Hanna Burke
Why Is Everyone Laughing?
Metropolitan Room, NYC, July 17, 2016
Reviewed by Joel Benjamin for Cabaret Scenes
Hanna Burke’s tribute to the late Madeline Kahn, Why Is Everyone Laughing?, was moving and entertaining in equal measure. A fine singer herself, Burke somehow found new and different facets of her own voice by infusing it with shades of Kahn’s eccentrically sweet soprano.
After a short series of film/video clips—Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, Paper Moon, What’s Up, Doc?—Burke began her musical exploration of Kahn’s life and career, dividing the song list among her musicals, films and some odds and ends meant to illuminate the short—but brilliant—life and career of this extravagantly funny lady who never truly, deeply understood “Why is everyone laughing?”
The odds and ends included a sweet “Make Believe” (Kern/Hammerstein) and four songs from Sondheim’s Anyone Can Whistle [The actress had performed Angela Lansbury’s original role in a one-night concert which was recorded for CD]: “There’s Always a Woman,” “Cookie Chase,” “Me and My Town” and “There’s a Parade in Town,” the last paired with Jerry Herman’s “Before the Parade Passes By,” all of which served as comments on different periods of Kahn’s very busy life, including the trials and tribulations of her career and personal life. A sassy “You’d Be Surprised” (Irving Berlin) and a crazily nervous “Getting Married Today” (Sondheim) added humor to the proceedings.
From On the Twentieth Century (Coleman/Comden & Green), a musical rife with disappointments and triumphs for Kahn, Burke sang the epic “Babette” and the adamant “Never” with great humor, hitting the outer edges of her soprano.
The highlight of the show was the song most identified with Kahn as her ersatz Marlene Dietrich character, Lili Von Schtupp, from Blazing Saddles: “Tired” (Mel Brooks). Burke, a beauty in her own right, added just the right note of sexuality.
She was helped immensely by the musical direction of Matthew Bennis and her talented and witty musical cohorts—Will Anderson, Rachael Joyce and Adrian Rifat.
