"One-Night-Only" Events
Who said every said that one-night stands are empty experiences? It couldn’t have been anyone who experienced the recent one-night-only events that took place in the theater district at Dillon’s, Don’t Tell Mama’s, and Sam’s.
Dillon’s has begun an ambitious series of monthly “roasts” of some of cabaret’s most respected and beloved entertainers. These events, which are open to the public like any other show, were begun last month with a roast of piano bar entertainer Terri White. More recently, the club roasted Don’t Tell Mama’s deliciously decadent George Sanders in a night of raunchy wit and inspired lunacy that was hosted by Ricky Ritzel. The roastee was lovingly skewered by friends and co-workers who made sport with Sanders in ways that turned inside jokes into outsized laughter. Sanders proved to be a hilarious straight man; he exhibited priceless facial expressions during the course of the night, drawing laughs with raised eyebrows and looks of injured innocence.
All of the folks on the dais — Ruth Ann Bender, A.J. Irvin, Scott Barbarino, Jennifer Kruskamp, and others — threw their comic darts with skill. But some scored particularly well, such as young Kelly Howe, who sang parody lyrics to the Tom Jones hit “Delilah” (“Why, Oh Why, George Sanders?”) with extraordinary comic timing and a wonderfully wicked delivery. Shawn Curran told a story that paid off like a winning Lotto ticket. But the roaster with the most comic heat was writer/actor Mark McCombs, who arrived as a female friend of Sanders and proceeded to set the room howling with hysterical laughter. In the guise of this outspoken, white trash lady, McCombs all but put on a full-fledged show that could not have been more acutely comic. To say that he was brilliant would not be praise, but simply observation. His performance was the high point of an evening of dazzlingly dirty entertainment.
By the way, we stayed on at Dillon’s after the roast was over and hung out in the dining room, where the regular Tuesday night piano player wowed us. His name is Eddie Lawrence and he put on quite a show, playing a remarkably wide variety of music that included show tunes, pop tunes, and even traditional Irish fare. Like the very best piano bar entertainers, he not only plays exceedingly well but also sings with beauty and authority. He’s a wonderful addition to Dillons’s lineup of piano bar talent.
On another recent evening, we continued our annual tradition of attending the Big Barry Birthday Bash. This year, the word “belated” was added to the title because producer Laura Davis had found it necessary to push the date of the show back several weeks after Barry Manilow’s actual birthday (June 17). When we wrote about the show last year, we suggested that it was time to shake up the formula (and the cast) in order to freshen up the act. To a very large extent, Davis did just that. There were a number of new singers and new songs in this lovingly goofy tribute to the Man(ilow) and his music.
Though he had been in the Barry Bash once before, Sean Sullivan really centered the show this year as both a charming presence and an effective Manilow interpreter. Lennie Watts lent an added dimension of wit to the evening, not to mention his sensational tenor voice. Jeanne MacDonald brought class to the bash when she first appeared two years ago, and in adding yet another Manilow song to her repertoire this year, she enriched the evening further. Karen Mack sang the blues and raised the roof. Among the returning highlights, Sidney Myer’s ballad was a sweet thing to savor and musical director Jim Abbott outdid himself singing “Studio Musician.” If the “Copacabana” number fell flat, so what? This always-uneven show at Don’t Tell Mama seemed more vital this year than it has in the recent past.
A one night only event that could (and should) lead to a run was Mary Stout’s performance of a show dedicated to London songwriter Charles Miller. Playing to a packed house at Sam’s, Stout performed a wide variety of songs from an almost equally wide variety of shows that Miller has written, few of which have made their way to New York (yet). There were highlights aplenty, including her rendition of a song called “Stu” (lyric by Kevin Hammonds) from Brenda Bly: Teen Detective; “If You Were Mine” (lyric by Adam Bard) from Theatrical Love; and “Party Conversation,” a cute duet from When Midnight Strikes, performed with special guest star Mark-Linn Baker. Stout pulled out all the stops with a powerfully uncompromising number called “I Never Learned to Type” (lyrics by Kevin Hammonds, also from When Midnight Strikes). The combination of her fully committed performance and the song’s piercing honesty suggested that if only one song of Miller’s makes its way into the cabaret canon, this will be it.
Stout is a musical comedy master who knows how to act a song to perfection. She did her audience a great service by bringing these otherwise unknown songs to light.
