Barbara Bleier & Austin Pendleton
Austin & Barbara sing Steve and Oscar… and then some
The Pheasantry, London, UK, January 14, 2023
Reviewed by Gavin Brock
Saturday evening was the second night of the London cabaret debut of octogenarian duo Barbara Bleier and Austin Pendleton at the popular cabaret venue The Pheasantry in Chelsea. With an easy rapport earned during a friendship and an on-stage partnership that spans decades, the two alternated singing duties. The first act was focused on the songs of Stephen Sondheim and those of his mentor Oscar Hammerstein II, and the second act offered a selection of songs from the American Songbook.
Interestingly, the opening number, “I Hate Planes” from Do I Hear a Waltz, a witty list song about one’s grievances with airplanes, was one of Sondheim’s few collaborations with the late Hammerstein’s writing partner Richard Rodgers. This breezy, bright number set the tone for a cosy and cheerful evening. It was followed by two Rodgers and Hammerstein classics: “A Cockeyed Optimist,” delivered charmingly by Pendleton, and “Something Wonderful” sung by Bleier. Accompanied by pianist Paul Greenwood in a gorgeously re-harmonized jazz arrangement, this was undoubtedly one of the evening’s musical highlights, a moment of transporting beauty.
Interspersed with these timeless gems were show-business anecdotes, delivered by Pendleton that covered a range of topics, from the frenzied rewrites undertaken during the out-of-town previews of the original Broadway production of The King and I to Sondheim’s checkered relationship with his abusive mother. In “No More” from Into the Woods, Greenwood joined Pendleton to sing the younger role of the Baker in the duet; he provided a welcome note of vocal color and youthful vibrance to the proceedings.
The evening also boasted an interesting selection of Sondheim’s better- and lesser-known songs that spanned the songwriter’s career from Anyone Can Whistle to Passion. Even a “lost” song from Assassins, “The Flag Song,” made an appearance, delivered with gusto by Bleier. In the context of contemporary U.S. political turmoil, the song and its message about the aspiration (and the implicit frustration involved) towards an unspecified American Dream seemed devastatingly up to date.
While the first act paid tribute to “Sondheim’s uncanny ability to write what everyone feels but no-one else would think to write a song about,” the second was a celebration of songs from the American Songbook, selected for no reason other than that the duo wanted to sing them. Bleier’s witty performance of “Am I Old Enough for a Younger Man?” brought forth much laughter, and the Gretchen Cryer and Nancy Ford classic “Old Friend” from I’m Getting My Act Together and Taking it on the Road added a dose of much-appreciated sentimentality.
