Maitland, McKnight and Lupton in STARTING HERE, STARTING NOW at The Pheasantry

[bob8rich]

Posted: 3/22/16 at 1:27pm

Just announced! There will be 4 performances of Maltby & Shire's STARTING HERE, STARTING NOW at The Pheasantry from April 18 to 20. I LOVE Maltby & Shire and there are some great songs in this revue.

And they have a fantastic cast! Carolyn Maitland (The Memory Show, Miss Saigon, From Here To Eternity, Kiss Me Kate), Kayleigh McKnight (Bend It Like Beckham, The Mikado, The Dreaming) and Sam Lupton (Avenue Q, Wicked).

I am salivating at the prospect of hearing Carolyn & Kayleigh's vocals on these songs! So have booked my ticket for April 18!

[DeNada]

Posted: 3/22/16 at 3:51pm

I was in a production of this some years ago.

The very cheesiest of 70s musical theatre cabaret cheese, all plinky plonky piano and sudden lyrical revelations in the final third.  I know Sondheim listed "Travel" as one of the songs he wishes he'd written, but the revue as a whole nowhere near as good as Closer Than Ever is.

You're right to focus on the female parts, I think; there are some absolute clangers for the Man in the show (Barbara??????).  Although with that said, I'm now remembering just how much I had with some of it...

[bob8rich]

Posted: 3/25/16 at 8:35pm

Though I would agree that Closer Than Ever is an even stronger score, I don't find Starting Here, Starting Now to be in any way "cheesy". It has some beautiful and brilliantly crafted songs. The reason I "focussed" on the females is not so much because of the female songs in the show but more because they are both such phenomenal talents. I would pay to hear Carolyn and/or Kalyeigh singing the phone book!