Songbook, March 2015

Brief reminder, here. Songbook is a program that features up and coming, as well as some established, composers and lyricists writing for the musical theater. This past Monday’s edition, featuring the songs of Sam Carner and Derek Gregor, was superb. The past couple of Songbooks I have attended were good, though marred by an overwhelming case of instrumentalists completely overpowering singers (even though they were all using microphones). The techniques on display by the composers completely overshadowed the work of the lyricists. Not so, this past Monday.

On top of being able to hear and understand the singers (with a few minor exceptions), these songs themselves were really, really good. There were fifteen songs performed, from various shows, some of which have had performances, some of which are preparing to be workshopped, and some of which are from shows in their gestation periods. Four songs from Island Song kicked off the evening, and while all of the performers were good, Jackie Burns (recently of If/Then) and Leslie Kritzer were standouts. The first, “I’ll Take It All,” had real accompaniment (provided by Mr. Gregor, at the piano, plus cello, guitar, and percussion) with a nice jazz-rock feel that extended to the song as well. “Sing, But Don’t Tell” was very funny, telling the story of a singer who thinks she’s in love with her accompanist, but feels inhibited about telling him. Ms. Kritzer played it to the hilt, even including some ad libs to the cellist along the way.

Two songs from Unlock’d followed, and my favorite of the two was “Out of the Bay,” which showed influences from Sondheim and Gilbert & Sullivan and was very strong both musically and textually. Stephen C. Anthony did a fine job in performance.

Next up were two songs from Sheila Levine Is Dead and Living in New York, based on a cult novel from the 1970s. Interesting side note here: Carner and Gregor are providing additional songs for the show, which was shelved when the original composer died. The book writer, Todd Graff, decided to dust off the project and approached Carner and Gregor to continue with it. After a false start, David Perlman sang a great performance of “Settle Down,” a piece with a real vaudeville feel. Ms. Kritzer returned with “29 Words,” which is her character’s typing speed, in a very nice song about self-exploration and celebration. One nice turn of a phrase was, “I find peace when I see what I say.”

The three Cabaret Songs that were next were all winners. Mr. Anthony kept finding girls who were “Savin’ It”—for Jesus, as it turned out. Very funny stuff. Natalie Weiss sang “A Piece of Me,” about someone buried in the past, opening up (but just slightly) and realizing that “piece by piece we could be whole.” Mr. Perlman’s slightly manic “What Do You Do With Your Arms” explored a bit of physical comedy as well as hitting (just right) Mr. Carner’s use of humorous and humerus. I’m not making this up, you know! Of the two songs from Toast, “Advice to a Young Firefly” was, hands down, the winner—a power ballad–style number given a dynamite performance by Tituss Burgess. A fitting ending to the concert was “Opening,” the opening number from Island Song. The vocal quintet performed well, but this was one of those cases where five microphones at one time, with overlapping phrases, both musically and textually, made for a bit of a muddied result.

Here’s the thing, though, and I only came to realize this when thinking about the concert afterwards. Carner and Gregor’s songs are so successful because they’re so well crafted. But you’re not hit over the head with their technique. It just is. It is there; it is good; it is really spot-on. They were video recording the concert for Playbill, I believe. If I learn anything about how to access it, I’ll be sure to pass it along. Hat’s off—but not the red hat—to John Znidarsic for putting together Songbook, in general, and this really superb edition. It truly was the real deal.

ConcertMeister