Carol Shedlin
Skylarking: The Songs of Hoagy Carmichael
Don’t Tell Mama, NYC, June 19, 2019
Reviewed by Bart Greenberg for Cabaret Scenes
Carol Shedlin offered up her 20th solo show and her first devoted to a single composer—Hoagy Carmichael—with the luminous veteran offering a full course of musical delights. She demonstrated both abundant charm and an intelligence in preparing the song list that encapsulated her experience in presenting programs and earning her the 2018 MAC Hanson Award. She brings everything she has learned to the stage.
The show was a mix of the versatile Carmichael’s best-known songs and some of his most obscure, including a lovely “Ev’ntide,” which remains unpublished.
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The well-known material got fresh deliveries, from the charming “In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening,” sung with great humor and precise enunciation to a “Skylark” filled with warmth and emotion. “The Rumba Jumps” was a total hoot, and “Georgia on My Mind” was elegant and reflective. An extra joy is that the often-eliminated verses were included.
Throughout, there was an intriguing pairing of melodies, such as an appropriately laid-back combination of “Lazybones” and “Lazy River,” and the electric “Sing It Way Down Low” and “Sing Me a Swing Song and Let Me Dance,” which brought a dance-hall beat to the stage. An extended medley of “My Resistance Is Low,” “The Nearness of You,” “Stardust,” and “Ballad in Blue” created a narrative that “could be anyone’s love story; it just happens to be mine.
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The evening was expertly guided by director Linda Amiel Burns with a very light touch, and strongly supported by music director Jon Delfin and bassist Boots Maleson.