Steve Ross
A Salute to Spring
Birdland, NYC, April 18, 2022
Reviewed by Ron Forman
Steve Ross is the last of a breed—a gentleman, a man about town, dressed elegantly in a tuxedo, singing one song after another in great voice as he accompanies himself with his marvelous work on the piano. After more than 50 years as an entertainer, he is still at the very top of his game and able to captivate an SRO audience for 75 minutes with his upscale entertainment. He displays his encyclopedic knowledge of popular music between songs along with his very clever comments between numbers. He is especially adept at seamlessly meshing two songs on the same theme. Ross even displayed his talent for stand-up comedy, getting a huge laugh from the audience with a Yiddish joke attributed to Fyvush Finkel.
He opened his show with a New York medley of “New York
Coloring Book” (Jerry Powell/Michael McWhinney) and a Cole Porter song that I
had never heard previously “Please Don’t Monkey with Broadway.” He then offered
a delightfully soft “Penthouse Serenade,” that included an applause-inducing
display of piano virtuosity. He beautifully combined Irving Berlin’s “No
Strings” with “I’ve Got No Strings” (Keigh Marline/Ned Washington” from the
Disney film Pinocchio.) I loved his performance of a love song to flowers,
“Hurry! It’s Lovely Up Here.” (Alan Jay Lerner/Burton Lane).
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He beautifully
combined “While We’re Young” (Bill Engwick/Alec Wilder/Morty Palitz) with “Song
of the Sand” by Jerry Herman from La Cage aux Folles.
A Steve Ross show would not be a Steve Ross show without a Cole Porter medley. He began with a dramatic “You’d Be So Nice to Come Home To” followed by a sprightly “I Get a Kick Out of You” and ending with an amusing “Anything Goes” with added special lyrics by Ross. He displayed a powerful voice and deft work on piano with “Take the Moment” (Stephen Sondheim/Richard Rodgers). He used a different voice and pounded on the piano for “Buddy’s Blues (The God-Why-Don’t-You-Love-Me Blues)” (Sondheim). He closed with an Irving Berlin medley of “Cheek to Cheek” and “Let’s Face the Music and Dance,” interspersed with amusing remarks. As it was one day after Easter, his encore was a joyful singalong on “Easter Parade.”
