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Woman Around Town’s Editor Charlene Giannetti and writers for the website talk with the women and men making news in New York, Washington, D.C., and other cities around the world. Thanks to Ian Herman for his wonderful piano introduction.

Lauren Bacall

The New York Pops – Life Is a Cabaret: The Songs of Kander and Ebb

03/14/2017

John Kander (1927-) and Fred Ebb (1928-2004) were introduced in 1962 and collaborated on their first  Broadway musical, Flora the Red Menace (introducing Liza Minnelli) in 1965. Career highlights include the iconic may-run-forever Cabaret, successively revived Chicago- (both made into films), Lauren Bacall’s transition from film to theater in Woman of the Year, and the formidable Scottsboro Boys. The multifaceted team also wrote “New York, New York”, arguably our city anthem- the theme to Martin Scorsese’s 1977 film of the same name.

Certain music from Kander’s oeuvre is so evocative of memorable theater,  it makes the hairs on one’s arm stand at attention. The Pop’s opening, Suite from Chicago does just that. Some of the audience bob in their seats or tap their feet, others mouth lyrics. More than an era or city, Kander and Ebb (here with Bob Fosse) captured an ethos of gleefully celebrated corruption uncomfortably familiar today. I suspect Cabaret continues to pack them in for the same reason. The shows are not just innovative and entertaining, they’re resonant.

LIFE IS A CABARET: THE SONGS OF KANDER AND EBB

John Kander in the balcony. To his right, director Susan Stroman

Tonight’s Guest Vocalists are both young Broadway veterans.

Cassie Leavy has a smooth, confident voice that can unfurl with moderation or belt, though she seems audibly more at home with the latter. She has stage presence. Results, however, are mixed: “Mein Herr” and “Maybe This Time” from Cabaret, lack pathos and bite. “Roxy” (Chicago) and “Everybody’s Girl” (Steel Pier) are missing their innately wicked play. One wonders whether the youthful performer understands the songs’ context.

More contemporary, ‘Ring Them Bells” (Liza with a Z) and “Colored Lights” (The Rink) fare better. Leavy embodies pluck and exasperation attributable to the first song’s protagonist. With the second, we feel hope and ambition as her voice lilts and loops with sweet, trailing vibrato.

Tony Yazbeck rushes through the terrific “Coffee in a Cardboard Cup” (70 Girls, 70) -due to speedy arrangement that robs the number authenticity and delivers a couple of songs as Billy Flynn from Chicago, a role to which he’s imminently returning, with no discernible charisma.

THE NEW YORK POPS

Tony Yazbeck, Steven Reineke, Cassie Levy

Act II, however, sees a complete transformation. Yazbeck’s delicate “Sometimes a Day Goes By” (Woman of the Year) with only piano accompaniment, is eminently tender and touching. “You, You, You” (The Visit) follows suit with palpable yearning. Both of these showcase the performer’s emotional tenor. Yazbeck then offers this evening’s zenith, “City Lights” (The Act) during which, having infectious fun, he grows fully animated, even engaging in loosey goosey, complex tap dance.

In addition to a sassy overture, The New York Pops Orchestra excels with “Hot Honey Rag” (Chicago) which grins, twirls, and flips its hat in textured musical layers and a powerful, lush rendition of “The Minstrel March” (The Scottsboro Boys).

Music Director/Conductor Steven Reineke keeps us abreast of each song’s origin with a bit of amiable patter. At his suggestion, we sing “Happy Birthday” to John Kander, spot-lit in the balcony. Far from retired, the honoree’s Kid Victory (written with Greg Pierce) is playing at New York’s Vineyard Theatre. He’s now at work on The Beast of The Jungle, based on a novella by Henry James.

John Kander celebrates his 90th Birthday on March 18. We honor both his partnership and continuing high craft.

Photos by Richard Termine
Opening: Tony Yazbeck, Cassie Levy

NEXT for The New York Pops:
You’ve Got a Friend: A Celebration of Singers and Songwriters- April 21, 2017

Carnegie Hall presents
The New York Pops
Steven Reineke-Music Director and Conductor
Guest Artists: Cassie Levy, Tony Yazbeck
Life Is a Cabaret: The Songs of Kander and Ebb                    

Lee Day on Life, Liver and the Hirsute of Happiness

09/18/2016

On a lovely early autumn Saturday (9/17) The Metropolitan Room hosted its first Pet Cabaret.  It may now take a modest bowwow.   I have never had much patience for clubbing baby seals; indeed I saw none today at the Met Room.  But when it comes to shooting urban animals, photographs that is, I’m your man.

img_3019-i-gotta-crowLee Day, “I’ve Gotta Crow”

Lee Day, sporting Milk Bone earrings and a “Lady and the Tramp” shirt, sang a mixed bag of animal-related numbers and shared bits of her life.  She opened with a clean verse of “Let’s Talk Dirty to the Animals” (Michael O Donoghue) made famous, ahem . . . , by Gilda Radner.  She sang a bit from “Biscuits are a Dog’s Best Friend” – without apologies to Styne and Robin (Gentlemen Prefer Blondes).  Then “I’ve Gotta Crow” (Charlap, Leigh), “Talk to the Animals” (Darin), etc.; you get the idea.

Day’s love of animals has gained her entrée to numerous experiences and celebrities – both before and after achieving some renown.  Early in her career she discovered she was a kind of “cat whisperer” when rescuing the feline of an opera singer from a precarious perch.  The singer was so grateful that she “gave” Day access to an idol of hers, Doris Day (no relation).  Doris Day called Lee Day at an appointed hour and they immediately hit it off over their common cause – talking at length. Doris encouraged Lee to pursue her dream – and she did.  They have spoken often since that day.

img_3025-lee-and-some-patronsLee Day and Metropolitan Room Patrons

Lee grooms, and entertains, pets; indeed, she provides grooming house-calls.  She has serviced, so to speak, pets of Frank Sinatra, Lauren Bacall, Joan Rivers and Mary Tyler Moore.  She has appeared on television with Regis Philbin, Sally Jesse Raphael and, in England, with Terry Wogan.  She was seen on the Terry Wogan show by the Queen and Princess Di who then asked to meet her; Day sang for the princes when they were smaller than she. Day is a proponent of pound puppies and does not subscribe to remote animal care; all animal care should be transparent to owners.   All of her grooming comes with pet entertainment, but not all entertainment comes with grooming.  For example, Lee does entertain at pet weddings and bark-mitzvahsTM.

Day explained in the course of her show that she suffers from Noonan’s syndrome, a condition affecting her learning capacity as well as her physical state (including, particularly the heart).  Still, most of us could benefit from whatever has affected Day’s heart; she is guileless and effusive, and she clearly loves animals.  She has built for herself a unique career and a remarkable life and, in the process, gained apparent contentment.

img_3048img_3046-day-lively-singing-hes-a-trampLee Day and Anna Lively sing “He’s a Tramp”

Lee Day was the name on the show marquee, but she was nicely supported by friend Anna Lively, a regular cabaret performer, who joined Day on stage for a lovely and amusing rendition of “He’s a Tramp” (lyrics by Peggy Lee and Sonny Burke, music by Oliver Wallace with an assist from Peggy Lee, baying by Lee Day).  Both were loosely accompanied on the Piano by Jeff Franzel, an uber-able musician who has played with Frank Sinatra, Mel Torme and Les Brown, among others, and now writes songs for the likes of The Temptations, Placido Domingo and Josh Groban, as eclectic a group of performers as one can cram into three personnae.

Following the show, doggy treats were made available (by the Met Room) to all comers.  In New York (unless it’s Trump) you blink and you miss it.  It was sweet, if a tad sentimental, and it may not come again.

Photos by Fred Cohen Photography

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