If you are emotionally exhausted from the non-stop grim news assaulting your senses and sensibilities, you should spend a couple of hours smiling and laughing at "Bravo to Broadway!"

The fourth in the pops series at the Naples Philharmonic Center for the Arts, "Bravo" opened Tuesday evening and will continue through Sunday afternoon.

Conducted by the award-winning Donald Pippin, returning for yet another stint as pops guest conductor, the stage was bursting at the seams with music and musicians, including the Naples Philharmonic Orchestra, the 100-strong Philharmonic Chorale, a grand piano and, from time to time, three award-winning guest soloists — the raven-haired Debbie Gravitte, Rebecca Luker and Doug LaBrecque.

Despite the fact each of the other pops concerts in this series has showcased the same genre of music, none of the music sounds or feels redundant. The only thing redundant about any of it this season has been the audience's enthusiasm. That's a good thing.

Pippin, who looks like a fullback but moves with surprising agility (hopping up and down on the podium to alternate between conducting and piano-playing), is a distinctive bass-voiced speaker who has a knack for inviting himself into your musical living room, chatting, not just with the soloists, but with the audience like old friends.

Despite the fact he has won every kind of award imaginable, it was he who lavished praise on everyone else on stage. I especially liked Pippin's comments about the choral group never needing to feel apologetic because they are a volunteer, amateur chorus.

As Pippin noted while the crowd roared its approval, the Titanic was designed by professionals, was navigated by professionals, and was sunk by professionals. Noah's Ark, on the other hand, survived the Great Flood, with all its two- and four-legged cargo intact.

Fourteen memorable classics were interwoven in the evening's first selection, called "Hollywood Salute." "Hooray For Hollywood" had no sooner begun than it segued into "Gone With The Wind," "Over The Rainbow," "Star Wars, "Around the World In 80 Days," "Moon River," "Wish Upon A Star," and a host of other tunes.

Next up was some toe-tapping fun as the three guest vocalists were joined by Pippin at piano and vocal and, midway, by the Philharmonic Chorale. As the lyrics go, "Who could ask for anything more?"

Like pure hokum and a little honky-tonk piano? You would have been mentally shimmying during Irving Berlin's "I Love A Piano," trumpets and trombones replete with mutes so they could "wail."

The shimmying — physical, not mental kicked into high gear during a great arrangement of "All That Jazz" from "Chicago." More mutes, some admirable "vamping" by Gravitte and Luker (although it's nearly impossible to match Queen Latifah's chutzpah), a taste of jitterbugging during "Thoroughly Modern Millie," and the first truly poignant selection of the evening — from "Titanic." "My Heart Will Go On" managed to tug on the heartstrings helped, in no small measure, by some gentle piccolo and oboe, a touch of xylophone and, to make it more magical, the liquid sounds of harp arpeggios.

Then the mood got melancholy and the chorale got to shine. Kudos to Pippin for his vocal arrangement of George Gershwin's "A Foggy Day." Only a touch of mist and some streetlights were absent on stage to complete the effect.

Gravitte got the packed house roaring with her vamped-up, double-time "Tico Tico." Still not satisfied with that tongue-twisting speed, she and Pippin did an "Emeril," and kicked it up a notch. They doubled the double-time. Cheers and whistles greeted that effort.

LaBrecque shined in "The Prayer," made famous by Andrea Bocelli and Celine Dion. From "The Quest For Camelot," with an excellent front and center piano accompaniment by Jim Cochran, there were few dry eyes upon its completion.

Still the selections kept coming. Glenn Basham, violin, and Adam Satinsky, cello, added to the drama of the grand waltz in Jerome Moross' "The Waltz From Cardinal." This was the only time, frankly, I thought the amplification was slightly off since Basham, whose violin normally soars, felt too soft in comparison to the balance of the orchestra during the first several measures.

Any question about whether the audience got its money's worth should have been answered with my pick of the evening: selections from Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Phantom Of The Opera."

With Luker singing from the stage and LaBrecque singing from somewhere off stage, you could practically feel chills when everyone realized LaBrecque was in the audience, slowly walking down the aisle as the duo nailed "The Music Of The Night."

The audience awarded those efforts with cheers and a prolonged standing ovation — in the middle of the concert!

Yes, there was still more: another standing ovation, an encore. It was superfluous. It was already another four-star evening of pops.