Classically trained lyric soprano Moira Danis used a circus theme to explore the joys and heartaches of life in her new show The Greatest Show on Earth at Don’t Tell Mama. With consumate artistry Danis structured her act with very short but pointed narratives about her lifelong infatuation with the circus. Well-directed by Gerry Geddes, few of the familiar clown/circus songs were sung. Among the more familiar were: Billy Barnes’ "Have I Stayed Too Long At the Fair," which Danis sang poignantly with the verse, enacting the sad disillusion of a weary innocent; a crazily wacky "Abba Dabba Honeymoon," sung speedily as a duet with Music Director Wells Hanley playing the ukulele and singing with her; two Doctor Doolittle songs, "When I Look In Your Eyes," the beautiful sad love song sung to a seal, which Danis said should have won the Academy Award and the one that did win the Oscar that year, the crazily rhymed "Talk To the Animals"; and an energetic "Be A Clown" (Cole Porter). Miming wildly, Danis humorously sang a rare Arthur Hamilton song, "I Can Do A Trick" with simulated magic gestures. Another bright clown song was "The Clown’s Song," written by Geddes and Michael King.

A rarely sung verse that has "circus" in its lyric introduced Paul Williams’ "You And Me Against the World." Danis, to simple piano accompaniment by Hanley, made it a song about the love between an older woman and younger man, and the endurance of that love later "when one of us is gone." Among Danis’ wildly rhythmic selections were Norman Sachs & Mel Mandel’s "The Gypsies, the Jugglers & the Clowns" and Stevie Wonder and Smokey Robinson’s "Tears of A Clown," which featured Hanley on the melodica, a miniature wind instrument shaped like a piano.

Towards the end of the act Danis explained how circus people dealt with accidents and disaster. They always send in the clowns. Danis’ "Send In the Clowns" was gently acted but what was surprisingly revealing was how purely she sang it, especially on the last word of the song, effortlessly ascending up the scale into a pure sustained high note like nobody else ever has before.

Moira Danis’ The Greatest Show On Earth will be repeated at Don’t Tell Mama on Friday, February 27 at 7:30 P.M. and Saturday, February 28 at 3:00 P.M.

Joe Regan, Jr.
Cabaret Scenes
January 30, 2009
www.cabaretscenes.org