“Sunny Side Up” … “The Best Things in Life are Free” … “Look for the Silver Lining” … “Life is Just a Bowl of Cherries¨—these songs tell us that, no matter how bleak the economy, today can still be full of fun and romance, and tomorrow will be cheerier. Sounds like good counsel for today—as it was when these songs were written in the 1920s and 1930, during the Great Depression, by Buddy DeSylva, Lew Brown and Ray Henderson. Three dozen of their peppy, perky Charleston-syncopated songs, created for musical revues and motion pictures of the era, were brought back to life in April’s session of the 92nd Street Y’s decades-popular Lyrics & Lyricists series. Performing the numbers, via smart pacing by stage director Randy Skinner, were the perky Nancy Anderson, comic Jason Graae, actress/singer Randy Graff, singer/dancer Megan Sikora and dancer/singer/choreographer Jeffry Denman, with toe-tapping backup by the ten-man group, Vince Giordano and the Nighthawks, featuring co-music director Joseph Thalken at the piano. While music historian Robert Kimball’s script (delivered perfunctorily by Charles Osgood) illuminated the trio’s careers and the productions they wrote for, the evening’s emphasis was on the songs, with such familiar hits as “You’re the Cream in My Coffee,” “California, Here I Come,” “Button Up Your Overcoat,” “Animal Crackers in My Soup,” “Don’t Sit under the Apple Tree,” and, rounding out the evening with L&L’s traditional audience sing-along, an old Czech song that became popular in translation as “Beer Barrel Polka.” For those who love the craft of songwriting, the program was both a tuneful tribute to times gone by, and grand fun.
Peter Haas
Cabaret Scenes
April 5, 2009
www.cabaretscenes.org
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