Amanda Green
Amanda Green AF!
Birdland, NYC, September 30, 2019
Reviewed by Bart Greenberg for Cabaret Scenes
Singer/songwriter/entertainer Amanda Green returned to Birdland for another fun evening of new and old songs, mostly written by her alone or in collaboration with some major theater personalities. She offered a preview of some exciting new works in development as well as a touching tribute to her recently passed mother, Tony winner Phyllis Newman. And she brought along a wonderful collection of friends and colleagues to celebrate the work.
One of the projects she’s currently working on is Female Troubles. Unrelated to the notorious underground film starring Divine, it concerns a group of women in 1810 dealing with their lack of control over their own bodies. Curtis Moore provided the music to Green’s lyrics. Intriguingly, the sound and language of the show are very contemporary despite the period setting. Even though the hostess got a bit charmingly lost in trying to summarize the plot, such numbers as “Are You Kidding Me” (with quite a bit of rhyming vulgarity), and “God Having a Laugh,” were delivered with enthusiasm by Kate Rockwell, Bonnie Milligan, and Em Grosland.
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A seemingly more traditional musical comedy is Mr. Saturday Night, created in collaboration with Billy Crystal and composer Jason Robert Brown, who came on stage to duet with Green on one of the numbers, the touching “My Wonderful Pain,” dealing with the joys and sorrows of long-term marriages. The lyricist offered up a character defining “There’s a Chance” and “Tahiti,” showing her deft use of language. It’s interesting that there are definite echoes of her father’s Do Re Mi in the material.
Green kicked off the show with her original number, “I’d Rather Be with You,” a song at once both rude and charming, which she put over with aplomb, and she ended it with that tribute to her mother, “The Last Time I Looked” (music by Larry Grossman) which clearly moved the audience and bookended a very satisfying evening.
