Michel Legrand and Marilyn and Alan Bergman have worked together in private, creating music and lyrics for some of the most memorable songs of our lifetimes. Now, for the first time in history, they are finally working together in public. Well, at least two of three of them are: Marilyn is lying low, but Michel and Alan are out on stage performing their own works at Feinstein’s at the Regency through April 12, with a little help from Patti Austin.
We’ve seen Alan Bergman perform his own work before, most recently at the Oak Room. He and his wife are sensational lyricists, but he is not a sensational singer. Sincere? Yes. Dynamic? Uh uh. Happily, he doesn’t have to carry the show at Feinstein’s; having Legrand there to kibitz and kid his more serious partner adds to the proceedings, as does Legrand’s far more luxurious, almost ethereal voice. Legrand is both a showman and an artist while Bergman is more like a businessman, dry yet somehow compelling.
As if to compensate for Bergman’s strict attention to the lyrics, the stage at Feinstein’s features two pianos, one played by Legrand and the other by Mike Renzi. When the two of them join in playing Legrand’s lush arrangements, the sound is so gorgeous that it can actually make one weep. Listening to their sumptuous instrumental rendition of “Summer Me, Winter Me,” we almost wished that this were a piano recital — except that the Bergmans’ lyrics really are something special.
Hearing the stories behind the songs adds an extra layer of pleasure. For instance, Bergman talks about the creation of “What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life?” (It was written to be performed twice in one movie, first as a love song and later as a sardonic comment upon the lives of the same characters 16 years later, without a single word being changed.)
Patti Austin’s contribution to the show is modest. She enters 45 minutes into the generously long, 75-minute act. Her best number is “Ask Yourself Why,” a song with genuine bite that she performs with ferocious honesty. She also acquits herself well in such numbers as “You Must Believe in Spring” and “Little Boy Lost.”
There is no lack of hits for all three performers to sing; Legrand and the Bergmans surely had their share of chart-toppers. Hearing songs like “The Windmills of Your Mind,” “On My Way to You,” and “A Piece of the Sky” performed by the icons who created them is quite a thrill.