DIVA TALK: Lloyd Webber's Unexpected Songs, Tony Winners at the Cabaret Plus News of Egan and LaMott
By Andrew Gans
25 Feb 2005
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Eden Espinosa belted out Lloyd Webber's "Whistle Down the Wind" at the Unexpected Songs concert
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News, views and reviews about the multi-talented women of the musical theatre and the concert/cabaret stage.
UNEXPECTED SONGS: THE LESSER KNOWN TUNES OF ANDREW LLOYD WEBBER
As I've written before, Evita was the show that hooked me on musical theatre when I was in the sixth grade, so I've always been fond of the works of Andrew Lloyd Webber, whose gift for melody seems often taken for granted. If I found his works through the early nineties — Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Evita, Jesus Christ Superstar, Song and Dance, Cats, Aspects of Love and Sunset Boulevard — more musically interesting than such later fare as Whistle Down the Wind and Beautiful Game, there are always musical gifts lying within Lloyd Webber shows.
This past Monday evening, Robert Diamond presented an evening devised by Eddie Varley that paid tribute to the "lesser-known tunes of Andrew Lloyd Webber." Titled Unexpected Songs, the one-night-event at Joe's Pub featured direction and witty narration by Jamie McGonnigal with musical direction by Mark Hartman. The five-piece band that shone throughout the evening — Hartman on piano, Brian J. Nash on keyboards, Michael Blanco on bass, Greg Joseph on drums and Amie Weiss on violin — kicked off the proceedings with a rollicking version of Cats' "Jellicle Ball."
Tina Maddigan, who was part of the original cast of Broadway's Mamma Mia!, was the first of the evening's many vocalists, delivering the Song and Dance anthem "Unexpected Song." If she didn't erase memories of Bernadette Peters or Betty Buckley's versions, Maddigan did fine with the rangy tune. Elaine Caswell offered a jazzy take on "The Perfect Year," which was followed by the one Lloyd Webber tune of the evening I had never heard, "It's Easy for You." Apparently one of the last songs ever recorded by Elvis Presley, the tune was well performed by Wonderful Town's Ray McLeod.
One of the evening's highlights followed, a "boy-band" rendition of
Whistle Down the Wind's "No Matter What" that featured the talents of Mick Bleyer, Mike Busillo, Mike Minarik and Ben Thompson. I was then introduced to the beautiful vocals of Jessica Grové, who soared on
By Jeeves' "Half a Moment." Grové possesses a rich tone and seems to easily glide from chest to head tones. (Lloyd Webber aficionados certainly recognized the song's bridge, which the composer later lifted for
Sunset Boulevard's best tune, "As If We Never Said Goodbye.")
Maddigan returned for a duet of Woman in White's "I Believe in My Heart" with her former Mamma Mia! co-star, Joe Machota, and Rob Evan scored with a high-voltage take on Lloyd Webber and Jim Steinman's A Kiss Is a Terrible Thing to Waste. Max von Essen lent his rangy, powerful tenor to another Woman in White tune, "Evermore Without You," and Kristy Cates had some fun with a revised version of Song and Dance's "Capped Teeth and Caesar Salad."
Grové and Marc Kudisch did well with Aspects of Love's "First Man You Remember," and Jennifer Malenke displayed the range of her soprano on the little-heard "Recordare" from Lloyd Webber's Variations. Tom Hewitt, recently on Broadway in the ill-fated Dracula, lent his vocals to Whistle's "Vaults of Heaven," and Mick Bleyer returned for a duet with Julie Garnyé on "Could We Start Again Please," a tune penned for the film of Jesus Christ Superstar.
Despite a bit of trouble with her microphone chord, Natalie Joy Johnson — of Bare fame — scored with a belty "Anything But Lonely," and Wicked's Marty Thomas brought down the house with his rock-n-roll take of "Tire Tracks and Broken Hearts."
I especially enjoyed the beautiful sounds of cellist Peter Sachon, who offered the first four of Lloyd Webber's Variations, and the evening concluded with Broadway's newest belter, Brooklyn's Eden Espinosa. Espinosa, whose belting range seems limitless, offered a stentorian take on Whistle Down the Wind's title tune. A wonderful way to end a lovely evening of unexpected songs.
TONY WINNERS AT THE CABARET
What a great season for cabaretgoers! The legendary Chita Rivera is currently delighting audiences at Feinstein's at the Regency with her first nightclub engagement in years. Rivera, most recently on Broadway in the Tony-winning revival of Nine, is offering an evening featuring tunes by Jerry Herman, Jacques Brel, Cy Coleman and, of course, John Kander and Fred Ebb. Song titles include "I Don't Want to Know," "I Won't Dance," "Let Me Sing and I'm Happy," "Sweet Happy Life," "Mas Que Nada," "Love Is Here to Stay," "Where Am I Going?," "You & Me," "The Glory of Love," "Carousel," "Love and Love Alone," "Not Exactly Paris," "The Barber of Seville" (with a special lyric by the late Ebb), "Circle of Friends," "Ev'ry Street's a Boulevard in Old New York," "Here's to Us," "All That Jazz" and "I'm in Love Again." Rivera also offers a Men/Women medley that features bits and pieces of "Rosie," "Maria," "I Feel Pretty," "Satin Doll," "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy," "In the Mood," "Sweet Lorraine," "A Little Girl from Little Rock," "All I Need Is the Girl," "I Enjoy Being a Girl," "Waiting Around for the Girls Upstairs," "I'm One of the Girls," "Soliloquy," "Won't You Come Home Bill Bailey," "If I Were a Rich Man," "My Man's Gone Now," "Bess You Is My Woman Now" and "The Man I Love." Accompanied by musical director Mark Hummel on piano, Michael Croiter on percussion/guitar and Jim Donica on bass, Rivera plays Feinstein's through March 12; visit www.feinsteinsattheregency.com for more information. Continued...
