KT Sullivan has created what portends to be an annual event.  “Let’s look back a hundred years,” she has said in essence, “at all the wonderful songs written by songwriters, or made famous by performers, born that year.”  There was, indeed, a wealth of talent born in 1907 that Sullivan and Director Eric Michael Gillett had to draw upon for 1907 -- It Was a Very Good Year at Carnegie Hall.

Alec Wilder’s “Songs Were Made to Sing,” provided a choice opener for Sullivan, who then passed the mike to Valerie Lemon, and songs identified with Jane Froman.  The rest of the night was an admirable cornucopia, featuring performers Allan Harris, Karen Kohler, Nancy McGraw, Craig Rubano, Olivia Stevens and Tim Sullivan.  Even Director Gillett had a chance to shine with a couple of songs, as the show visited centenarians as varied as Edward Heyman, Gene Autry, Connee Boswell, Kate Smith and Cab Calloway.

The program bent the rules only once, for Oscar Levant, a December 27th, 1906 baby, to include “Blame It on My Youth.”  One other near-miss to the century mark, 99-year old songwriter and wag Bernie Bierman, was in the audience and, when acknowledged, retorted, “You could have included my songs if my mother hadn’t said ‘no’ for nine months.”  There’s little doubt, based on the success of this initial program, that we’ll be seeing the follow-up for 2008 come the New Year.

One thing that could bring it to an even brighter sheen would be to take a leaf out the Scott Siegel book and his inclusion of anecdotal memorabilia in his analogous Broadway by the Year shows.  It might not relate directly to the music, but it would be interesting to note that a nickel then was the equivalent of a dollar today, or that the country sported 8000 automobiles but only ten miles of paved roads.  Of course, Sullivan offered a bit of that. Oklahoma entered the union as its forty-sixth state in 1907, and KT’s memorializing that with Rodgers and Hammerstein’s signature tribute song was exhilarating.  There’s no denying It Was a Very Good Year.

Peter Leavy
Cabaret Scenes
November 27, 2007
www.cabaretscenes.org