It’s been six years since three talented singers came together for 3 Tenors in Search of an Act, and for anyone lucky enough to have caught their first outing, it’s undoubtedly been a long wait.  After pursuing their separate careers—Broadway, opera, cabaret, recording, teaching, etc., they kept revisiting the idea of doing a reunion.

The show was conceived by Edd Clark and Musical Director/arranger Paul Stephan as a spoof on the original 3 Tenors. Clark recruited friends Bill Brooks, a Broadway tenor, and Steven Tharp, an opera singer. The revue ran for thirty performances to critical acclaim, winning the 2005 Back Stage Bistro Award for Best Musical Comedy Act.

The primary thing to say about these singers is that their voices, both singly and collectively, are fantastic!  Among the standout solo performances were: “The Morning After” (“Leave”) by Marcy Heisler & Zina Goldrich sung by Clark with a funny, ironic sense of humor; Tharp singing with poignancy as someone who’s grown frustrated about being invisible to another on “I’m Not Waiting” (John Bucchino); and “Love Who You Love” from A Man of No Importance (Lynn Ahrens & Stephen Flaherty) performed by Brooks with appropriate tenderness, a sweet reminder of the exquisite play from which it came.

More than half of the songs were sung by the trio, every performance outstanding.  One of the best was “Lunch Medley,” a hilarious tune in which the word “lunch” is substituted for “love” in just about every song with the word “love” in the title.  Thus we have “Lunch for Sale” (Porter), “You Are Lunch” (Kern & Hammerstein) and “What Now My Lunch?” (Carl Sigman and Gilbert Becaud).

“Circle of Friends” (Carol Hall), sung a capella with the sensibility of an Elizabethan air, would have been a perfectly delightful close had it not been for the fact that it was superseded by the encore.  For one especially bright moment, the tenors’ performance of “Nessun Dorma” (Puccini) made it possible to forget Luciano, Placido and José.

If the extraordinary audience response was any guide, we can hope that the 3 Tenors will be back before 2017.

Jerry Osterberg
Cabaret Scenes
March 30, 2011
www.cabaretscenes.org