Jane Lynch and Kate Flannery

Two Lost Souls

Café Carlyle, NYC, September 11, 2018

Reviewed by Elizabeth Ahlfors for Cabaret Scenes

They call themselves Two Lost Souls, but Jane Lynch and Kate Flannery are far from lost. They are just where they belong—on a cabaret stage—opening the fall season at the upscale Café Carlyle. Backed by a kick-ass jazz quartet, these ladies do some kicking themselves, having a great old time. The show sets the mood with an up-tempo “When You’re Smiling” (Joe Goodwin/Larry Shay/Mark Fisher) sung and played by trumpet player/pianist Tony Guerrero, mixing the spirit of Louis Armstrong with the wild energy of Louis Prima.
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That should put you in the mood for these two good-time girls who sing with volume and enthusiasm from their grab bag of music: Imagine from Steve Allen’s “This Could Be the Start of Something Big” to Handel’s “The Hallelujah Chorus.” 

Lynch and Flannery, two funny ladies with good rapport and substantial vocals, have already proven their talents in performances like Lynch’s Best in Show and TV’s Glee and Flannery as dipsomaniac Meredith from The Office. They draw on the close harmonies of the Barry Sisters and the Andrew Sisters, beginning their show with “Far from the Home I Love” (Jerry Bock/Sheldon Harnick) in hard swing. Lynch delivers a jivey “Bei Mir Bist Du Shein” (in Yiddish…partly), and Flannery sings the traditional “Good King Wenceslas” (or King “What’s His Name”). She took everything Carol Burnett had put into Mary Rodgers’ “Shy,” and the duo let loose with a jazzy take on “Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo” (Al Hoffman/Mack David/Jerry Livingston), electrified and with full vocals all the way through. 

Even their crocodile-teary ultra-melodramatic snippet-medley of  womens’ victim songs—“Mean to Me,” “It Must Be Him,” “I Won’t Last a Day Without You”—is hilarious, ending with Flannery’s “I’ll Plant My Own Tree” (André and Dory Previn). The song list is eclectic, with Flannery taking the samba out of Antônio Carlos Jobim’s “One Note Samba” and jazzing it up, and Lynch remembering Rosemary Clooney’s “Mambo Italiano” (Bob Merrill) during her Mitch Miller years.

You think “The Party’s Over”: (Betty Comden/Adolph Green/Jule Styne) means just that—end of the show? No! These gals carry on with a bombastic “The Hallelujah Chorus.” And, even then, it’s not over when Lynch starts rapping blithely to “Anaconda” (Nicki Minaj).
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Two Lost Souls?—are you kidding? They’ll be back.

Besides music director Guerrero on trumpet and piano, the band joins in the fun with Mark Visher on saxophone and flute, Rich Zurkowski on bass, and Sean McDaniel on drums.
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