Joanna Gleason: Out of the Eclipse

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Joanna Gleason

Out of the Eclipse

Feinstein’s/54 Below, NYC, May 30, 2022

Reviewed by Bart Greenberg

Joanna Gleason

Usually when a much-lauded Broadway diva of a certain age (with an impressive list of film and television credits as well) comes to a cabaret room, she can be relied on to present an evening of her greatest hits. In the case of Joanna Gleason at Feinstein’s/54 Below, one might expect selections from I Love My Wife, Into the Woods, perhaps Nick & Nora, and possibly a few tales of her time on Friends. However, the artist chose to go a very different route; she told a moving, emotional, and funny story about her parents, who she lost within months of each other, and whom she obviously adored. There were only a few Broadway selections among her song list; instead, she relied on such unlikely but effective numbers as “Buffalo Gal” (John Hodges) and “Will There Be Any Yodeling in Heaven?” (McKinney Sisters and Bob Willis).

From the moment Gleason took the stage, she was totally in command, using a mix of humor and pathos as she took us on a voyage through her life. In this very personal journey in which she shared delightful tales about her parents, of their eccentricities, and their love story of 70 years. It is such a personal tale that she evidently didn’t find it necessary to identify her father as Monte Hall, creator and long-time host of Let’s Make a Deal; he was just her dad. As for her career, the only show she delved into was the disastrous Nick & Nora (she advised those who “were under 50 or straight” to Google it); here she took great delight in sweetly eviscerating the director/book writer Arthur Laurents. However, she did gain one thing from the production—the love of her life, Chris Sarandon; he was the surprise guest star who joined her on stage for a sweet a cappella rendition of “True Love.”

Also joining the star on stage were music director and arranger Jeffrey Klitz and a vocal trio, the Moontones, both of whom dazzled with their contributions to the evening. But it was Gleason who carried the show with a wide range of material, from the ultra-romantic “All Through the Night” (Jules Shear), to a second duet with Sarandon on “With a Song in My Heart,” and the devastating “Oyfn pripetshok,” a traditional Yiddish threnody that she delivered a cappella. With her keen sense of dramatic structure, she brought the program to a close with “We’ll Meet Again” followed by an appropriate encore, “Who Knows Where the Time Goes” (Sandy Denny), both delivered with the perfect mix of bittersweetness and generosity. These were just some of the highlights of a sparkling and surprising evening.

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 & Nobel, 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."