Someone please alert the TSA to put the cast of the Fiddler on the Roof national tour on the “no fly” list. They must not be permitted to leave the Southern California area until they do more Fiddlin’ Around evenings and some individual cabaret shows. About twenty company members put together a seamless show of mostly contemporary material, taking a break from the “Tradition” of classic Broadway show material they perform the other six nights of the week. All of the singers handled the songs as if they were excerpted from well-conceived cabaret shows. Sensitive treatment of lyrics, both in interpretation and enunciation, gave the standing room only crowd an opportunity to appreciate the poetry of the songs. The performers’ interpretive skills also resulted in a highly personal rendering of the material that connected singer to song and connected both to the audience.

Rena Strober, Juliana Stefanov, Eric Van Tielen and Colby Foytik  started the evening off with a wonderfully exuberant version of Jason Robert Brown’s “A New World.”  Katie Babb touchingly sang “Home” from the Yeston/Kopit  Phantom of the Opera, with its oh so appropriate line of "And if I am singing, then I know I am home." Not to be outdone, Kerry Alexander also sang “Home,” Alan Menkin’s song of the same name. Matthew Marks rung every last bit of humor in “Epiphany” from Altar Boyz (Gary Adler and Michael Patrick Walker), coming out as Catholic with a capital “C.” David Gilleo, who had performed in a reading of CPNY, The Musical (Steven Skeels and Jerad Bortz) sang “You” from the score. T Doyle Leverett’s tongue-in-cheek version of “I Will Survive” (Freddie Perren and Dino Fekaris) was a delight as was Joanne Bort’s hilarious take on “The Kretchma" (Gene Raskins). Leslie Alexander made Maltby & Shire’s “Life Story” her own story while Rebecca Hoodwin put her own stamp on Kris Kristofferson’s “Help Me Make It Through the Night.” Deborah Grausman (pictured) beautifully conveyed the poignant imagery of Peter Mills and Carla Reichel’s “From Here,” a song from their musical The Flood.

Holding hands figured into the evening a couple of times. At the closing of Matthew Marks and Robbie Roby’s take on “I Think We Got Love” from Zanna, Don’t! (Tim Acito), the two guys gently reached for each other’s hand. They had sung the song so convincingly and finished it so perfectly with that closing gesture that MC Rick Pessagno felt compelled to announce that the two were not a couple; they each had a significant other. An audible gasp could be heard from many in the audience, who had presumed that they must have been a couple. Rena Strober left no doubt that she was looking for love, wrapping her exquisite soprano voice around Jeff Blumenkrantz’s “Hold My Hand.”

The one instrumental of the evening was a brilliant accordion solo by the onstage Fiddler on the Roof accordionist, Sasha Luminsky with his own composition “Buma.”

Concluding the solo performances, since nobody could possibly follow her, Mary Stout had the room rocking with laughter from the special material song “An Explantion for Mom (CharacterGal),” written for her by Alex Rybeck and Scott Hayes. Since this was a BC/EFA benefit, the fitting closer to the evening was David Friedman’s “Help Is On the Way,” sung by the entire company. Erik Liberman (pictured), who sang an emotional version of “Goodbye My Lover” (James Blunt and Sacha Skarbek), put the show together, and Rick Pessagno made a terrific MC. Musical directors David Andrews Rogers and Nathan Thomas, along with bass player Mike Epperhart, provided the excellent musical backing.

Les Traub
Cabaret Scenes
August 3, 2009
www.cabaretscenes.org