Rosemary Loar: Sparkle and Fizz

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Rosemary Loar

Sparkle and Fizz

The Green Room 42, NYC, April 14, 2022

Reviewed by Bart Greenberg

Rosemary Loar is never anything less than surprising. In some previous shows, she showed up as a jazz-baby chanteuse (When Harry Met the Duke) and as a dozen Broadway divas (Everything’s Coming Up Roses). Now, in Sparkle and Fizz she provided the audience with a dozen songs of she composed, both giddy and meaningful, in mostly a rock-and-roll rhythm. This constant reinvention is clearly a joy to her devoted audience.

The evening kicked off with a celebration of coming back from the pandemic featuring the show’s high-powered title number as well as selections from her new CD (which contains many of the songs she performed in the show). “Sparkle and Fizz” is basically a production number in itself with the band and the back-up singers (more about them in a minute) joining in to create a classic rocking sound along with lots of lighting effects, and even a singalong. All this came in the first five minutes of the show—a joyous way to begin.

Certain themes were repeated throughout the evening, giving a nice cohesion to the program: her reverence for nature and animals and her love for her family and friends dominated. Then there was the diva’s delightful and sometime self-deprecating sense of humor (also captured in the very funny “You’re Beautiful,” reminiscent of the wit of Christine Lavin), with which she embraced the audience and made it all seem so much more personal. Her sincerity shone through also in her spoken and sung tributes to her sister—“Sweet Eileen”—(“like the gentlest dream, or your favorite ice cream”) and to her brother-in-law—“(You’re Still) Here,” both complete with such specific images (“here’s photo evidence of you cutting garlic with your tiny knife”) that the audience was made to feel they knew her subjects. She also paid lyrical honors to her back-up singers, The Sparklers (Emily Mikesel, Allie Radice, and Claire Lilley) with “Angels Hanging Sparkles on Her Wings,” a delightful song in tribute of their excellent work.

Speaking of tremendous support, the on-stage band included music director/guitarist Tomas Doncker, keyboardist and brilliant harmonica player Gary Schreiner, electric bassist Kevin Jenkins, and drummer Leroy “Lefty” Thompson. All created a joyful and atmospheric sound.


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Special guest pianist and long-time collaborator Frank Ponzio wove his special magic on several numbers. The entire evening was guided by director Barry Kleinbort’s light touch and smooth sense of theatrical rhythm (plus an admirable ability to deal with having so many bodies on the stage which can often turn into a traffic jam).

Of course, it was Loar who was the center of the show, bewitching the audience with her bluesy, jazzy delivery of “The Secret of a Hungry Heart” (with Schreiner’s wild harmonica backing her up) and inspiring them by demanding a “Higher Standard,” which was powerful without turning into a stolid anthem. Then there was the heartbreak of “I Wanted the Lie More Than the Truth,” with just Ponzio’s piano as background, giving a classical sound to the torch song. Loar continued to surprise and intrigue her audience throughout the show.

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."