Bryce Pinkham, Lauren Worsham, Chuck Cooper, Lilli Cooper, Ryan Silverman.  Photo credit Richard Termine

 

 

 

by Deirdre Donovan

 

Wouldn’t it be loverly if the best songs of Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe could be resurrected in a live stage performance for New Yorkers?  Well, that recently happened at the 92^nd Street Y when Ron Berman, the Artistic Director of the “Lyrics & Lyricists” series hosted a program called “From Camelot to California:  The Worlds of Lerner and Loewe.”  Berman served up a sampling from the famous duo’s canon, joined by Broadway names and notable vocalists:  Chuck Cooper, Lilli Cooper, Ryan Silverman, Bryce Pinkerton, and Lauren Worsham.

 

The program began with an Overture that was a rich medley of four Lerner and Loewe’s tunes sung by the company, including “Brigadoon,” “God’s Green World,” “Wouldn’t It Be Loverly,” and “I’m On My Way.”  This seamlessly sequed into “Waitin’ for my Dearie” from Brigadoon (1947) endearingly crooned by soprano Lauren Worsham.  Berman noted that Brigadoon put Lerner and Loewe squarely on the map when it opened on March 13th in 1947.  Seven decades on, it’s still humming fine, at least with Worsham singing it and retelling its story about a patient lassie waiting for true love.

 

Berman then zig-zagged to one of the most popular songs from Camelot (1960), “I Wonder What the King is Doing Tonight.”  As sung by the tenor-ranged Pinkham, it came across with crispness, comic verve, and genuine wonder.  Berman noted to the audience that Camelot was based on T. H. White’s The Once and Future King and re-spun the tales of the court of King Arthur.  Berman added that its road to New York was a bumpy one that wended through Toronto and Boston before, winging its way to Broadway.  In fact, by the time the show arrived in New York it had been given a nickname:  Costalot. With its large cast, elaborate costumes and set, not to mention a myriad other theatrical expenses, the nickname was well-earned.

 

No strict chronological order was followed here.  Berman thus hopscotched back and forth through the decades to highlight this, and that, gem from the oeuvre.  Ten minutes in Berman introduced the song “They Call the Wind Maria” and a hush immediately settled over the auditorium.  Baritone Silverman delivered this classic from Paint Your Wagon with true Western flavor and feeling.  Indeed before this song ended, one could almost smell the loneliness of those men who joined in the California gold rush in the mid-nineteenth century. 

 

Although many featured songs were top drawer Lerner and Loewe, other numbers seemed included simply to provide a bird’s eye view of their work.  Not all the offerings dazzled, but each one clearly had Lerner and Loewe’s thumbprints on it.  For instance, two numbers from Paint Your Wagon, “How Can I Wait?” and ”Wand’rin Star,” proved to be mediocre fare.  And “C’est Moi,” delivered as a manly duet by Pinkham and Silverman, was fun but hardly in the same league as other songs in Camelot. 

 

Berman carefully balanced the program with songs and anecdotes about Lerner and Loewe’s love-hate relationship over the years.  Lerner and Loewe would temporarily (and eventually permanently) separate after working together on their musicals.  Berman shared that Lerner once quoted two lines from a Noel Coward play to describe their thorny partnership:  “Do they fight?” “Oh, no.  They’re much too unhappy to fight.”

 

That said, they sure made theatrical magic when together.  Consider the song “With a Little Bit of Luck” (1956) from My Fair Lady that celebrates the joys of “ducking” one’s responsibilities.  As sung tongue-in-cheek by Chuck Cooper, Pinkham, and Silverman, it became a fool’s fantasy teased out with witty lyrics.  Keeping the tone light, Lilli Cooper lead the cast in the “Lusty Month of May” from Camelot, with Lilli flirting with her stage-mates, even Berman, who seemed totally amused by her and the song’s blithe attitude.  Act 1 closed with the entire ensemble singing “Whoop-ti-ay! The Night Thy Invented Champagne.”  Fizziness and dizziness kiss in this paean to champagne.  The company stood in a straight line at the start of this number but as they progressed through the intoxicating lyrics, they playfully stumbled right, left, and sideways.  It was silly, bubbly--and drew more than a few smiles from the audience.

 

The curtain-riser for Act 2 was the title song from Camelot.  Berman remarked in his between-song patter that former President John F. Kennedy was in the habit of playing this song at the White House before he went to bed each night.  Here sung by baritone Chuck Cooper with velvet smoothness, it conjured up an ephemeral state of harmony in an uncertain world.  Indeed it was the most poignant number in the program.

 

Other Act 2 highlights offered different emotional coloring.  There was the wistful “I’ve Grown Accustomed to her Face” from the musical My Fair Lady (1956) that was later recycled in the film Gigi (1958).  Ably sung by Silverman, it sounded fresh as ever.  Another winner was “I Could Have Danced All Night” from Camelot (again), lead by Lauren and the cast. This number was totally infectious and even prompted a little girl in the audience to dance in the aisle. There were a smattering of other songs from Camelot, My Fair Lady, and the less-known The Day Before Spring.  But when Chuck Cooper and his real-life daughter Lilli fired off the notes to “What Do Other Folks Do?” from Paint Your Wagon (1951), they truly stole the show.

 

The program wrapped up with a gorgeous reprisal of “Camelot.”  It was a fitting finale and tribute to Lerner and Loewe, who continually wove fantasy, myth, and romance into their art.

 

June 3^rd through 5^th.  Five performances only.

For more information on “Lyrics and Lyricists” upcoming programs, visit www.92y.org.

Their next program is “Lyrics & Lyricists Favorites: Your Choice!” on Monday, June 26^th at 7:30pm.

Running time:  2 hours with one intermission.