26th Annual New York Cabaret Convention
What I Did for Love/Taking a Chance on Love
The Music of Vernon Duke & Marvin Hamlisch
The Town Hall, NYC, October 16, 2015
Reviewed by Peter Haas for Cabaret Scenes
Photos by Maryann Lopinto
Two of the American Songbook’s greatest writers were the stars –although absent – of the final evening of the 2015 Cabaret Convention, on Friday, October 16, as the songs of Vernon Duke and Marvin Hamlisch were performed by a parade of top performers.
Setting the evening’s warm-hearted style was Klea Blackhurst, returning as hostess and interlocutor. In her early MCing years a tad over-the-top, Klea has emerged as charming and knowledgeable, with a contagious affection for the music and its interpreters. Among the evening’s highlights:
The show’s first half was devoted to Duke, who wrote with a number of lyricists (few of whom, alas, were mentioned), and who also wrote classical pieces under his original name, Vladimir Dukelsky. Klea led the parade with an upbeat “Not a Care in the World” (lyrics: John Latouche), followed by Matt Baker with a jazz piano version of “I’m Gonna Ring the Bell Tonight” (lyrics: E.Y. Harburg) and his playing and singing of “Taking a Chance on Love” (lyrics: Latouche and Ted Fetter). Nancy McCall shone with a heartfelt “Roundabout,” from the failed Sweet Bye and Bye, recycled for Two’s Company, with lyrics by Ogden Nash. Shawn Ryan, obeying instructions to the men to dress in black tie, dutifully sported one atop a traffic-stopping rainbow-colored suit, performing such Duke classics as “I Like the Likes of You” (Harburg), plus “Cabin in the Sky” and “Honey in the Honeycomb” (both: Latouche). Shana Farr held the stage, sans mic, with “The Love I Long For” (lyrics: Howard Dietz) while Eric Yves Garcia, singing at the piano, slid off the bench (while Jon Weber slid on) to move center stage to the microphone for a second, stand-up number. The classic “Autumn in New York” for which Duke wrote both the music and lyrics, was given a lovely performance by Tammy McCann, while Klea completed the first act with a danceable “Dancing in the Streets” (lyrics: Dietz).
Act Two featured the music of Marvin Hamlisch, with another all-star lineup of performers. Klea opened with “Nobody Does It Better” (lyrics: Carole Bayer Sager), while other performers included Carol Woods (“Too Good to Be Bad”; lyrics: David Zippel), Heather Mac Rae (“Through the Eyes of Love”; Sager), Marieann Meringolo (the classic “The Way We Were”; Alan and Marilyn Bergman) and Eric Michael Gillett in a powerhouse “I Cannot Hear the City” (lyrics: Craig Carnelia) from Sweet Smell of Success. Among those in the audience applauding: Hamlisch’s charming widow, Terre Blair Hamlisch.
The evening, and the Convention, ended with Carol Woods joined onstage by the young singers of the Broadway by the Year Chorus, performing Marvin Hamlisch’s classic from A Chorus Line, “What I Did for Love” (Edward Kleban).
Congratulations and thanks to the superb Mabel Mercer Foundation team behind the series, which includes Rick Meadows, Jason Martin, Alyce Finnell, and the organization’s she’s-everywhere Artistic Director, KT Sullivan.
