Corinna Sowers Adler: Something Beautiful

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Corinna Sowers Adler

Music Over Manhattan: Something Beautiful

Appel Room, NYC, November 5, 2016

Reviewed by Victoria Ordin for Cabaret Scenes

Corinna Sowers Adler Photo: Maryann Lopinto
Corinna Sowers Adler
Photo: Maryann Lopinto

In Music Over Manhattan: Something Beautiful, Corinna Sowers Adler, with her dazzling pianist and Musical Director, Lawrence Yurman, outstanding bassist Christian Fabian, and impressive drummer Colleen Clark, delivered a memorable and, yes, beautiful, set at Lincoln Center’s Appel Room.

With 11 Broadway cast albums and 12 seasons of American Idol under his belt, Yurman is as good as it gets. Clark, the only musician in America working on a doctorate in drum performance (she flew in from the University of North Texas for the show), plays with the Berklee-trained Fabian, who studied with Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter, and the night’s trio sounds like a group that’s been playing together all their lives.

Adler, a classical singer with impeccable breath control and vocal clarity, transitions easily (even within a phrase) between registers and styles. A Tony nominee in 2015 and 2016 for excellence in theater education, the singer is founding artistic director of NiCori Studios and Productions. She projects the confidence and theatricality of a veteran stage actor, whether she’s singing musical theater material (Stephen Schwartz’s “Spark of Creation” or “Defying Gravity”), pop/folk (Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now” or Mary Chapin Carpenter’s “Why Walk When You Can Fly”) or jazz (Frank Wildhorn’s “Don’t Ask Me Why).”

The performer lights up when she sings with her talented students. One can feel the mutual love between her and the talented students, whose harmonies are terrific, particularly on “Why Walk When You Can Fly?” (some of which is a cappella) and the ensemble “Defying Gravity” (which includes a fun Hamilton moment).

“Both Sides Now” was Adler’s solo hit of the evening, thanks in part to an inventive arrangement by Alex Rybeck. It was impossible not to weep from the moment Yurman played the ballad’s familiar opening bars. Following Mitchell with “The Secret to Happiness” was nothing short of inspired: in four years of attending cabaret regularly, I’ve never heard a single song from Daddy Long Legs, Paul Gordon’s brilliant and underrated musical. The duet with T. Oliver Reid, “Everywhere You Are” (Benj Pasek/Justin Paul)—a poignant song about feeling connected to loved ones who have died—struck a nerve in the audience to judge by the complete silence in the room. Reid shined solo in “Isn’t It Romantic” (Rodgers & Hart).

The least successful numbers of the evening were “New York State of Mind” (Billy Joel) and “Beautiful” (Carole King), and both for the same reason: Adler imposes classical style on these pop songs. But the drum and bass solos on the Joel tune (which, truthfully, I can’t bear) were fantastic.

A lesser-known but beautiful Grammy-nominated song by Ilene Angel and Tanya Leah, “In Color,” was perhaps the show’s biggest surprise (not withstanding the baffling inclusion of a redundant and unremarkable dance by a longtime teacher and educator, Lisa Grimes). Another oddity was the brightness of the lights, which never fully dimmed over the audience.

The evening ended anti-climactically with Stephen Schwartz’ “Beautiful City.” Thematically, it worked as a finale, but she would have done better to end either with “Defying Gravity” or the hymn-like “Children Will Listen” (Sondheim) with particular resonance in this frenzied, depressing electoral season.