Even stars have their stars, just like the rest of us. For Judy Garland, infatuation meant Clark Gable and “You Made Me Love You”; for Kate Baldwin, it is Sheldon Harnick and "He Loves Me." The glamour quotient may be different, but the idea is the same.

Ms. Baldwin, most recently seen on Broadway in Finian’s Rainbow,  appeared onstage at Feinstein’s clutching a photo of Sheldon Harnick, “drunk with love and cheap muscatel,” to quote Harnick’s lyric…but only in spirit, as she is quite pregnant.  The Harnick canon was fertile ground for Baldwin, who personified the innocent, coquettish irony of “A Trip to the Library.” Unfortunately, Baldwin’s self-possession and fine soprano voice seemed at odds. The moment she began to sing big notes in “Will He Like Me?,” she lost the meaning of the words, as if musicality and communication were on the same cerebral circuit breaker.

Luckily, the creator of those words was on hand. When Sheldon Harnick took the stage halfway through the act, he proved himself as good a singer as most actors, and capable of an “If I Were a Rich Man” worthy of any Tevye. Harnick was at his most charming, however, not singing or even speaking, but sitting on a barstool, eyes closed, savoring Kate Baldwin’s rendition of “You’re Going Far” (music by Cy Coleman) like a kid at Christmas—or Hanukah, for that matter. Suddenly, the golden triangle between singer, lyricist and musical magic became palpable and complete, a stronger Mutual Admiration Society than any bedside photograph.      

Patrick Monahan
Cabaret Scenes
March 8, 2011
www.cabaretscenes.org