Songbook (4/26/15)

Landon Braverman and Derek P. Hassler

As a reminder again, Songbook is a series of concerts by new, aspiring theater composers and lyricists. In this case, Landon Braverman composes and Derek P. Hassler is in charge of the lyrics, although from some of the patter on stage, they both have a hand in lyrics from time to time. Their partnership seems to be working very well. A couple of songs on Monday night were from their show Queen of the West and one was from a show they’re currently working on, set in Germany during World War II.

The opening number on Monday night was written as an opening number for the Chutzpah International Festival last year (I’m not making this up, you know!). Called That’s How You Know You’re Home, it’s about returning to the place you lived and grew up in. Sung by a quintet of very good performers (Sam Simahk, Bruce Landry, Catherine Ricafort, Janet Krupin, and Camille Eanga-Selenge), I liked it especially because it had honest-to-goodness vocal harmonies. Not For You, sung by Mr. Braverman, is a character in search of himself and seeing others who seem to have it all together, so maybe he should be like them. First a singing trout, then a wolf, and then his girlfriend all tell him that what they have is ‘not for you.’

Ms. Ricafort scored well with Thin Ice, a song that uses ‘beware of thin ice’ also as an example for a floundering/failing relationship. Due to illnesses of other scheduled performers, she learned the song on the Amtrak train that very day, on her way to NYC for the program. Brava, indeed! This was my second hearing of the song, as it was performed at a Holiday Songbook, where John Znidarsic, Songbook’s mastermind and our host for the evening, gets theater composers to write new holiday songs.

Other strong entries were You Gotta Be a Diva, from QotW and sung by Ms. Krupin, a real show piece about showing off, and That’s Life, a stand-alone song performed by Ms. Ricafort, a catalogue of all the things that can go wrong, and do, but that’s life. A good song with a slightly weak ending, though. So I Stay, also a stand-alone song, was about a troubled relationship where even though the character knows that he should run away, there’s just enough to hold on to, ‘so I stay.’ Mr. Landry was heard to good effect here.

Mr. Braverman filled in on vocals for scheduled performers who had to cancel. He performed, piano and vocals, Finally in Munich, a tale of the underground resistance during WWII, but set to a driving rock score. Of note here, when Mr. Braverman accompanied himself, the balance between piano and voice was better than when he accompanied the other singers. Even though everyone was using standing microphones, the piano was still overpowering at times. One Thing You Should Know was a rather humorous piece performed for laughs (and getting them) by
Mr. Simahk.

I particularly liked Is Anybody Listening. Listed as a quintet in the program, it ended up being a quartet, which worked out very well as it effectively became a double duet that included very nice vocal harmonies again. It was essentially a song wondering whether what we do as individuals gets through to others and then realizing that we also need to listen, too. Todd Olson, a pianist, accompanied this and a couple of the other songs on the program.

I liked the Braverman/Hassler team, even though I found their songs to be somewhat similar in terms of composition style—a slightly tinkling beginning before launching into the soft/hard rock or lightly country body of the song. Will they catch on? I’m not sure. They certainly surrounded themselves with some very good talent, most of whom already have a little bit of Broadway (or touring shows) experience. So they’re all on the right track. Alas, there’s only one more Songbook in this season’s series, and I hope to be there.