"Blue skies, smiling at me ..." That must have been Irving Berlin himself, beaming from on high upon the 92nd Street Y's Lyrics & Lyricists mid-March program featuring his songs. From the first bars of music - a triumphant tuba "oompah" backed by banjo strumming - it was clear that good music and good cheer were ahead. Promise delivered.

Tracing Berlin's career from his popular songs of the early 1900s through his musical comedy and revue pieces of the '30s to his film songs for Fred Astaire - a body of work that reflected America's own changing styles through the years - the evening highlighted the warmth, effective simplicity yet underlying craftsmanship of Berlin's lyrics.

The evening's cast illuminated it clearly: singer/pianist/ragtime expert Max Morath, Broadway's Brian D'Arcy James, and theater singers Ivy Austin and Jenny Powers, performing to the robust accompaniment of Vince Giordano and The Nightawks, led by co-music director Jeffrey Klitz. One unannounced performer: Berlin himself, in a recording, singing his 1914 hit "Follow The Crowd."

CBS's Charles Osgood tripled in homey fashion as narrator and occasional vocalist and pianist. The art of binding it all together into a smooth-flowing, cohesive, entertaining whole was the work of the evening's artistic director and scripter, music historian Robert Kimball.

Lyrics & Lyricists, now in its 37th season, continues to pack the house in celebration of America's song wordsmiths.

Next up, May 5-7, Thanks for the Memories: The Lyrics of Leo Robin, with artistic direction by Andrea Marcovicci.

Peter Haas
Cabaret Scenes
March 17, 2007
www.cabaretscenes.org