Jeff Harnar

I Know Things Now:  Harnar Sings Sondheim

Feinstein’s at Vitello’s Studio City, CA, Sept. 30, 2021

Reviewed by Elliot Zwiebach

Jeff Harnar is not only a superb singer; he is also a wonderful weaver of lyrics who takes bits and pieces from various songs and rearranges, reconnects, and repurposes them to extract new meanings. In a show featuring only songs by Stephen Sondheim, Harnar takes lyrics from the most familiar of songs, mashes them up, and then seamlessly remakes them into new little masterpieces that offer deeper insights into the human condition than the songs may originally have done individually.

He reflects on self-doubt in a mashup that starts with “The Little Things You Do Together” (Company), continues with “Marry Me a Little” (cut from Company), moves to a brief snippet from “I’m Calm” (A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum), continues with a word-perfect “(Not) Getting Married Today” (Company) and resolves his dilemma with a resigned. “OK, then, I’m ready now.”

Harnar went through a similar progression on love, wending his way through bits of a sweetly melodic “Loving You” (Passion) and a breathless “Losing My Mind” (Follies) and ending indecisively, singing “I will love and I would die for you/or am I losing my mind?” Combining humor and irony, he also sang “Buddy’s Blues” (Follies), using a combination of Bing Crosby-style crooning and Jimmy Durante-style grittiness to enumerate the various vices listed in the song, capping it off, rather unexpectedly, with the final lyrics of Company’s “Sorry/Grateful” (“You’re always sorry, you’re always grateful”). Another highlight was a snippet from “Children Will Listen” (Into the Woods), followed by a full version of the chill-inducing “The Ballad of Sweeney Todd” (Sweeney Todd), which resolved with the earlier lyric, “Children will listen.”

Besides the artful way he interprets lyrics, he demonstrates the full power of his acting chops—an unexpected emphasis here, an arched eyebrow or a hand gesture there—to add an extra wallop to his performance.  In many songs he put a heavy emphasis on reciting lines more so than singing them, offering adept combinations of emotions to transport his full-house audience to unexpected places.

For example, he combined “The Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me” (Bounce) with a tender, reflective “What Can You Lose?” (Dick Tracy) to create an ironic contrast, and he offered a plaintive, matter-of-fact take on “Anyone Can Whistle” (from the show of the same name) as a verbal challenge, then suggested it may be time to “Send in the Clowns” (A Little Night Music) before asking “Could I Leave You?” (Follies) with a subtle reading on the final word, “Guess!”

Credit for musicalizing Harnar’s lyrical trips goes to music director Jon Weber, who offered strong support on piano and occasional vocal harmonies.  The show—Harnar’s first in Los Angeles since the mid-1990s—was directed by Sondra Lee, who Harnar noted was observing her 91st birthday the day of the show.