Not having seen Mary Cleere Haran in far too long, we trekked down to Greenwich Village’s Cornelia Street Café where, we noted, she was bringing her ongoing Monday night show from a Brooklyn spot into Manhattan.  Even at first sight, we were glad to be there.  She looked like a million and later would quip it’s being in love.

But this show was not the Mary Cleere Haran for whom we’ve fallen so many times in the past.  No follow-up to her Doris Day show this past fall at Feinstein’s (where she returns mid-April), nor her Lullaby of Broadway show at the same spot two years earlier that had the New York Times’ critic digging deep for sufficiently enthusiastic praise.  This is Mary Cleere Haran, the good-spirited hostess who’s giving a house party and has invited all her friends to come on over to have a good time, and meet one of the notables with whom she’s worked.

Sure, she sings, and as captivatingly as ever, opening with a standard from the show (remember its usual venue), “Where Can You Go In Brooklyn?”  But Haran is hosting more than singing at this gathering, and the spotlight is on her piano-playing songwriting colleague, Debra Barsha, and the guest – this time, producer Richard Jay-Alexander – even more than on Haran.  Although we’re there to hear Haran, Barsha’s got style, and Jay-Alexander is interesting and funny as well as a pleasant singer/performer.   Barsha is an actress, a talented melodist, a clever lyricist, and composer and co-lyricist of an off-Broadway musical, Radiant Baby, which garnered three Lucille Lortel nominations.  “Throbbing melodies,” the New York Times noted.  For this audience, she came on strong with “Dykes Want Babies (Buying Sperm on Line).”

Guest Jay-Alexander, whose next big job is directing the Hollywood Bowl’s production of Les Miserables, was full of tales out of school about celebs he’s known, primarily insisting that most rumors that make the rounds are without any basis in fact. The show, or more accurately the party, was indeed a gathering of friends, and the banter from the stage was akin to the conversation friends have over a drink or two. We were treated to tales of Haran in her youthful California days, guest Jay-Alexander’s stint in Babylon Beach Blanket and his more recent telephone calls to Streisand discussing some wildly inaccurate fiction of the day.  All, amusing, intimate and absorbing.  He and Haran teamed up on a duet of “This Can’t Be Love,” followed by his dipping into a give-away bag from which he retrieved and gave out to the audience, VHS tapes of his favorite performers, CDs, cassette recordings, photographs, a book, a bag of coffee, even a Christmas tree ornament.  As noted: much more a house party than a conventional show.

But also as noted, a charming event in its way, and held in Cornelia Street Café’s very suitable and cozy cellar boîte, a space conducive to the informality and the intimacy of the evening.  And one big plus: the Café’s food is well worth ordering. 

If you want Haran’s usual concentration on her songs, you can head up to Feinstein’s for her show there.  But if you enjoy the company of good friends, with food and drink to help while the night away, Night on the Town, is well worth a night on the town.

Mary Cleere Haran, Debra Barsha and a new celebrity guest will be back at Cornelia Street Café one Monday each month. Call to check on dates.

Peter Leavy
Cabaret Scenes
March 31, 2008
www.cabaretscenes.org