26th Annual NY Cabaret Convention: Duke & Hamlisch

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26th Annual New York Cabaret Convention

What I Did for Love/Taking a Chance on Love
The Music of Vernon Duke & Marvin Hamlisch

The Town Hall, NYC, October 16, 2015

Reviewed by Peter Haas for Cabaret Scenes

Photos by Maryann Lopinto

Klea Blackhurst
Klea Blackhurst

Two of the American Songbook’s greatest writers were the stars –although absent – of the final evening of the 2015 Cabaret Convention, on Friday, October 16, as the songs of Vernon Duke and Marvin Hamlisch were performed by a parade of top performers.

Setting the evening’s warm-hearted style was Klea Blackhurst, returning as hostess and interlocutor. In her early MCing years a tad over-the-top, Klea has emerged as charming and knowledgeable, with a contagious affection for the music and its interpreters. Among the evening’s highlights:

Matt Baker
Matt Baker
Nancy McCall
Nancy McCall
Shawn Ryan
Shawn Ryan

The show’s first half was devoted to Duke, who wrote with a number of lyricists (few of whom, alas, were mentioned), and who also wrote classical pieces under his original name, Vladimir Dukelsky. Klea led the parade with an upbeat “Not a Care in the World” (lyrics: John Latouche), followed by Matt Baker with a jazz piano version of  “I’m Gonna Ring the Bell Tonight” (lyrics: E.Y. Harburg) and his playing and singing of “Taking a Chance on Love” (lyrics: Latouche and Ted Fetter). Nancy McCall shone with a heartfelt “Roundabout,” from the failed Sweet Bye and Bye, recycled for Two’s Company, with lyrics by Ogden Nash. Shawn Ryan, obeying instructions to the men to dress in black tie, dutifully sported one atop a traffic-stopping rainbow-colored suit, performing such Duke classics as “I Like the Likes of You” (Harburg), plus “Cabin in the Sky” and “Honey in the Honeycomb” (both: Latouche). Shana Farr held the stage, sans mic, with “The Love I Long For” (lyrics: Howard Dietz) while Eric Yves Garcia, singing at the piano, slid off the bench (while Jon Weber slid on) to move center stage to the microphone for a second, stand-up number. The classic “Autumn in New York” for which Duke wrote both the music and lyrics, was given a lovely performance by Tammy McCann, while Klea completed the first act with a danceable “Dancing in the Streets” (lyrics: Dietz).

Shana Farr
Shana Farr
Eric Yves Garcia
Eric Yves Garcia
Tammy McCann
Tammy McCann

Act Two featured the music of Marvin Hamlisch, with another all-star lineup of performers. Klea opened with “Nobody Does It Better” (lyrics: Carole Bayer Sager), while other performers included Carol Woods (“Too Good to Be Bad”; lyrics: David Zippel), Heather Mac Rae (“Through the Eyes of Love”;  Sager), Marieann Meringolo (the classic “The Way We Were”; Alan and Marilyn Bergman) and Eric Michael Gillett in a powerhouse “I Cannot Hear the City” (lyrics: Craig Carnelia) from Sweet Smell of Success. Among those in the audience applauding: Hamlisch’s charming widow, Terre Blair Hamlisch.

Valerie Lemon
Valerie Lemon
Heather Mac Rae
Heather Mac Rae
Marieann Meringolo
Marieann Meringolo
Eric Michael Gillett
Eric Michael Gillett

The evening, and the Convention, ended with Carol Woods joined onstage by the young singers of the Broadway by the Year Chorus,  performing Marvin Hamlisch’s classic from A Chorus Line, “What I Did for Love” (Edward Kleban).

Scott Coulter
Scott Coulter
Raissa Katona Bennett
Raissa Katona Bennett
Liam Forde
Liam Forde
Carol Woods & Company
Carol Woods & Company

Congratulations and thanks to the superb Mabel Mercer Foundation team behind the series, which includes Rick Meadows, Jason Martin, Alyce Finnell, and the organization’s she’s-everywhere Artistic Director, KT Sullivan.

Peter Haas

Writer, editor, lyricist and banjo plunker, Peter Haas has been contributing features and performance reviews for Cabaret Scenes since the magazine’s infancy. As a young folk-singer, he co-starred on Channel 13’s first children’s series, Once Upon a Day; wrote scripts, lyrics and performed on Pickwick Records’ children’s albums, and co-starred on the folk album, All Day Singing. In a corporate career, Peter managed editorial functions for CBS Records and McGraw-Hill, and today writes for a stable of business magazines. An ASCAP Award-winning lyricist, his work has been performed at Carnegie Hall, Feinstein’s, Metropolitan Room and other fine saloons.