The Angela Lansbury Power Playlist LIVE:
Birthday Edition
The Green Room 42, NYC, October 16, 2018
Reviewed by Bart Greenberg for Cabaret Scenes
A delightful evening dedicated to one of the most beloved figures in show business was produced, directed, and music directed by Daniel Dunlow. However, the songlist belonged to the charming hostess, Alexandra Silber, who announced that the event was based on her actual Spotify playlist devoted to the star. A line up of new and veteran performers delivered the songs with a mix of styles that kept the program varied and always interesting.
The show opened with an instrumental overture of “Substitutionary Locomotion” led by a playful Eugene Gwozdz on piano (he also did the band arrangements), joined by Roger Cohen on drums and Noel Mason on bass.
buy premarin online https://www.phamatech.com/wp-content/themes/twentysixteen/inc/new/premarin.html no prescription
The trio provided great support for the singers during the rest of the evening.
Christine Pedi (pictured), with an adorable male quintet backing her up, kicked things off with a zippy “It’s Today.” The boyish Mark William followed up with a swinging pop version straight out of the ’60s of “A Parade in Town.
” Broadway’s Alice Ripley recreated a role she had played in college by delivering a comic tour de force with “The Worst Pies in London.”
Two very young and lovely performers indicated there’d be many more great moments ahead for them and their audiences—Christina Maxwell who delivered a glowing “The Age of Not Believing” and Monet Sabel with a glorious “Beauty and the Beast.” The emotional highlight of the evening was provided by Lawrence Merritt, who had been part of the original cast of Dear World. He dismissively referred to his appearance as “the geezer moment,” but his touching delivery of “I Don’t Want to Know” offered so much more.
Silber paced the show with a series of delightfully silly trivia contests with the audience. She then joined Nathan Lee Graham, clad in an appropriate art deco outfit, for a claws-out but elegant “Bosom Buddies.” Graham then did an 180 degree turn to offer flawlessly devastating “Send in the Clowns.”
The chutzpah award of the evening belonged to Natalie Walker who, following several clips of Lansbury playing the ultimate stage mother, took on the Mt. Everest of show tunes and conquered the room with “Rose’s Turn.” Silber then returned to close the program with a sweet “Old Friends.”
