Craig Pomranz’s Love and The Clock - The First Annual Holiday Show, though bracketed by seasonal numbers, concerns itself as titled with “how time influences matters of the heart.” Choosing from a wealth of appropriate songs, the vocalist once again puts together an unexpected, entertaining mix of Broadway, American Songbook, and Tin Pan Alley.

Stephen Sondheim’s lilting “Night Waltz,” offered with gentle, breathy ease, and Jonathan Larson’s “Seasons of Love,” sung as open-throated pop, segue to an interpretation of the jaunty, rarely heard “Five Minutes More” (Sammy Cahn/Jule Styne) whose vocalization is too big for its sentiments.

A lovely rendition of “Dinner at Eight” (Dorothy Fields/Jimmy McHugh), simply crooned by Pomranz with arms at his sides, is performed in a medley with “Tonight at Eight” (Sheldon Harnick/Jerry Bock) in theatrical recitative, Harry Warren’s breezy “About a Quarter to Nine” (whose piano melody smiles), and “One for My Baby (and One More for the Road)” (Johnny Mercer/Harold Arlen) with an appealing overtone of reflective melancholy. It’s a clever sequence. Francesca Blumenthal’s extremely funny “Little Luncheonette” is done able justice (more of these!) but seems not to apply to the theme.

“Ten Minutes Ago,” the feather light waltz from television’s Cinderella (Richard Rodgers/Oscar Hammerstein), an infectiously cheerful honky-tonk number called—wait for it: “My Cutey’s Due at Two-to-Two Today” (Leo Robin/Albert Von Tilzer/Irving Bibo)  and the nostalgic “Time After Time” (Cyndi Lauper/Rob Hyman) maintain variety. Holiday songs close the parenthesis leading to a very pretty encore of Herman Hupfeld’s “As Time Goes By.”

Duets with Musical Director and pianist, Stephen Bocchino, are a pleasure. His arrangements get better and better.

Alix Cohen
Cabaret Scenes
December 4, 2011
www.cabaretscenes.org