Chris Barrett, long one of New York’s favorite piano bar/cabaret pianists and singers, relocated to Florida several years ago. Fortunately for fans of flair and original talent, he returned to town for four evenings in October at Don’t Tell Mama to present a new show, The Hills Are Alive. Subtitled The Nature of Lyrics, the evening looked at our natural world through song.

Seated solo on the raised stage, Chris opened with two sunshiny songs from Rodgers and Hammerstein’s early works: “Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’” (Oklahoma!), followed by “June Is Bustin’ Out All Over” (Carousel). The season warmed up through such numbers as “In the Spring of the Year” (Charles deForest), “Spring, Spring, Spring” (de Paul/Mercer), “You Must Believe in Spring” (Legrand/the Bergmans) and Lane and Lerner’s encouragement to flowers waiting to bloom, “Hurry! It’s Lovely Up Here.” Particularly moving was Chris’s performance of Don McLean’s “Vincent,” recalling van Gogh’s attempt to capture the “starry, starry night” on canvas.

A nostalgic mood followed, with Noël Coward’s “World Weary” and Stephen Sondheim’s “I Remember,” shifting into Elton John/Tim Rice’s “Circle of Life.” The evening ended with images of nature at its soaring best: “The Eagle and Me” (Arlen/Harburg) and, in a return to Rodgers & Hammerstein, “The Sound of Music.”

The show, explained Chris, had a purpose: “to respect nature, and to know its beauty, power and resolve.” It was an unusual use of the cabaret medium – but in Chris’s hands, it succeeded as both food for thought and a fine musical evening.

Chris is at The Magnum Lounge in Miami, FL every SUnday, Wednesday & Saturday.

Peter Haas
Cabaret Scenes
October 14, 2010
www.cabaretscenes.org