Nathan Gunn, the renowned operatic baritone, came across as a combination sex symbol and boy next door in his appearance at the Café Carlyle.  Accompanied on piano by his wife, Julie Gunn, he sang a charming program that stretched from standards to Broadway to American art songs in tidy, expressive arrangements.

He opened with the Jimmy Van Heusen/Johnny Burke standard “Polka Dots and Moonbeams,” giving it a genteel sweetness that established the tenor of the evening.  He chatted about how he loved to sing in the intimate Café Carlyle after having to soar over orchestras in opera houses. He was joined in his banter by his wife who egged him on in the telling of several vignettes, particularly those involving his American composer friends, all of whom, he humorously mused, seemed to live on the Upper West Side!  Of these friends’ works, he sang “Jam Tart,” a tongue-twisting list song by Gene Scheer set to an Auden poem; a wistful “Early Morning Paris” by Ned Rorem; and “In the Dark Pine Woods” by Ben Moore to a text by James Joyce, a lovely evocation of romance in a forest.  He did two songs by the well-known American composer William Bolcom: “Black Max,” a jaunty biographical ditty, and “Over the Piano,” a sad homage to a friend.  Amusingly, he sang two songs by gravelly-voiced pop icon Tom Waits.  Mr. Gunn’s rich interpretations gave new meaning to these songs, making them seem new and fresh.

In the standards department, he pulled off the Gershwins’ “I’ve Got a Crush on You,” Rodgers & Hart’s “My Funny Valentine,” Arlen/Koehler’s “I’ve Got the World on a String” and a romping “Don’t Fence Me In,” an oddity by Cole Porter which he used as a jumping-off point to talk about his midwest background.

The three best-delivered songs, however, were a moving interpretation of the Yip Harburg/Jay Gorney “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?,” which he dedicated to his working-class granddad, and two songs from  Lerner and Loewe’s Camelot, a show he performed in concert.  “C’est Moi,” Lancelot’s paean to his manliness had just the right jauntiness.  His “If Ever I Would Leave You” was about as definitive a reading of that baritone workhorse as anyone could want.

He ended with the completely appropriate “Parting Glass,” a traditional Irish song which concluded with the words, “Good night and joy be with you.”  And, it was.

Joel Benjamin
Cabaret Scenes
April 12, 2011
www.cabaretscenes.org