Victoria Clark and Ted Sperling are celebrating their symbiotic musical relationship of thirty years. They have worked together on Broadway and have steadily built respectable careers in the biz, which climaxed in Clark’s triumphant star turn in The Light in the Piazza.

Last night’s show was a re-creation of that trip with many of the songs, including audition pieces or actual numbers, from said musicals. Sperling took the role of pianist/singer, accompanying Ms. Clark and himself with subtle musical support—enhancing the numbers—rather than overpowering them.

Opening with Irving Berlin’s brilliantly witty “Pack Up Your Sins (and Go to the Devil)” (read the lyric sometime), the pleasant ride began with the duo giving us a taste of things to come.  The first half of the show was a mild entertainment with some lesser tunes—especially derivative was Jeff Blumenkrantz’s “Toll,” which was reminiscent of “Taylor, the Latte Boy”—only the hourly worker was the girl in a toll booth yearning for a break in traffic, rather than the girl lusting after a coffee shop barista.

Things really picked up when Sperling delivered a heartfelt “Autumn”/“I Have Danced” by Maury Yeston.  His light voice spun with this Sondheimesque waltz showing surprisingly good low notes for a rather slight instrument.  He knows what he is doing—a total trouper.

Ms. Clark has a solid belt/soprano which can be used as a comic character voice, as in the clever, bluesy “Someone to Cook For” (Jessica Molaskey/John Pizzarelli), or an operatic lyric that was used in “Fable,” her stunning closing number from Piazza.  Adam Guettel’s music was a savory stew of almost every modern romantic composer from Debussy to Weill with a bit of Rachmaninoff—much preferable to Lloyd Webber’s lifting of Puccini for his shows.

Although I must preface this evaluation with the fact that I knew composer Ricky Ian Gordon while growing up on Long Island, I must say that his “Just an Ordinary Guy,” put to the great poem of Langston Hughes, was quite lilting and effective as Ms. Clark’s enthusiastic rendering proved.

Thankfully, the geniuses were given their due with a haunting performance of Sondheim’s “In Buddy’s Eyes” and the heart-wrenching duet “Our Time” from his Merrily We Roll Along.  Further proving the greatness of Irving Berlin, their encore of “They Say It’s Wonderful,” was sung with a creamy security and finesse.

All in all, although a bit self-congratulatory (as many shows seem these days), this superior romp proves that the principals do have something to crow about.  Enjoy —if you have a chance to catch them at the elegant Feinstein’s. They continue through October 24.

Melody Breyer-Grell
Cabaret Scenes
October 20, 2009
www.cabaretscenes.org