Michael Feinstein: Honoring Alan and Marilyn Bergman

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Michael Feinstein

Honoring Alan and Marilyn Bergman

Feinstein’s at the Nikko, San Francisco, CA, May 18, 2016

Reviewed by Steve Murray for Cabaret Scenes

Michael-Feinstein-Cabaret-Scenes-Magazine_212I guess when the namesake of the club asks to perform a four-night run, you kinda have to say yes, right? I mean the guy is Michael Feinstein, the keeper of our greatest export, the Great American Songbook. That alone would secure him carte blanche at any venue, anywhere in the world. In this show, honoring the contributions of lyricists Alan and Marilyn Bergman, Feinstein does what he does best—share the music and tell some phenomenal backstories about the history of its creations.

Lyrically, the Bergmans have written the soundtrack for romance—from blossom to bloom to withering.

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Feinstein is vocally at his best on ballads and “Where Do You Start?,” with music by Johnny Mandel, “What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life?” and “One at a Time” (both with music by Michel Legrand) are great examples. “Too Marvelous for Words” (Johnny Mercer/Richard Whiting), a nod to the Bergmans’ mentor Johnny Mercer, is  deliciously sophisticated wordplay that is totally in synch with the music.

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According to Feinstein, the sweet lullaby “And I’ll Be There” (music: Dave Grusin), was written for a Bette Midler film, but was nixed, allowing him to introduce the song himself.
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Another Bergman story was that the swing tune “That Face,” written by Alan Bergman and Lew Spence, was Alan’s proposal song to Marilyn.
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It’s just that kind of fascinating tidbit that makes a Feinstein show so remarkable.

“Fifty Percent” (music: Billy Goldenberg), a showstopper from the 1978 musical Ballroom, was a set highlight. The bittersweet song is about a widowed woman who would rather deal with having a person just part of the time than not at all, but has been adapted lyrically to be sung from a male/male perspective, and Feinstein adds to the list of gay vocalists, having only recently receiving the right to marry, who relish the opportunity to sing this epic show tune .

Feinstein and his seemingly never-ending compendium of musical knowledge can drop into his club here in San Francisco anytime he wants!

Michael continues at the club through May 22.

Steve Murray

Always interested in the arts, Steve was encouraged to begin producing and, in 1998, staged four, one-man vehicles starring San Francisco's most gifted performers. In 1999, he began the Viva Variety series, a live stage show with a threefold mission to highlight, support, and encourage gay and gay-friendly art in all the performance forms, to entertain and document the shows, and to contribute to the community by donating proceeds to local non-profits. The shows utilized the old variety show style popularized by his childhood idol Ed Sullivan. He’s produced over 150 successful shows, including parodies of Bette Davis’s gothic melodramedy Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte and Joan Crawford’s very awful Trog. He joined Cabaret Scenes 2007 and enjoys the writing and relationships he’s built with very talented performers.