Aldervan Daly
This Is the Life
Don’t Tell Mama, NYC, March 5, 2026
Reviewed by Bart Greenberg
In many ways Aldervan Daly is a throwback to an earlier style of cabaret. He’s clad in an elegant tux, chooses mostly classic songs from the Broadway and the Great American Songbook, and avoids “public therapy disguised as cabaret.” Another way in which he showed respect for his material was to include the verses of almost every song he delivered. Working closely with his music director/pianist Bruce Barnes, he charmed the audience with his funny comments about his age before launching into a delightful “Almost Young” (Jerry Herman). Recollections of his discovery of his gayness as a teen led to a perfectly timed “Where the Boys Are” (Neil Sedaka/Howard Greenfield).
One of the show’s treats was a collection of varied torch songs that included the touching “I Get Along Without You Very Well” (Hoagy Carmichael/Jane Brown Thompson), a riotous mash-up of “I Could Have Told You” (Jimmy Van Heusen/Carl Sigman) and “Goody Goody” (Johnny Mercer/Matty Malneck), and the ultimate torch song, “The Man That Got Away” (Ira Gershwin/Harold Arlen). That last one rather pushed him past his vocal abilities, but the otherswere delivered with a great assuredness.
One thing he definitely did right was to invite Kate Fitzpatrick to the stage. She has a wonderful voice that has a great deal of depth and sincerity and is backed up by fine acting instincts. Together they created a mini-musical version of Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods, and from that show they also delivered a tasty and witty “It Takes Two” and then she soloed on a superior version of “Moments in the Woods.”
Daly paid a touching tribute to fatherhood and his son Joseph with a set of tunes that included “Everything’s Coming Up Roses” (Sondheim/Jule Styne), “Stop Time” (Richard Malby, Jr./David Shire), and “A Million Dreams” (Ben Pasek/Justin Paul). Daly’s encore was a charming and deeply felt “Just a Lucky So and So” (Duke Ellington/Mack David). The audience was pretty lucky as well.
