John Pizzarelli and Jessica Molaskey

Café Carlyle, NYC, November 5, 2019

Reviewed by Ron Forman for Cabaret Scenes

To celebrate Stephen Sondheim’s upcoming 90th birthday, John Pizzarelli and Jessica Molaskey’s new show at Café Carlyle consisted entirely of songs by Sondheim. All but two had music and lyrics by him; for those two he wrote the lyric only. Molaskey has a special affinity for Sondheim; she starred in the revival of Sunday in the Park with George, and it showed in her introductions to and in her performances of his songs. She mentioned that Sondheim’s songs capture all aspects of relationships, so the material chosen shone the light on that type of song. As always, Pizzarelli’s off-the-cuff remarks are often laugh-out-loud funny. His virtuosity on guitar is joined by a swinging duo of Mike Karn on bass and music director Konrad Paszkudzki on piano.

The show opened perfectly for the married couple with the hilarious duet “The Little Things You Do Together, their facial expressions adding to the fun. It was followed by a mash-up of “Waiting for the Girls Upstairs” and Pizzarelli accompanying himself with “All You Need Is the Girl.” The couple went back and forth nicely with “Buddy’s Blues.” Two numbers were performed without vocals; a jazzy “Ballad of Sweeney Todd” as if performed by Wes Montgomery; and “Send in the Clowns” where Pizzarelli reprised his legendary dad Bucky Pizzarelli’s guitar solo. Together they did a moving mashup of “Children Will Listen” and “Children and Art.” They closed by mating a cacophonous “Cloudburst” with “Getting Married Today” with Molaskey accompanied only by Pizzarelli’s soft guitar. The encore was the aptly chosen, delightfully performed “Old Friends.”