Gregory Harrell
Cheeky Sneaky Love
Don’t Tell Mama, NYC, August 14, 2017
Reviewed by Bart Greenberg for Cabaret Scenes
Gregory Harrell welcomed his audience to his newest “solo show with lots of guest stars.” Six of them, in fact, along with pianist Bryan Wade doing yeoman work adjusting to the many styles and voices on display. This variety, unfortunately, contributed to a disjointed feeling. This fragmentation was exacerbated by the wide range of styles our host/star exhibited. He kicked things off with a Billy Eckstine-style “That’s All,” in time jumping to a restrained and finely-judged, Broadway baritone for “Some Enchanted Evening” and “Breeze Off the River,” before lunging into way-over-the-top camp for “A Man Could Go Quite Mad.” Exactly who is Greg Harrell?
We had no idea.
Some of the song choices also seemed slightly off. For a show devoted to love of various kinds, it is hard to say how “My Friends” (Sweeney Todd) and “Both Sides of the Coin” (The Mystery of Edwin Drood) fit in. However, it was nice to hear some off-beat material such as “To Excess” (Kooman and Dimond) and “Barton Hollows” (Joy Williams/John Paul White).
The guest stars, most of whom shared duets with Harrell and had solos, included: Livvy Marcus, a perky soubrette who had fun with “Orange Colored Sky”; Rosie Upton, offering up a throaty-voiced “Ev’ry Night at Seven,” happily including the rarely heard verse; Riley Ewing, bringing a weirdly charming personality to the aforementioned stalkerish “To Excess”; delightful Emily Wronski; amusing Jay Berkow; and sweet Colton Ryan, who delivered a sincere “Unchained Melody.” All are young, talented folks, but it would have been nice if they had dressed for a performance rather than a bar hop.
With all the talent on stage, a strong director would probably help in creating a more uniform show the next time they get together.
