Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Cabaret Review

Ron Abel adds right touch to a Monday

The Actors Fund's showcase has plenty of first-rate numbers to choose from and nine masterful singers to perform them.

By Don Heckman
Special to The TimesMarch 26, 2008

Ron Abel is one of the busiest multi-hyphenates in the musical-theater world. So it was appropriate that the Actors Fund kicked off its 2008 "Musical Mondays" cabaret series with a showcase presentation of Abel's music Monday night in the Art Deco lobby of the Pantages Theatre.

Many similar honorees might have been content to simply sit back and enjoy the plaudits. But not Abel, who also played piano, sang, wrote the arrangements and led the five-piece band backing the cast of nine stellar vocalists.

Abel's busy career has embraced composing, producing, arranging and conducting as well as scores for a string of musicals, including the critically acclaimed "Blame It on the Movies." So there was plenty of material from which to choose for his presentation of nearly 20 songs -- and plenty of diverse interpretations from his singers.

Three songs -- "Let 'Em Talk," "Where Do I Find Love?" and "Same Old Moon" -- were turned over to the ebullient voice of singer-dancer Valarie Pettiford, who transformed every note into a tour de force. Impressive as her performance may have been as big-stage projection, its larger-than-life qualities sometimes seemed a bit out-sized -- for both the songs and the intimate environs of the Pantages lobby.

A pair of first-rate numbers inspired by the 1955 film "Marty" took a different interpretive tack. Marsha Kramer and Wayne Moore sang "Dogs Like Us" (based on a classic Ernest Borgnine line from the film) with a communicative theatricality perfectly framed for the small stage.And Moore's version of "She Just Happened to Me" was the ideal follow-up, a poignant expression of the depth of everyday love, delivered with precisely the right touch of believability.

Other highlights included Linda Purl's whisper-in-your-ear rendering of the touching love song "Just to Be Near You" (written, as were the majority of the songs, with lyricist Chuck Steffan); a pair of Abel duets with Christa Jackson ("Funny How Love") and Lucie Arnaz ("Forever's All We Know"); and Joely Fisher's bawdy take on the whimsical "All the Good Men Are Gay." Giselle Wolf's reading of "It's Been a Long Time" found the song's heart, as did Arnaz's version of "Until Now." But Joey Gian, like Pettiford, approached "I Met an Angel" and "Slow Dancing" with big-voiced drama that soared past the songs' inner subtleties.

The evening climaxed, appropriately, with a look toward Abel's vital future in songs from the newly completed "Bricktop" -- a musical-theater version of the life of the fabled Parisian nightclub owner. Loretta Devine sang the show's two principal songs -- "A Place of My Own" and "Queen of the Night" -- with stunning style and panache, the combination of Abel's music and her vocal gymnastics capturing both the essence of the character and the memory of an era.

Bricktop The Musical

Whoopi Goldberg has joined forces with producers Paul Lambert and Jonas Neilson to bring a new musical about Ada "Bricktop" Smith to Broadway.

As previously reported, composer Ron Abel and Chuck Steffan have penned the score for the new musical, which follows the life of the 1920s performer and Paris nightclub owner. Lambert and Nielsen, who also serve as producers for the Broadway-bound musical First Wives Club, as well as Goldberg, were on hand at the March 24 Musical Mondays Actors Fund Benefit Concert at Los Angeles' Pantages Theater, where Goldberg's involvement in the project was announced.
At the benefit, original Dreamgirls star Loretta Devine performed two new songs from the musical — the full title is Bricktop – Queen of the Night — including "A Place Of My Own" and "Queen Of The Night." Abel, an established arranger, will incorporate standards and original songs into the score of Bricktop.

The Daily News previously reported that producers hope to present the musical on Broadway in 2009 after an intended out-of town-engagement in Chicago. Earlier reports stated that the show's producers had approached "American Idol" winner and Broadway's The Color Purple star Fantasia Barrino about starring as the late Bricktop.

American expatriate Ada "Bricktop" Smith was a 1920s Paris nightlife sensation, operating numerous clubs and opening her own — Chez Bricktop. She was noted for her red hair, freckles and signature cigars. Cole Porter was so taken with her talent, he wrote "Miss Otis Regrets" for her to perform. In addition to Porter, Smith counted among her friends F. Scott Fitzgerald and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. Jazz legends such as Josephine Baker, Mabel Mercer and Duke Ellington were among her protégés.

An Academy Award-winning actress, Whoopi Goldberg has appeared on Broadway in Whoopi, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum and Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (which she co-produced). She was also a producer of Broadway's Thoroughly Modern Millie. She currently serves as a co-host of the daytime talk show "The View."

A Night To Remember

. . . from Out In Hollywood
by Greg Hernandez

A night to remember with Loretta Devine, Lucie Arnaz and more...

Monday was just one of the great nights. I was invited to attend the Actors Fund Musical Mondays, a series of Cabaret events held several times a year in the lobby of the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood. This week was special because instead of just featuring one performer, it was the music of Ron Abel that was sung by a parade of his friends and muses including Lucie Arnaz, Loretta Devine, Valarie Pettiford, Linda Purl, Joely Fisher and others.

The results were awesome with Tony winner Devine really knocking it out of the park on two songs from the forthcoming musical "Bricktop" called "A Place of My Own" and "Queen of the Night." I wish you could have all been there to see what Loretta can do on stage.

I was blown away and can't wait to see this show which, it was announced Monday night, has Whoopi Goldberg on board as a producer. I think Loretta outa make room on her shelf for another Tony based on what I heard at the Pantages. Wow!

Also excellent, and someone I'm so glad to be aware of now, was the amazing Valarie Pettiford, a major talent and Tony nominee for "Fosse." She performed more numbers than anyone else and nailed every single one of them with power and conviction including "Let 'Em Talk," "Where Do I Find Love?" "Same Old Moon," Bye Bye Blackbird" and, in a duet with Joey Gian, "The Way You Look Tonight/Everybody Loves My Baby." She is fantastic!

Lucie Arnaz is Abel's close friend and sometimes professional partner of more than 20years and she came in straight from Hong Kong to dazzle the audience with a pair of numbers. Lucie hopped onto the piano and sang "Until Now" and sounded and looked sensational. Hard to believe that the daughter of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz is in her mid 50s. Lucie dueted with Ron on "Forever's All We Know" and, I swear, I thought she was singing these songs right to me. But actually, she was singing them to her husband, actor Laurence Luckenbill and their very tall son who were sitting just a few feet away.

"Larry was sitting down there and it's an anniversary-type song so I wanted to make sure he knew I was singing it to him!" Lucie told me after the show.

Lucie told the audience that the first time she heard the song was one night in Vegas when her brother, Desi Arnaz Jr., sang it with his then-wife Linda Purl who was wonderful singing "Just to Be Near You" at the event. She is also ageless, looking much like she did in all those TV movies and on "Matlock" with Andy Griffith.

I also give major kudos to Joely was a real hoot. She walks onto the stage and says: "f@*#! I have to follow Valarie Pettiford." Then she did a highly entertaining "All the Good Men Are Gay."

Ain't it the truth!!!

After the show, I gabbed with Ron, Lucie and Linda. I gushed that I was just about speechless after watching the show. "I'm happy that you had such a good time tonight and that the music pleased you because I think he's just a remarkable, gifted artist," Lucie said. "Ron Abel, there isn't anybody else like him....I love standards but I also like to have a new way of doing stuff and Ron's take on songs has just always been unique and classic and fresh. I love singing the stuff he writes but I also love the arrangements that he does. He's fun to be with on stage. He's always listening."

Lucie said she and Linda are "the best of friends. I adore this woman." Her former sister-in-law was standing nearby and I told Miss Purl what a thrill it was to see another side of someone you know from television when they hit the stage. She said: "I felt the same way the first time I saw Jason Alexander. It was like, 'Oh my gosh! Who knew?' Or Hal Linden or Lucie. It's fun. It's a joy and also as a parent - I know for Lucie it's the same thing - you can do your concerts, go out for two or three days then you can come home and get back to doing soccer runs. It's a good balance."

Thursday, June 28, 2007

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