As one of the approximately 1,000 card-carrying members of the International Al Jolson Society (yes, there really IS one), I felt like dancing a jig on the stage at the Winter Garden Theatre when I learned the first show of The Town Hall’s 2011 Broadway by the Year series would showcase the musicals of 1921. (It was the obvious choice of year given the hallowed hall—built by suffragette members of The League for Political Education—is celebrating its 90 ^th anniversary.) The early ’20s was a time when men were men, women were women, the Jazz Age was in full swing, and Broadway musicals weren’t really about stories. In 1921, Al Jolson was into his tenth year as the biggest star on Broadway and that season his latest vehicle was Bombo, one of those thin, book musicals that featured a number of songs that became Jolson classics.

Showcasing 20 tunes from eight different musicals, The Town Hall 1921 tribute was bookended by the Jolson hits “Toot, Toot Tootsie Goo’bye”—sung with Jolie-style energy by long time Jolson tribute artist Stephen Mo Hanan (pictured), and “California, Here I Come” (the finale belted by the terrific cast of nine singers and ten gorgeous gals cast as the “Sieg”feld Girls— a play on series creator, writer and host Scott Siegel’s name). In between, the glowing and pregnant Finian’s Rainbow star Kate Baldwin delivered a lovely rendition of  “Avalon,” and an un-miked Mo Hanan—who, as he ages, looks more like Jolson every year—kept the schmaltz to a minimum on “April Showers.”

While it must have been a challenge for Siegel to hone in on other memorable classics of the year, he did find some gems sung by performers so young their great-grandparents would have been their age when these shows were on the boards. Highlights included 2011 Nightlife Award winner Liz Lark Brown delivering Fanny Brice’s two most memorable Ziegfeld Follies songs, “Second Hand Rose” (where Liz made a valiant attempt at a Hungarian-Jewish accent) and the heart-wrenching “My Man” (during which she smartly resisted the temptation to outdo Barbra Streisand’s version). Liz also delighted the audience by going all out on the obscure and slightly frenetic “Hokey Pokey” from a show called The Greenwich Village Follies.

Broadway by the Year regular Kendrick Jones (most recently in The Scottsboro Boys) was smooth and dapper tapping his way through Irving Berlin’s “Everybody Step” from The Music Box Revue, before bringing the house down in Act II with “I’m Just Wild About Harry” (from the Noble Sissle and Eubie Blake show Shuffle Along), with the Siegfeld Girls channeling the glamour of the time. The Girls were also lovely in support of Kevin Earley’s sophisticated and comedic turn on “The Very Next Girl I See,” from Bombo. Bobby Steggert sweetly sang the Vincent Youmans/Ira Gershwin ballad “Dolly” from Two Little Girls in Blue, the show which featured two of the best duets of night. On “Just Like You” (Gershwin/Paul Lannin), Steggert and Erin Denman provided another lesson on how Tin Pan Alley songwriters would turn European-style waltz melodies into American pop hits. Erin’s husband, Jeffry Denman (whose direction and choreography of the show was minimalist yet charming) teamed up with sensuous Siegfeld Girl Jennifer Rias on the bouncy Act II opener “Oh Me! Oh My!”

One of the biggest show’s of 1921 was the Sigmund Romberg/Dorothy Donnelly Blossom Time, the adaptation of Franz Schubert’s Viennese operetta Das Dreimaderlhaus. Erin Davie and Kevin Earley teamed up effectively on “Song of Love” and “Let Me Awake,” the latter reminiscent of one of those Jeanette MacDonald/Nelson Eddy duets from their 1930s films.

Musical Director Ross Patterson and his Little Big Band were superb as usual, especially with some obscure period songs, and kudos also have to go to sheet music maven Michael Lavine, who must have worked overtime tracking down charts for songs that are almost a century old. The next show in the series comes on Monday, March 21 and will feature musicals of 1932.

(Photo by Joan Marcus)

Stephen Hanks
Cabaret Scenes
February 14, 2011
www.cabaretscenes.org