Bob O’Hare: We Take the Town: The Shows of Robert Preston

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Bob O’Hare

We Take the Town: The Shows of Robert Preston

Don’t Tell Mama, NYC, April 4, 2025

Reviewed by Bart Greenberg

Bob O’Hare

A new show by Bob O’Hare is always something to celebrate. What is promised is wit, warmth, and often some surprising material. He reunited with his usual team of director Eric Michael Gillett and the Tom Nelson Trio (Nelson serving as music director and pianist, Tom Kirchmer on bass, and Peter Grant on drums). Also on hand were cabaret vets Gretchen Reinhagen and Karen Mack (filling in for Gillett at this performance), who provided back-up vocals. This time the highly talented septet focused on the musical career of Robert Preston. Happily, songs from his hit shows (The Music Man; I Do! I Do!), his flops (Ben Franklin in Paris, We Take the Town), his near misses (Mack & Mabel), and even his films (Mame, Victor/Victoria) were featured. This inclusive approach allowed for a wide range of material—a mix of standards and the totally obscure that always delight.

After a brisk instrumental overture, O’Hare kicked off the show with a great mash up of “I Invented Myself” (Sidney Michaels/Mark Sandrich, Jr.) and “I’m a Star” (Bob Merrill), the perfect entrance number for any musical star. He followed this with the song that introduced Preston to musical-theater audiences, “Rock Island” (Meredith Willson). O’Hare handled the demanding lyrics of this rap-like selection with great dexterity and clear enunciation and turned it into a great show-off moment. A quieter and more seductive mood followed with “How Does the Wine Taste?” (Matt Dubey/Harold Karr), one of the few songs from We Take the Town to survive. He brought great warmth to the salute to marital love “My Cup Runneth Over” (Tom Jones/Harvey Schmidt).

This wonderful mix of the familiar and the obscure and the romantic and the witty was what made this show was so rewarding. When he sang the ultimate chauvinistic credo in “A Well-Known Fact” (Jones/Schmidt), the ultra-romantic “To Be Alone with You” (Jerry Herman), or the weird “Silverware” (Dubey/Karr), O’Hare was completely in charge. He even brought up the silliness of “Chicken Fat (The Youth Fitness Song)” (Willson) with a serious commitment to it entertaining side. It will certainly be fascinating to see who O’Hare next chooses to celebrate.

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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."