Ta-Tynisa Wilson, Adrian Galante, John Pagano, Hilary Kole (Photo: Russ Rowland)
Going Bacharach: The Songs of an Icon
By Julia Polinsky
If you have a memory for pop tunes that spans more than a decade, you’ve heard the songs of Burt Bacharach. In a career that lasted over 70 years, Bacharach’s music was recorded by everyone from Patti Page to Lady Gaga, Elvis Presley to Elvis Costello. If you get caught between the moon and New York City? Bacharach. When they long to be close to you? Bacharach. If the look of love is on your face? Yup. Bacharach.
He wrote over a thousand songs; a hundred of them made the charts. He wrote for film (3 Oscars), television (Emmy), Broadway (Tony nom), and of course top 40 was his home base (Grammys galore). Or so reports one of the few brief moments of talking in Going Bacharach: The Songs of an Icon, the 100-minute revue of Burt Bacharach’s music now at the Marjorie S. Deane Little Theater on 64th S. The rest is music, music, music, most of it with lyrics from Hal David, Bacharach’s best-known collaborator.
And what music it is! From “Wives and Lovers”, a pre-feminist ode to Mad-Men era style wife-ery with a hook so catchy you smile until the lyrics hit, to the beautiful, philosophical complexity of “Alfie,” the man could write an earworm. “What’s New Pussycat.” “Do You Know the Way to San Jose?” “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head.”
Hilary Kole, John Pagano, Ta-Tynisa Wilson (Photo: Russ Rowland)
Most of us have a favorite Burt Bacharach song, even if we don’t know it was his – “Always Something There to Remind Me” was a surprise. Most of us of a certain age recognize they were his. But the younger audience members were bopping in their seats along with the grey-hairs (raises hand). That’s partly because the man could really really write an earworm, and in large part because of the killer music direction of wunderkind Adrian Galante. Billed as “composer, arranger, multi-instrumentalist,” Galante clearly is deeply in love with Bacharach’s music and has the chops to bring it to life; he can barely sit still at the piano as he directs the singers and musicians through their lovely work, and swings his clarinet like a paintbrush.
The powerhouse musicians and singers in Going Bacharach are just killin’ it. Vocalists Hilary Kole, John Pagano, and Ta-Tynisa Wilson, separately and together (hey, someone has to sing the “wo-wo” parts in “San Jose”), make glorious work of Bacharach’s sophisticated melodies, syncopated rhythms, changing meters. Kole, whose heart belongs to jazz, briefly speaks of how the jazz-inflected opening of “Promises, Promises” changes meter over and over, and then sings it as she conducts! John Pagano, who toured with Bacharach for years, pours his lovely voice into these lovely songs. Ta-Tynisa, who brings a younger vibe to these songs and can really rock a gold lamé gown, tells a great story about her audition – not to be missed.
Adrian Galante, Hilary Kole, Ta-Tynisa Wilson, John Pagano (Photo: Russ Rowland)
Costumes by Frank Cazares give a suitably mid-Century vibe, especially the women’s gowns in the second act. Christopher & Justin Swader’s scenic design nicely works with Matt Berman’s lighting to make visual cues that are as jazzy and sophisticated as the music. Director David Zippel wisely gives the musicians, especially Galante, their heads. The excellent band (Patrick Firth, Keyboards, Derek Duleba, Guitar, Nate Francis, Bass, and Jakubu Griffin, Drums) sounds simply great (sound design from Matt Berman).
Over a career spanning 7 decades, Bacharach gave us many of the popular songs that softened the popular American experience. Not for him the rage-inflected 70s antiwar anthems, or slightly gaga magic carpet rides of Haight-Ashbery psychedelic trip music. Nope; Bacharach gave us songs to sing, and a visit to Going Bacharach: The Songs of an Icon rewards with a lovely dip into the melodies of a generation and beyond.
Going Bacharach: The Songs of an Icon
At The Marjorie S. Deane Little Theater
10 W. 64th St.
Running time: 1hour 40 minutes
Through February 15, 2026
