Eric Michael Gillett watched MGM change its billboard outside his bedroom window starting at age seven. He always loved the movies. There were two twenty-five-cent double-bill theaters in his Los Angeles neighborhood and The Culver, “which at fifty cents for a single feature, felt like a palace.” Widescreen is like exploring an attic box, remembering and discovering.
Opening with a wry, subdued, version of The Motion Picture Ball (Joseph H. Santly/Howard Johnson), Gillett gives us jaunty character inflection from Mae West to central casting studio-head Yiddish, as if authoring an early Page Six.
Medleys that follow include what may be the gentlest, most lilting rendition of Moon River (Henry Mancini/Johnny Mercer) outside of Audrey Hepburn’s plaintive one on the fire escape. Just when you imagine you know where you are (or when) come songs from Limelight, Ragtime, It Happened in Brooklyn and a Jean Simmons’ film called The Happy Ending which is now on half the audience’s Netflix lists. The song, What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life? (Michele Legrand/Marilyn & Alan Bergman) is a classic, its original employment a revelation. Gillett imbues it with affectation free emotional fragility.
This is an evening of unembarrassed feelings, unabashedly expressed. Gillett’s eyes close, his head tilts “You were my favorite love/That was my favorite year,” he croons wistfully (Michele Brourman/Karen Gottlieb, cut from the film of the same name), more than usually utilizing the upper range of his beautiful tenor voice. Sighs can be heard.
Brief parodies of other ostensibly cut songs with lyrics like I’ve been to parties with pigs, but Dances with Wolves are the worst—(Barry Kleinbort) sounded unfortunately Catskills. As did chestnut musical arrangements of Three Coins in the Fountain (Jule Styne/ Sammy Cahn) and, later, the Theme from The Valley of the Dolls (Dory & Andre Previn); two pretty songs with universal sentiments that might’ve fared better.
The rest of the program, happily, is filled with pleasing surprises. A couple of numbers from Disney films are performed so pitch-perfectly one fully expects harmonizing bluebirds to appear on Gillett’s shoulder. Instead, he settles for Musical Director/pianist, Jeff Cubeta, whose Wishing Well (from Snow White) comes close to animation. Ah ha ha ha ha, he trills.
Songs by the inestimable Craig Carnelia, perhaps Gillett’s alter ego, and Amanda McBroom/ Gordon Hunt are dedicated to Walter Brennan, “the most honored actor in Academy Award history.” Did you know that? These are highlights, the specificity such that Gillett seems to morph effortlessly into affecting characters (a forte).
Keith Carradine’s acoustic guitar seduction, I’m Easy from the film, Nashville and Shel Silverstein’s I’m Checkin’ Out originally voiced by Meryl Streep in Postcards from the Edge are, respectively, tender as all get out and a hoot. Gillett’s elastic notes sashay around the ballad with country freshness and snap back for the hee-haw, thrum-da-da-thrum, two-step anthem. Oooo Ha! He has a joyful flair for this. Graceful closure arrives with the rarely heard title song, Widescreen (Rupert Holmes) and Fred Kander’s favorite lyric, At the Rialto (John Kander/Fred Ebb). Both have great charm.
A boy “in search of the constants” who will always be “sitting in the dark with popcorn and ju ju beads,” Eric Michael Gillett is up front and personal with his choices. Recollections and snippets of collected film trivia pepper this performance. Gillett has a skilled vocal instrument, an actor’s approach to interpretation and genuine sweetness, but it’s ultimately his honesty that draws us in. Win or lose, nothing on that stage is just there for effect. This is not just a talented man, but an eminently likeable one, with whom spending time just happens to be entertaining.
Read Alix’s profile of Eric Michael Gillett.
Eric Michael Gillett- Widescreen: Songs from & About the Movies
Feinstein’s at The Loew’s Regency
Eric Michael Gillett, vocals
Jeff Cubeta, Musical Director/pianist
Matt Wigton, bass
540 Park Avenue at 61st Street
www.feinsteinsatloewsregency.com
Through February 19, 2011
