To celebrate the tenth anniversary of The Town Hall’s Broadway by the Year, creator/host Scott Siegel, with director Scott Coulter, looked back through the last twenty years of Broadway musicals, acknowledging the changing sounds of the Great White Way.  Ross Patterson and his Little Big Band provided strong support and provocative arrangements.

These past twenty years did not deliver the abundance of standards that could be plucked out of a show and appreciated on their own. In 1999, when songs could have been chosen from revivals like Kiss Me Kate and Annie Get Your Gun, the selection came from The Civil War, with Coulter singing, “Tell My Father,” a heartfelt battlefield plea from a dying soldier to let his father know that he died bravely. On the evening after the 2010 Tony Awards came a nod to Come Fly Away, delighting everyone with singer Michael Winther and dancer Spencer Liff’s snappy, witty delivery of “I’ve Got the World on a String.”

There were expected amusing snippets of social commentary by Siegel. Not only Broadway but the world was changing. There was no texting, no iPhone, and no iPod during those first years, but 1990 was the birth of the Internet and that changed everything. Or almost everything, Siegel pointed out, segueing into 1990’s Aspects of Love. With robust voices, Alexander Gemignani, Scott Coulter and Max von Essen sang “Love Changes Everything,” a melody, Siegel warned, that will play in your mind for weeks. He was right, except there were two decades of songs yet to come in the show, many with captivating melodies and even more with compelling lyrics like, “Make Them Hear You,” Ragtime’s anthem performed by Norm Lewis.  From Curtains (2007), “I Miss the Music” featured a potent, nuanced, unplugged vocal by Gemignani. It is a moving song for any two lovers, but remembering that composer John Kander wrote the song for his recently deceased lyricist, Fred Ebb, brought added poignancy. Instead of the expected “Will You?” from Grey Gardens, Barbara Walsh effectively rendered a dramatic portrait of loneliness and solitude in “Another Winter in a Summer Town.”

Many in the audience were disappointed with 2001’s selection of Mamma Mia!, but the show remains a mega-profit maker, still going strong.  Lari White nailed the point home with “The Winner Takes It All.” The audience was pleased with another jukebox musical, but one with a substantial plot, Jersey Boys, and von Essen’s “Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You.”

In the spirit of Bring in ’da Noise, Bring in ’da Funk (1996), choreographer/entertainer Kendrick Jones saluted dance veterans, including: the father of “rhythm tap,” John W. Bubbles; Chuck Green, jazz tap dancer; elegant Honi Coles; and the smooth tap slides of Jimmy Slyde. Debbie Gravitte raised the roof with “Defying Gravity” from Wicked and Karen Mason was all Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard’s “As If We Never Said Goodbye” from 1994. These two singers joined Julia Murney and Lari White in a bonus memory from Smokey Joe’s Café, belting “I’m a Woman (W-O-M-A-N).”  Marc Kudisch delivered a vibrant rendition of “How Many Women in the World?” from Michael John LaChiusa’s The Wild Party (2000). Bobby Steggert (pictured), who earned laurels this year in Ragtime and Yank, looked back at 1992’s My Favorite Year, evoking the nostalgia with “Larger Than Life.”

In the first ten years of the popular Broadway by the Year, Scott Siegel has created an entertaining, informative, fluidly paced series. It’s been an imaginative and exciting way to spend four Monday nights each year… “and while there’s moonlight and music and love and romance” — and the stalwart support of The Town Hall — we look forward to examining 30 years of Broadway in 2020 with Scott Siegel.

(Photo by Maryann Lopinto)

Elizabeth Ahlfors
Cabaret Scenes
June 14, 2010
www.cabaretscenes.org