Interview: Bobby Underwood Honors a Comedy Legend in THANK YOU TOM LEHRER at City Winery

On December 28 and 29, New York based actor and comedian Bobby Underwood (whose credits include performing in FIDDLER ON THE ROOF IN YIDDISH off-Broadway) will present a tribute to Tom Lehrer, one of the greatest satirical songwriters of the 20th century, at City Winery. The show is titled Thank You Tom Lehrer: A concert celebrating the wit and brilliance of legendary Satirist Tom Lehrer. (The December 28 performance is already sold out, but you can book tickets to the December 29 show here.)

Read a conversation with Bobby about the show and Tom Lehrer’s comedy legacy.

How did you initially discover the work of Tom Lehrer?

I was introduced to Tom Lehrer at such a young age that I cannot remember a time when I did not know his name or his voice. My parents, both Jewish New Yorkers from opposite ends of the Silent Generation (Mom was born in 1944, Dad in 1929), had his records and songbooks, and they were a constant presence in my childhood home. In fact, growing up in Brooklyn in the '90s and attending a demographically diverse school, his song "National Brotherhood Week" was my initial primary lens into contemporary views on racism. This led to a rude awakening when my mother informed me that "You've Got to Be Carefully Taught," Rodgers and Hammerstein's song from South Pacific, was not satire.

What's important to you about presenting Lehrer's work to people who may be unfamiliar with him?

I have three reasons for wanting to keep Tom Lehrer's legacy alive with this show. The first is, it's fun. He believed in the message behind his songs, but his first objective was always laughter. He wanted most to entertain, and that desire is evident in his songs. I share his love of making people laugh. My second reason is his uncanny relevance. His array of subject matter -- ranging from nuclear war to xenophobia to the bluster and posturing of politicians and media personalities -- is timeless, and his lyrics remarkably prescient. As he himself said, "predict the worst and they'll hail you as a prophet," and his influence is visible in everyone from The Smothers Brothers to Jon Stewart. I believe the world would benefit from his material being known by a wider audience. Not everyone who is smart and good humored knows and likes Tom Lehrer, but almost everyone who knows and likes Tom Lehrer is smart and good humored.

My third and most personal reason for wanting to continuing to present his material is something I didn't fully realize until Zalmen Mlotek and I were putting this show together. Other than my parents, he had the greatest impact on my comedic sensibilities and the way I see the world. My influences are myriad -- Billy Crystal, Larry David, Woody Allen, Stephen Sondheim, Groucho Marx, and a handful of other Jews between 70 and death -- but nobody influenced me more than Tom Lehrer. Dan Pardo paid me the highest of compliments when he said that although he and I have been friends for many years now, seeing me do this show made him feel like he was truly seeing me for the first time (I'm tearing up as I write this) and that it was if I had been born for the sole purpose of introducing a new generation to Tom's repertoire. It is in some ways the most I have ever been myself on a stage.

What went into planning this show? Can you tell us a little about choices you made in putting together the arrangements and the set list?

I come from a semi-political family -- my mother Barbara Underwood was New York's first female attorney general, as well as the United States' first female (acting) solicitor general -- and when it came to narrowing down our list of Tom's songs, I wanted to do as much of his political material as possible. We decided against his songs with more specific targets, as Hubert Humphrey and George Murphy are not atop anyone's mind these days, and aimed for his more evergreen material. Consequently, most of the second half of our program is from his final full length album, That Was the Year That Was. Even with his less overtly political songs, the self-importance of Harvard University and the Catholic Church, as well as the very concepts of love and marriage, are endlessly enduring fodder for ridicule. His two most famous songs are probably Poisoning Pigeons in the Park and The Elements Song, which we have included as well. We also included two songs from his time writing for the PBS show The Electric Company, which will be new even to many longtime Lehrer fans. Then we picked and chose various jokes from his song's introductions to incorporate, and figured out how best to establish a through line for the show. You won't learn a tremendous amount about his biography, because not a tremendous amount is known, but you will learn a few things, hopefully told in amusing way.

Is there anything else you'd like to add?

I've said a lot and at the moment I can think of nothing else to add, other than to ambiguously say that my connection to Tom predates my own birth. As to how that can possibly be, well, you'll have to see the show to find out!

Learn more about Bobby Underwood on his website at www.underwoodbobby.com