“Whistles and bells and siren horns blowing/Pistols that crack and roar/Traffic that stops and goes.”  These frenetic snapshots of “Manhattan Madness” (Irving Berlin), at The Town Hall’s Broadway by the Year: Broadway Musicals  of 1932, describe Broadway during the depths of the Great Depression.  At the end of the show, the cast gathered for a reprise of “Manhattan Madness,” a reminder that our situation today has woeful similarities, at least economically.

Musically, it’s a different story. Director Scott Coulter arranged his big-gun talents with a lineup of terrific and diverse songs.  “Alone Together” (Howard Dietz and Arthur Schwartz) was versatile enough to be adapted by jazz artists and passionate enough for Judy Garland, and it was sung here with rich perfection by William Michals (pictured).  Michals’ resonant bass baritone is always thrilling to hear, but is not always well nuanced with emotion.  It was another song that Michals translated, a melodramatic weeper, “Forsaken Again” (Richard Myers and Edward Heyman), with more touching poignancy.  He later delivered “Through the Years” (Vincent Youmans/Edward Heyman) unplugged and flawless.

There was no holding back on the melodrama of Berlin’s “Torch Song,” a lusty parody belted by Carole J. Bufford. Wearing slinky satanic scarlet, she also wrested the mischievousness from Harold Arlen, E.Y. Harburg and Johnny Mercer’s devilish “Satan’s Li’l Lamb.” Also on board was Jason Graae, an impish scene-stealer with a strong, rangy voice.  He milked the comic development in Vernon Duke and Harburg’s “Speaking of Love,” using the audience as his foil.  Graae later brought out fleet-footed tap dancer Kendrick Jones to join him in Berlin’s “You Must Be Born with It,” hilariously flaunting his own confident oafish moves against Jones’s smooth dance moves.

Warm soprano Christiane Noll delivered the harmonically lovely “April in Paris” (Harburg and Duke) and went for the laughs with the B.G. DeSylva and Youmans “My Lover.”  Meredith Patterson and Jeffry Denman paired for some song and dance to Berlin’s “Let’s Have Another Cup of Coffee,” which creator and host, Scott Siegel, mentioned was a signature tune for the upbeat attitude in those hardship times.  Denman alone shone with Dietz and Schwartz’s “Shine on Your Shoes.”

Director Coulter soloed with touching simplicity in Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein’s “I’ve Told Ev’ry Little Star.”  He joined Graae, Michals, Denman and Bill Daughterty in a stylized harmony of “It’s Only a Paper Moon” (Arlen, Billy Rose, Harburg).  In an evening of high spots, Daugherty was especially noteworthy building the narrative despair of Harburg and Arlen’s “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?” sung unplugged.  The final song was Kern and Hammerstein’s “The Song Is You.”  Noll and Michals delivered the song flawlessly and unplugged, melodically lovely but passionless.  The staging focused on the song’s masterful release, “Why can’t I let you know?”  The singers stood far apart, rarely glancing at each other until the release, when they slowly moved closer and finally touched hands for the last few lines of the song.

Excellent voices, tasty selections and imaginative arrangements of songs were accompanied by the peerless Ross Patterson and his Little Big Band.  Scott Siegel has never disappointed with his witty and informative narrative tidbits.

The 11^th season of the series continues with The Broadway Musicals of 1982 on May 16 and The Broadway Musicals of 1997 on June 25.

Elizabeth Ahlfors
Cabaret Scenes
March 21, 2011
www.cabaretscenes.org