the Field Hall box office at 201 W. Front St., Port Angeles.

The show, Forrest said, starts in an unusual fashion.

“As people are coming in, the band will be playing, but I won’t be inside the room,” he began.

A camera person will livestream elements of the show, including his entrance, and project Forrest’s image onto the wall of the Sunset Lounge.

“Then I’ll come into the space, and the camera will follow me,” he said.

Forrest will arrive on stage, join the band, and tell the story of Black musicians in Cole’s day.

Entertainers such as Cole, as popular as they were with white audiences from the 1940s through the early ’60s, could not enter venues through the front door, Forrest said. Often, Black artists were made to enter through the kitchen.

“Tenderly: The Life and Times of Nat King Cole” will be an evening of music, an interlude with a man who, as Forrest puts it, is elegance personified. The show also steps back in time to an era when Black performers endured discrimination — and worse — as they offered their artistry to American audiences.

Major stars such as Louis Armstrong smiled and brought ineffable joy to people, Forrest added, yet they were forced to stay in segregated hotels and couldn’t so much as use the restaurant bathroom whites used.

Forrest created this new production about Cole’s life after making a name for himself with another show. Titled “Bob Marley: How Reggae Music Changed the World,” that performance has taken him across the world, from the United States to Scotland to Australia.

Steve Raider-Ginsburg, artistic and executive director of Field Hall, happened to catch a performance of “Bob Marley.”

“It blew me away, so I reached out to Duane and asked if he would be in our area any time,” and sure enough, Forrest was coming to the West Coast in August.

“I couldn’t be more excited to share Duane’s joy, talent and skill with our audiences,” Raider-Ginsburg said, adding that three local musicians will be Forrest’s jazz trio: Joel Ricci on trumpet, Pete Harris on drums and Jesse Ahmann on double bass.

The three performances of “Tenderly” will be presented with support from the Donald & Suzie Nunley Theater Fund, which also backed the six Broadway at Sunset performances in July. The fund supports accessible theater for local audiences, and it establishes a foundation for future Field Hall productions, Raider-Ginsburg said.

As it turns out, Forrest’s “Bob Marley” show will arrive at Field Hall on Nov. 20; tickets are available at fieldhallevents.org.

Donald Nunley had a long career as a Hollywood prop master, production designer and set decorator, Raider-Ginsburg said. He added that Nunley was a man who understood the ingenuity and collaboration that happens behind the scenes of a stage show or a movie, all in the service of giving the audience an unforgettable experience.

In “Tenderly,” Forrest and his band offer 70 minutes with Cole, his music and his journey. Forrest hopes to give his listeners a deeper appreciation for jazz — and the people who brought this American-born art form forward.

“I think knowing the context it was born in,” he said, “makes it so much more beautiful and powerful.”

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Diane Urbani de la Paz is a freelance writer and photographer who lives in Port Townsend.