Nick Cearley: The Most Overdone Songs Ever

There is something comforting in a well-loved classic showtune– it's rather the musical equivalent to wrapping up in your favorite bathrobe in front of a whistling radiator. It's familiar and enjoyable, which is exactly what makes Nick Cearley's recently ended cabaret act, The Most Overdone Songs Ever, so much fun. We know these songs, and all the cabaret artists know we know them. In fact, we know them so well that no one wants to perform them anymore, and soon, as Liza's first gay husband once said, everything old is new again.

Opening with "Home," the sweet finale of The Wiz, and Stephen Schwartz's classic "Corner of the Sky," Cearley shows off his strong voice to great effect before swinging joyously into a medley that combines bits and pieces of 22 songs as classic as "Gethsemane" and as modern as Jason Robert Brown's standard "Stars and the Moon." Half the fun, of course, is hearing how well these familiar tunes can fit together into one cohesive moment, and under Phil Geoffrey Bond's careful direction, they all work together quite nicely.

From there, Cearley sings, with jovial respect and reverent amusement, several popular classics, including (perhaps ironically) Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Unexpected Song," and Jason Robert Brown's "I'd Give It All For You," alongside Suzanne Fiore. He also performs a bunch of songs that involve letters and writings, which are perhaps not as often performed in cabarets as other, more generic songs, but still make for a very funny medley.

Perhaps the best thing about classic songs is hearing how different singers can interpret them. For example, compare Judy Garland's "Over the Rainbow" to Mandy Patinkin's, or even Tori Amos'. I rest my case. Mr. Cearley takes two well-known numbers and completely reimagines them, making music that could become stagnant into a breath of fresh air. He performs the national anthem of stalkers, Lerner and Loewe's "On The Street Where You Live" as an actual stalker, complete with a new minor-key arrangement courtesy of musical director Ray Fellman. Later, he gives Gypsy's "Everything's Coming Up Roses" a slow, romantically jazzy new rhythm that makes the song more seductive and beguiling than bombastic and angry. While this interpretation would probably not work in the show itself, it is wonderfully refreshing to see what else the song can be in the right hands. That, perhaps, is one of the greatest joys of cabaret.

The one relatively unknown number in the concert is Laurence O'Keefe and Nell Benjamin's deliciously misnamed "Sensitive Song," which really must be heard to be believed. Mr. Cearley is just as adept with comedy as with more dramatic numbers, but treats all songs, whether classic or new, comic or tragic, with the same respect and care. Regardless of what he sings, he sings it very well. With any luck, The Most Overdone Songs Ever will return to the Duplex sooner rather than later.

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