Joseph Thalken, Music Director and Piano
This was part of the Carnegie Hall Neighborhood Concerts series, a terrific venture by Carnegie Hall to bring free concerts to New Yorkers in all five boroughs. Saturday's concert took place at LaGuardia Performing Arts Center, at LaGuardia Community College in Queens.
The program was titled Romantic Notions, and that was a loose theme for the afternoon that was part concert, part lounge/cabaret act—not that there’s anything wrong with that!
Due to the lack of a printed program (something that I commented on in the de rigeur survey forms distributed at CHNC events), I had to result to note taking in the dark. After the bossa nova–styled With a Song in My Heart, Mr. Daniely launched into a cute patter bit about the pronunciation of his name, which I will not divulge here in case you hear his act on its own later. (If you really want to know, most of you know how to contact me.)
In his quest to find love, Mr. Daniely’s next step was via the yellow brick road with If I Only Had a Brain. This was followed by (and this is just a guess here) I Wish It So. Someone to Watch over Me was a tribute to George Gershwin, while I Have Dreamed was a nod to Rodgers and Hammerstein. Mr. Daniely had a few vocal mannerisms that came to the fore from time to time, which is not unusual, and they were not overused. They were noticeable yet effective.
Drawing on his own personal Broadway performance experience, he next sang You Walk with Me, from The Full Monty—a song he shied away from for a while because it has a funeral connotation in the flow of the show. But after he learned that it is often performed at LGBTQ weddings/celebrations, he has decided to program it a lot more often in his concerts. (For the record, Mr. Daniely is married to Marin Mazzie—they recently celebrated their twentieth anniversary.)
In What Does It Take to Be a Man? Mr. Daniely managed to flub the lyrics. Afterward, he said that the three things you never do in that situation is acknowledge it, apologize for it, or explain it. He did all three and it was charming. (Hmm, was it a setup?) Rodgers and Hammerstein got another nod with Younger than Springtime/You’ve Got to Be Taught, from South Pacific.
In Time (or All We Had Was Time) was next, from a new musical penned by Mr. Thalken, who added superb support and collaboration throughout the entire afternoon. You, You, You, from The Visit, followed, which Mr. Daniely did not sing in the show but which he did demo from the very beginning of the long, arduous process of creating a musical—from readings to workshops, workshops to reworking, reworking to out of town/regional productions, to reworking, to out of town tryouts, to previews, to—ta-dah! opening night on Broadway! Mr. Daniely told us that this took many, many, many years. But it made it.
Sands of Time, from Kismet, was next and then And This Is My Beloved (which Ms. Mazzie walked down the aisle to lo, those twenty years ago). In true lounge act style, the program finished with a Rat Pack staple For Once in My Life, followed by a quick (obviously planned) encore of Ain’t That a Kick in the Head, also in Rat Pack mode.
Mr. Daniely gave a well-polished performance, one that he’s very comfortable with, with a hint of Danny Kaye humor and delivery, to my ear and eye. I enjoyed it a lot. And so did the rest of the audience—ranging from kids in families to old codgers like me. I was especially heartened to see parents bringing their children and exposing them to these great programs sponsored by Carnegie Hall. Yeah, I know, it sounds rah!-rah! but I really do believe and mean it. More live performances is a big plus, as far as I’m concerned. OK, off of my soap box now.
ConcertMeister
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