Todd Schroeder turned the piano to face the audience, turned the spotlight on himself and returned front-and-center in his own show to demonstrate his bountiful talents as singer, songwriter, musical director, accompanist, arranger and just plain piano player.

The first part of the show, which was similar to one he did last October, dealt with the music of his youth — a soulful “Play Me,” by Neil Diamond, representing the music his mother loved; a rousing “What I Say,” the Ray Charles classic that represented the soul music his father admired; and an instrumental version of Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody,” played as a classical piece to represent the piano lessons he had to take.

And then Schroeder said he made the life-changing discovery that he could rock out at the piano after hearing Jerry Lee Lewis, whom he saluted with a wild and crazy “Great Balls of Fire” (Otis Blackwell/Jack Hammer), going so far as to play a few notes with his right foot.

He also scored big-time with Kevin Fisher’s heartfelt ballad, “I Love You More,” a song Schroeder said he wishes he had written.  But he has worked with Fisher — on a musical about women with breast cancer called Unbeatable, which has played a handful of major cities — and sang the show’s anthem to self-survival, “(I’m Gonna) Live.”

Even in a one-man show. Schroeder is never alone — getting the audience to sing along on a song he wrote with Ron Cohen called “Mischievous,” deliberately mis-pronouncing the word as “mis-chie-vious,” which also included a verse from guest artist Wendy Tuttle singing from her seat in the audience before she came on stage to sing “I Got Trouble”(Christina Aguilera/Linda Perry). Tuttle followed that powerful, bluesy performance with “Don’t Speak” (Eric and Gwen Stefani) in counterpoint to Schroeder’s singing “Sorry” (Elton John/Bernie Taupin) — an ideal blending of two strong ballads.

The absolute highlight of the evening was the appearance of Jason Alexander, who came up from the audience to sing some of the songs from roles he wishes Broadway producers had let him do — a hilarious fifteen-song medley that included bits of “Ol' Man River,” sung with a Yiddish accent; the title song from Phantom of the Opera, sung with one hand over half his face; “Who Am I Anyway?” from A Chorus Line, sung with a lot of sibilance; “Don’t Rain on My Parade,” sung with a lot of Barbra; a spot-on imitation of Jennifer Holiday singing “And I Am Telling You I"m Not Going” that included every auditory gasp and vocal quirk in her remarkable performance reflected in his; and finishing with a straightforward, dazzling version of “The Impossible Dream.”

At the end of his set Schroeder didn’t walk off-stage and then come back for the obligatory encore – “when you’re the pianist, there’s no one to play you off,” he explained; he simply walked in a circle before returning to the piano to sing “What a Wonderful World,” (Bob Thiele/George David Weiss/George Douglas), which was a wonderful way for a wonderful artist to close a wonderful show.

Elliot Zwiebach
Cabaret Scenes
May 29, 2009
www.cabaretscenes.org