The Angela Lansbury Power Playlist LIVE: Birthday Edition

Post author:Bart Greenberg
Post published:November 12, 2018
Reading time:3 mins read

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.”

Tags: Great American Songbook, Dear World, Supper Clubs, American Songbook Association, Composers, Monet Sabel, Broadway, Bart Greenberg, Music, Spotify, Standards, Lawrence Merritt, Cabaret, Old Friends, Rose’s Turn, ASA, Singers, Mt. Everest, Broadway Musicals, A Parade in Town, Send in the Clowns, The Angela Lansbury Power Playlist LIVE: Birthday Edition, Cabaret Reviews, Alexandra Silber, Show Tunes, Daniel Dunlow, CD Reviews, American Songbook, Bosom Buddies, NYC, Substitutionary Locomotion, Nathan Lee Graham, Songbook, The Worst Pies in London, Alice Ripley, Roger Cohen, Venues, Popular Song, Eugene Gwozdz, I Don’t Want to Know, Noel Mason, Cabaret Scenes, Clubs, Nightclubs, Vocalists, Mark Williams, It’s Today, Beauty and the Beast, The Green Room 42, CD, Christina Maxwell, Christine Pedi, Musicals, Natalie Walker, Off-Broadway, The Age of Not Believing

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."