Review: Bob O'Hare A Fine Music Man In WE TAKE THE TOWN at Don't Tell Mama

Easily the most benevolent figure working in cabaret and concert, Bob O’Hare managed to pack the Brick Room at Don’t Tell Mama on a wintery Manhattan night last Friday, January 23rd, when he presented a final encore of his Robert Preston tribute show WE TAKE THE TOWN.  Helmed by director Eric Michael Gillett and backed by the Tom Nelson Trio, this musical cabaret with the clarifying subtitle THE SHOWS OF ROBERT PRESTON is a charming and delightful hour honoring a great American actor who had strong ties to Broadway and the musical theater, though there were opportunities to be mined from the movie world, as well.  The affable O’Hare has curated an entertaining collection of songs from those plays and films, and rolled them up into one big joy ball.

Tribute shows come in many different forms.  Some of them lean heavily into the personal, while others focus on factoids and history.  Some make the audience really work for it, while others make it easy on you (and if you’ve ever been to a show that makes you work for it, as the saying goes, if you know, you know).  Bob O’Hare has done all the work for you.  He has made the cabaret-going experience exceptionally easy, and easy-going.  A slight portion of the program is dedicated to personal history - to be specific, the story of his initial boyhood viewing of a Robert Preston movie, you guessed it - The Music Man.  Every person has a memory like this one - the first movie they ever saw, the first time they saw their favorite movie star, the first time a parent took them someplace significant.  We all share this experience.  So hearing Bob O’Hare’s reminiscence about his dad taking him to see The Music Man was like being awash with one’s own memories of… fill in the blank.  It was visual storytelling that touched the heart and the reflexes.  But that was it.  That moment in his life was shared early in the evening, and then (mostly) abandoned for the rest of the show, in favor of the histories of Robert Preston’s career.  And that’s fine.  It’s fine because Bob O’Hare is a savvy orator, able to recite his text from memory, while sounding like the words are being produced in real time, extemporaneously, as though being called from his mind and sent out into the room.  It is a pleasure to listen to him, and, sometimes, a learning moment (there were bits of trivia thrown out that were new to this writer’s ears, and that can be a rare thing).  The We Take The Town script is a good one - economic yet revealing, to the point, lighthearted, and informative - and also serving the musical programming, which is what the cabaret is all about.

For the musical portion of his evening, Bob O’Hare has worked with his guides, Eric Michael Miyagi and Yoda Nelson, to create a comprehensive look at Preston’s musical contributions that is both elegant and easy-on-the-ears.  Starting the outing with an overture performed by Nelson (on Piano). Tom Kirchmer (on Bass), and Peter Grant (on Drums), the band set the tone by combining music from one Preston hit (The Music Man), one Preson flop (Mack and Mabel), and one Preston film (Mame) before welcoming O’Hare to the stage for a delectable medley of “I Invented Myself” (Ben Franklin in Paris) and “I’m a Star” (The Prince of Grand Street).  Nelson’s arrangement was perfect for O’Hare, quick and quippy and so jaunty as to make an entire audience grin with glee.  It was clear that Mister O’Hare has a definite way with the up-tempos, a fact to be substantiated throughout the evening in numbers like “Ya Got Trouble” and “Rock Island” from The Music Man (the latter number particularly fun with Gillett and fellow cabaret stalwart Gretchen Reinhagen adding additional vocals from the audience).  O’Hare’s years as an actor serve his cabaret artistry well, for he is equally adept at these bouncy up-tempo numbers as he is at character-driven cuts like the mysoginistic “A Well Known Fact” from I Do! I Do!, and fellow I Do! I Do! Track “Nobody’s Perfect,” which provided O’Hare with two characters to embody, the song written as an argumentative duet between spouses.  Bob executes the dual musical monologues with the ease and aplomb of a seasoned Thespian.  Those Thespianic skills are also deeply employed during lyrical and romantic offerings like “I Won’t Send Roses” (Mack and Mabel), which O’Hare performs with admirable interpretive choices and monological rhythms that break free of Jerry Herman’s original structure, in order to preserve emotions strictly germane to O’Hare’s storytelling.   Equally lovely work was presented by O’Hare on another Herman beauty, the movie-born “Loving You,” which Preston sang to Lucille Ball in Mame.  Bob O’Hare’s version of the ballad honored Bob Preston’s memory and artistry with the fluid flow of emotion and creamy vocals.

Other highlights in the enchanting musical outing were the delicious “Gay Paree” from Victor/Victoria, a lovely “To Be Alone With You” from Ben Franklin in Paris, a rather bizarre piece from We Take The Town titled “Silverware” (it defies description), and a wonderful artistic choice that gave Mr. O’Hare a chance to do that which all musical theater singers have dreamed of for years: sing both parts of the “Lida Rose/Will I Ever Tell You?” duet from The Music Man (with an assist from Reinhagen and Gillett).  The number was a late-in-show treat that filled the eleven o'clock slot nicely before Bob brought it home with an appropriate "I Promise You A Happy Ending" from Mack and Mabel.  Nicely done, folks.  The combination of Gillett’s guidance as a director, Nelson’s artistic arrangements, the band’s proficiency at their craft, and Bob O’Hare’s pretty leading man tenor tones made the tribute show a musical treat for the ears, but the charm factor rests squarely on O’Hare’s shoulders, and he’s got that in the bag.  We Take The Town is, rather like Robert Preston and Robert O’Hare, simply put, a classic.

Find great shows to see on the Don't Tell Mama website HERE.

Bob O'Hare is on Facebook HERE.

Photos by Stephen Mosher