Unsung Strouse: The Greatest Charles Strouse Songs You’ve Never Heard

Post author:Bart Greenberg
Post published:May 21, 2018
Reading time:4 mins read

Unsung Strouse:
The Greatest Charles Strouse Songs
You’ve Never Heard

Feinstein’s/54 Below, NYC, May 13, 2018

Reviewed by Bart Greenberg for Cabaret Scenes

Steven Carl McCasland is quickly becoming the Hal Prince of cabaret shows, producing and directing fabulous programs based on the Great American Songbook, especially obscure material by major contributors. His consistent music director James Horan can seemingly adapt to different styles and different singers at a moment’s notice.

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This tribute to one of the most versatile composers still working today, Charles Strouse (who’ll turn 90 in a few months), featured many projects that have yet come to fruition which show the wide range of his interests, from Madame La Gimp derived from the same Damon Runyon story that gave birth to Lady for a Day/Pocketful of Miracle to Star Wars derived from… well, you know. The style can be sweetly romantic comedy—long-time couple Britt and David Cryer sweetly asserting they were “Too Old to Be Young” (lyrics: Hal David)—to pure camp (studly Joseph Allen declaring “Han’s My Man” (Lee Adams).

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McCasland cleverly made use of a quartet of charming young performers—Adam Cantor, Thomas Dieter, Suzanne Dressler and Janet Fanale—to serve as tour guides through the world of Strouse, introducing segments based on the above shows as well as the composer’s work on children’s shows (including Lyle, Lyle Crocodile), musicals that didn’t quite make it to Broadway yet (Minsky’s; Annie Warbucks; Marty), and some that are being revised (Nightingale; Rags).

Some of the performers standing out in the large cast were Kimberly Faye Greenberg belting out “Good Lookin’” from La Gimp; Alan Green touching our hearts with “Love” from Annie Warbucks); lyric soprano Eugenia Copeland sending “A Singer Must Be Free” from Nightingale soaring; the fabulous Beth Leavel demonstrating how to build a showstopper with “Home” from Minsky’s; and McCasland himself showing off an impressive tenor (“My Star” from Marty).

Tags: A Singer Must Be Free, Adam Cantor, Alan Green, American Songbook, Annie, art Greenberg, Beth Leavel, Britt and David Cryer, Broadway, Broadway Musicals, Cabaret, Cabaret Reviews, Cabaret Scenes, CD, Charles Strouse, Clubs, Composers, Damon Runyon, Eugenia Copeland, Feinstein's 54 Below, Good Lookin’, Great American Songbook, Hal David, Hal Prince, Han’s My Man, Home, James Horan, Janet Fanale, Joseph Allen, Kimberly Faye Greenberg, Lady for a Day, Lee Adams, Lyle Lyle Crocodile, Madame La Gimp, Marty, Minsky’s, Musicals, My Star, Nightclubs, Nightingale, NYC, Pocketful of Miracle, Popular Song, Rags, Show Tunes, Singers, Songbook, Standards, Star Wars, Steven Carl McCasland, Supper Clubs, Suzanne Dressler, Thomas Dieter, Too Old to Be Young, Unsung Strouse: The Greatest Charles Strouse Songs You’ve Never Heard, Venues, Vocalists, Warbucks

Bart Greenberg

Bart Greenberg first discovered cabaret a few weeks after arriving in New York City by seeing Julie Wilson and William Roy performing Stephen Sondheim and Cole Porter outdoors at Rockefeller Center. It was instant love for both Ms. Wilson and the art form. Some years later, he was given the opportunity to create his own series of cabaret shows while working at Tower Records. "Any Wednesday" was born, a weekly half-hour performance by a singer promoting a new CD release. Ann Hampton Callaway launched the series. When Tower shut down, Bart was lucky to move the program across the street to Barnes & Noble, where it thrived under the generous support of the company. The series received both The MAC Board of Directors Award and The Bistro Award. Some of the performers who took part in "Any Wednesday" include Barbara Fasano and Eric Comstock, Tony Desare, Andrea Marcovicci, Carole Bufford, the Karens, Akers, Mason and Oberlin, and Julie Wilson. Privately, Greenberg is happily married to writer/photographer Mark Wallis, who as a performance artist in his native England gathered a major following as "I Am Cereal Killer."