Len Cariou                                           photos by Caro Rosegg

 

                                               By Julia Polinsky

 

With Broadway and the Bard, Len Cariou, Mark Janas, and Barry Kleinbort, (who also directed) have conceived an evening of show tunes married to Shakespeare's poetry. Janas, whose masterful accompaniments contribute hugely to Broadway and the Bard, plays a beautiful intro. Then, Cariou declaims the first Shakespeare of the show -- Orsino's famous lines in Twelfth Night: "If music be the food of love, play on/Give me excess of it..."

 

To complement the soliloquy, he sings two contrasting songs about love: "Love, I Hear," from A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum. Perhaps not the best song from the show, but the lyrics evoke an idiotic grin on the lovestruck face of a crushing kid. Following that song: Rogers & Hart's "Falling in Love With Love," which speaks bitterly of love as foolishness and make believe.

 

Cariou makes it work, and work with the Shakespeare. He has polished each word, every note, until it telegraphs meaning. Acting, for Cariou, seems as essential and natural as breathing; he speaks off and on throughout the show of his substantial career in theater.  That wealth of experience shows. Whether declaiming as King Henry V or singing as King Arthur, every moment gets the full attention of a master of expression, gesture, body language.

 

If you're in search of a perfect voice, with the bright, high-throated vocal styling so popular in the current theater, Broadway and the Bard is not the show for you. Cariou's best years of full, mellow, open-throated singing are behind him. He knows. He uses what he's got to the best of his considerable ability, and acts each song as if it were his last. Composers from Bernstein to Kurt Weill get this splendid treatment. From the youthful naiveté of "Lucky To Be Me," to the darkly grown-up "September Song," Cariou sings show tune after show tune.

 

The care with which the show matches song to Shakespeare? Masterful, mostly. By and large, the songs refer to, enhance, or contrast the Shakespeare lines declaimed. Most Notable Exception: the passage from Henry V gets matched with "Applause," simply because Cariou performed in that musical six months after being Henry.

 

Other pairings work better. Iago plots against Desdemona, and Petruchio talks of taming Kate. The following song? "How to Handle a Woman," from Camelot (ironic, perhaps, but it works). Marc Anthony remembers Julius Caesar, and the next songs are about remembering and forgetting, including the lovely and seldom heard "There's Always One You Can't Forget."

 

Cariou with Mark Janas

 

And so it goes, until at the end, Prospero breaks his staff and drowns his book, and we are treated (inevitably) to an incongruous "Brush Up Your Shakespeare." Applause!

 

Matt Berman contributes effective lighting and sound. Scenic designer Josh Iacovelli has scattered Shakespeare-style props here and there about the stage; Cariou moves among them, taking a crown to wear as Lear or Henry V, a laurel wreath for Marc Anthony.

 

The 80 minutes pass quickly. The show is booked only until March 6, so go see it soon.

 

Broadway & the Bard

AMAS Musical Theatre

The Lion Theatre at Theatre Row, 410 W. 42nd Street, in Manhattan

For tickets, call 212-239-6200 or visit http://www.Telecharge.com

Running time: 80 minutes with no intermission