We 3
The Great American Songbook
Phoenix Theatre Company, Phoenix, AZ, September 18, 2020
Reviewed by Lynn Timmons Edwards
This is the second time that I have had the joy of reviewing We 3, having seen them live for the first time at Arizona’s Musical Instrument Museum Performing Arts Center. On September 18 they were live on Facebook from the lobby of the Phoenix Theatre Company. Their Great American Songbook show is straight-forward and sincere. Nicole Pesce does most of the storytelling from a script placed on her piano. She is the artistic anchor, the sun around which the stars and the moon revolve in the form of violin and voice.
Suzanne Lansford (violin) kicked off the show with Johnny Frigo’s arrangement of Jerome Kern/Oscar Hammerstein’s “The Song Is You,” which builds at one point to a frantic tempo. Joined by vocalist Renee Grant Patrick, the three mellowed on Kern’s collaboration with Dorothy Fields, “The Way You Look Tonight.” Patrick shined on “Teach Me Tonight (Gene de Paul/Sammy Cahn) and “Time After Time” (Jule Styne/Cahn). Phoenix Theatre provided excellent camera work showing Patrick’s ability to blend her voice as an instrument equal to the musicians.
My favorite Gershwins’ song, “They Can’t Take That Away from Me,” was done in a jazz style, showcasing Lansford’s delicate picking as each woman took her turn with the melody. Pesce introduced “Summertime” (George Gershwin/ Ira Gershwin/Du Bose and Dorothy Heyward) as the most covered song of all time, more than 25,000 versions in all. She introduced it with a slow staccato but let it take off as once again the melody went from voice to violin to piano and back again. The piece de resistance for both Gershwin and Pesce might be Gershwin’s 1924 “Rhapsody in Blue.” Pesce played it in its entirety as though she had four hands and got a standing ovation in my living room.
You cannot do The Great American Songbook without Irving Berlin and Cole Porter. Lansford introduced her rendition of ‘Puttin’ on the Ritz” as Gypsy Jazz, which became popular in Europe and, when it came to the United States, put extra pizazz into the songs of Tin Pan Alley. Pesce gave the audience some background on Berlin’s transposing piano built especially for him before playing his 1935 hit “Cheek to Cheek.” She followed that with Porter’s “Anything Goes” getting a little help from Lansford’s violin. They both filled the song with musical riffs, chromatic jazz improvisations, and musical quotes that made it uniquely their own.
Phoenix Theatre’s Artistic Director Michael Barnard opened and closed the cabaret and invited the audience to stay tuned to their reopening in a new outdoor space, promising that audiences would see more of We 3 in the future.
