Meg Flather
Rodgers & Hammerstein 2021+
Saturday, February 26 at 7 pm
Don’t Tell Mama, NYC
Click HERE for tickets

Why would a highly praised singer/songwriter with an eye towards contemporary topics choose to spend an evening delivering well-known numbers by a mid-20th century Broadway team? As Meg Flather explained, in working on this program she discovered that the themes within these songs are very relevant to today’s world, ranging from anthems for immigrants to discrimination toward those who love differently to female sexuality. And, of course, all of these compositions were delivered with the clarity and sweet style that the performer is known for.

Of course, any songwriters are blessed to have Flather deliver their work, given her innate musicality, her clarity in delivering lyrics, and her talent for stillness. In one of the most unusual showstoppers of the evening, she offered up “Lonely Room” from Oklahoma!. Not only did she capture the pain of the song and the dark desires it expresses, but at one point she took the chance of a very long silent pause—and not a sound was heard from the mesmerized audience. At the same time, her natural honesty took the potential goo out of such optimistic numbers as “Cockeyed Optimist” and “My Favorite Things” (her visualization of each enumerated “thing” made it come alive).

Music director Tracy Stark not only provided her usual solid support at the piano as well as some very effective medleys, such as merging “Something Wonderful” and “What’s the Use of Wondering?” in an investigation of blind love and “People Will Say We’re in Love” with instrumental hints of “We Kiss in the Shadows” in an exploration of forbidden romance. Throughout the evening, the deft hand and light touch of director Lennie Watts were felt without being intrusively seen.

Not that there wasn’t sheer fun during the evening. Flather reclaimed “I Cain’t Say No” as the tale of a young woman claiming her sexuality. And oh, does the singer know how to build a number and then build it some more in an onward rush of excitement. In contrast, her “Shall I Tell You What I Think of You?” was the embodiment of a confident woman in total command of herself. A medley of “Impossible” and “A Hundred Million Miracles” was both a salute to her father and a restatement of her passion for nature and spirituality, as was her concluding sampling of the many lyrics of Hammerstein that refer to the natural world.

The entire evening simply glowed. Where this program may lead Flather to next is hard to predict, but it will certainly be pleasurable one for her fans. When she flung open her arms and impulsively declared “I love every one of you,” her sincerity could not be questioned, nor could the love coming from her audience.