Theater News

Plenty of Pennsylvania

Barbara & Scott report on what they saw and heard in Milford, PA on one of their rare excursions outside of NYC.

Martha Lorin
Martha Lorin

On rare occasions, we have been known to leave Manhattan and we invariably end up doing exactly the same sorts of things we’d do if we were still in New York: We see movies, plays, and cabaret acts. We took a couple of days off earlier this month and went to the artsy community of Milford, Pennsylvania — just in time for the Milford Music Festival. And whom did we see there? New York cabaret artist Lennie Watts, who smartly opened the festivities, and New York jazz singer Martha Lorin, who was sensational performing with Russ Kassoff’s big band. But we also saw a great many other impressive music acts that we might never have caught had we not gone to Milford that glorious weekend.

The pleasures of the Milford Music Festival were many and varied — and that was the entire point. An eclectic array of musical forms was offered throughout the weekend in venues all across this trendy village, where a great many creative types have settled. A fair number of locals took part in the festival, including piano bar entertainer extraordinaire Ronny Whyte, jazz pianist Bill Mays, and the aforementioned jazz singer Martha Lorin (who was also one of the festival’s organizers). Milford is tucked in the rolling hills of Pennsylvania, a few short miles from Port Jervis. It’s just far enough away to be unquestionably in “the country” and close enough that quite a number of people who own homes there commute into The City for work — and we don’t mean Port Jervis.

The festival opened with Lennie Watts singing “Blue Skies.” His rendition began nice and slow, like a train pulling out of a station, then it gained speed and made some impressive hairpin turns before suddenly hurtling down a mountain of music like a loco locomotive. The performance got the festival off to a thrilling start. When Watts had finished his set, we dashed off to a series of shows taking place elsewhere in town. At a nearby restaurant, Bill Mays was making the ivories sing with “Old Devil Moon.” A jazz pianist who plays with an astonishing fluidity, he was just one of the great artists who made himself available to the festival over that weekend.

Our next stop was a dessert and coffee shop that featured one of our favorite acts of the weekend, a blues violinist and her band called the Heather Hardy Trio. If the venue was reminiscent of the 1960s, when coffee houses often featured musical acts, so too was Heather Hardy a throwback to the sixties. Some of her music had a bluesy folk sound that resonated with the protest era she evoked. Hell, she even wore a beret as she fiddled and sang “The Devil in Your Eyes.”

It was after midnight but the music just kept coming — or, rather, we went to yet another venue in town to hear Ronny Whyte performing such standards as “My Funny Valentine,” “Love Me or Leave Me,” and “Little White Lies.” Bill Mays, having finished his show earlier that night, came in to catch Whytes’ act and ended up joining him on stage. Simply put, we were astonished by the diversity, not to mention the sheer quantity and quality, of the acts available on opening night of the festival.

Luna Parc
Luna Parc

The next day we were kidnapped — sort of. Someone we knew insisted that we had to see Luna Parc, an artist’s home/creation located just a few miles away. Well, no words could do it justice. It’s “an environmental sculpture park” that was (and is continually being) created by Ricky Boscarino. Luna Parc might be described as a Disneyland of the delightfully demented: We spent hours wandering around the place, marveling at its sheer, totally committed whimsy. By the way, it wasn’t as if we had left the music behind. There was a jam session going on at a stage at Luna Parc, featuring such estimable musicians as Matthew Ralph on guitar, Ed Bernstein on an African drum, Eugene Feygelson on violin, and Ryan Termeualen on cello.

We arrived back at Milford in time to hear a 17-piece band perform “At 49,” written by the band’s leader, Russ Kassoff. The band was performing under a tent in the town’s quaint little park. As it rained lightly, Martha Lorin stepped up to the microphone. She was Kassoff’s special guest star and she lived up to the billing with her performances of such songs as “On the Street Where You Live.” The evening might have been damp but Lorin was sizzling, sultry, and singular. If we hadn’t already known that she has one of the most alluring jazz voices in New York, we would have made quite the discovery in Milford.

We attempted to cap off the night with a band called The Pressure Cookers — a real working class, bluesy rock ‘n’ roll group that had a lot of growl in it. But after their gig, not quite ready to turn in yet, we also found Drinkin’ Buddy, another blues group. It was hard to believe there was this much good music in a small town in the middle of the woods. The Milford Music Festival filled a weekend in June with beautiful sounds; the highest praise we can offer is that it was worth leaving New York City to be there.

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[To contact the Siegels directly, e-mail them at siegelentertainment@msn.com.]