Broadway by the Year
The Broadway Musicals of 1947 & 1966
The Town Hall, NYC, March 26, 2018
Reviewed by Peter Haas for Cabaret Scenes
Photo: JWPHOTONYC
Scott Siegel’s Broadway by the Year series, now in its 17th season, has been hailed as “a jewel in the cabaret crown of New York.” Latest evidence: its recent production, The Broadway Musicals of 1947 and 1966, featuring songs from nine of Broadway’s iconic productions.
Packing The Town Hall on a Monday night, the show opened as Siegel set the scene for 1947—a year in which Pan American Airlines first offered round-the-world tickets, Jackie Robinson became the first African-American to play in major-league baseball, and bank robber Willie Sutton escaped from jail.
A hit show from that year was Finian’s Rainbow, featuring such songs as “How Are Things in Glocca Morra?,” “Look to the Rainbow,” “Old Devil Moon,” all performed neatly by the show’s young cast, and “When I’m Not Near the Girl I Love,” sung in merry fashion by appealing comic Eddie Korbich. The year also included Allegro (with “The Gentleman Is a Dope”) and Brigadoon, which featured such classics as “Almost Like Being in Love” (sung by Tony Yazbeck—pictured—to lively dance backup), “Come to Me, Bend to Me,” crooned by leading man Sal Viviano, and “There But for You Go I,” performed by Viviano and Korbich. The segment—and Act One—concluded with Korbich in a lively version of “I’ll Go Home with Bonnie Jean,” with the audience joining in.
For the evening’s second half, Siegel moved the calendar ahead to 1966. It was the year in which the U.S. performed its first nuclear test, in Nevada; Ronald Reagan was elected Governor of California, and John Lennon met Yoko Ono. Among the year’s shows: Cabaret, with the Broadway by the Year ensemble performing an energetic dance number to “Wilkommen”; I Do! I Do!, with Korbich and Viviano tackling, respectively, “Father of the Bride” and “My Cup Runneth Over”; Sweet Charity, with young Mia Gerachis doing lovely double work with “There’s Gotta Be Something Better Than This” and the moving “Where Am I Going?”; and Lesli Margherita front and center performing the comic song “Gorgeous” from The Apple Tree. The evening concluded with two songs from Mame: “If He Walked Into My Life,” sung warmly by Jenny Lee Stern, and, in an exuberant finish, with the full dance ensemble taking part in choreography by Danny Gardner on “It’s Today.”
Special applause to music director Ross Patterson and his small band for keeping the music bright and delightfully supportive of the singing and dancing ensemble.
