Similarities abound, as the iconic Steve Ross pays tribute to the transcendent, albeit modest, Fred Astaire in this latest triumph at the legendary Oak Room. What similarities?Mr. Ross is also a modest man, with simplicity of style as the leading interpreter of the words and music of Cole Porter and Noël Coward. He is an admitted Anglophile as was Mr. Astaire. I’m thoroughly convinced that Ross is also a reincarnation of someone who must have spent time in a former life as part of the Algonquin’s famous Round Table! His every gesture and cultured nuance suggests the connection. Ross’ understated lyric interpretation and piano savvy are nothing new to audiences here and abroad. He is the undeniable master of storytelling, always dapper in tux, tie and boutonnière.

Astaire began an unprecedented career as a dancing man when he took to the stage with sister Adele, enrolled in dance classes in 1904 and was soon dancing on the Orpheum circuit. By the time they were teenagers, this sister-brother act reached stardom in New York and London. Astaire’s charisma and abilities scored major success on Broadway and on the silver screen, dancing with Ginger Rogers, Eleanor Powell and Rita Hayworth.

Offering up only a small part of the music that Astaire sang and danced, America’s finest songwriters were the order of the day, featuring the Gershwins’ “Fascinating Rhythm”/”Oh, Lady Be Good!” in a lively ascending/descending scale arrangement and “A Foggy Day (in London Town)"/"'S Wonderful.”

The last stage show Fred and Adele appeared in together, before her retirement, was 1931’s The Band Wagon, with songs by Howard Dietz and Arthur Schwartz. Coincidentally, television’s TNT aired the 1953 movie version, also starring Fred Astaire, the morning of Mr. Ross’ opening and was a preview to the glorious songs “By Myself” and “I Guess I’ll Have to Change My Plan” and one of Ross’ favorites, “Dancing in the Dark,” with a Major 7th chord. Ross characterizes this as a “harmonious happy Major and a sad Minor” reflecting the lyric’s reference to being “lost in the wonder of why we’re here.” Ross shared the reason why he is here: his parents courted to Cole Porter’s “Night and Day.” And it was hearing Porter’s “After You, Who?” that was the clincher for Astaire agreeing to star in the1932 stage musical Gay Divorce.

In the perfect marriage of word and note, Irving Berlin’s “Cheek to Cheek” and “Let’s Face the Music and Dance” resounded as if a full orchestra had been brought into the Oak Room. The combination of Ross on piano and Brian Cassier on bass are a perfect duo throughout an extraordinary evening of wondrous music. As he (Ross) and we (the audience) “mutually assessed each other” (a Ross comment), the realization is that everyone wanted to be Fred Astaire. Luckily, we have the delightful, celebrated talents of Steve Ross to keep the great American Songbook alive and well.

Performances continue through February 6.

Sandi Durell
Cabaret Scenes
January 19, 2010
www.cabaretscenes.org