Bligh Voth & Joel DeCandio: The Sondheim Sessions

Post author:Bart Greenberg
Post published:February 8, 2025
Reading time:2 mins read

Bligh Voth & Joel DeCandio

The Sondheim Sessions

The Green Room 42, NYC, January 16, 2025

Reviewed by Bart Greenberg

Another evening of Stephen Sondheim. Despite his brilliance, it’s almost become a cliché in New York City cabaret to present a show based on his songs. It’s usually the same 12 or 14 songs that the audience can lip-synch to. That is unless the performers are Bligh Voth and Joel DeCandio; both of them are funny and sexy and have impressive voices and wide-reaching imaginations. Then everything becomes very interesting. Assisted by the fine music director/pianist Nolan Bonvouloir, they highlighted some of the lesser-known works of the master and provided some fresh interpretations of others.

They kicked off the show with a series of seductive selections, all delivered with great enunciation and hot sexuality, and they were grandly funny. “Come Play Wiz Me” was a great start, followed by a more meditative “Anything Can Happen in the Woods” and a maxi-sultry “Sooner or Later” that seemed to have escaped from some 1940s film noir flick. Each of the performers got a chance to solo on some gems, often with surprising choices, such as Voth’s “Johanna” and DeCandio’s “There Is No Other Way.” Bonvouloir got to show off with a stride-piano version of “You Could Drive a Person Crazy” that showed great élan.The fact that Voth and DeCandio are both fine actors, which made their duets excitingly electric in material they could really sink their dramatic teeth into, such as “We’re Going to Be Alright” and a lengthy sequence from Passion. An emotional highlight was their mash up of “Goodbye for Now” and “Growing Up,” which was devastating in its sense of regret and loss. Far more romantic was DeCandio’s “Who Could Be Blue,” which was contrasted with Voth’s “Little White House.” These choices had them finding the hope in the lyrics along with a bit of fear that their dreams would not come true; it was subtly fine underplaying. They closed the show with “Move On,” with a welcome promise of more such shows to come.

Tags: Little White House, American Songbook, Come Play Wiz Me, Cabaret Reviews, Cabaret Scenes, Growing Up, Nightclubs, Anything Can Happen in the Woods, CD Reviews, Musicals, There Is No Other Way, Move On, New York City, The Green Room 42, Lyricist, We’re Going to Be Alright, Clubs, American Songbook Association, NYC, Who Could Be Blue, composer, Great American Songbook, ASA, Pianist, You Could Drive a Person Crazy, Broadway, Goodbye for Now, songwriter, Sooner or Later, Cabaret, Music Director, Vocalists, Bart Greenberg, Broadway Musicals, Joel DeCandio, CD, Johanna, The Sondheim Sessions, Singer, Bligh Voth, Stephen Sondheim, Nolan Bonvouloir, Passion

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."