Imagine that you spend your first date singing the Great American Songbook, get married, and then write your own songs. That’s what Jennie Litt and David Alpher did.  If they have a favorite tune among them, they’re not saying.

Litt had been singing and writing since junior high and Alpher was an acclaimed composer and pianist in the classical music field when they met at The MacDowell Colony in the woods of New Hampshire. They soon became a team, merging their professional and personal lives.

The show’s title derives from a line in “Hello in There,” written as a heartwarming welcome for a daughter.  Other songs aimed at the younger set include “Two Apples,” a poignant cycle-of-life song about Rosie, a bright red apple that occupies the same branch as Blanche, a pale pippin deprived of sun.

The show is largely their songs. Alpher’s music is finely crafted and Litt’s rhymes are funny and clever. “I Want to Be a TV Chef” has the line, “Bobby Flay at the grill gives my flank steaks a thrill,” and there’s “Like a Berlin tune about the moon” in “Your Standard Standard.” They included standards such as “Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man” and “Isn’t It Romantic?” Accompanied exceptionally well by Alpher on piano and Ritt Henn on bass, Litt sings with humor and genuine warmth.

Jerry Osterberg
Cabaret Scenes
January 12, 2011
www.cabaretscenes.org