Some Kind of Music: Jeff Harnar Talks about Cy Coleman

Jeff Harnar speaks of Cy Coleman the way Plato must have spoken of Socrates. There is respect in his voice, but also a joyous enthusiasm that can only be described as infectious. After a conversation with Harnar, much less a concert, one cannot help but share his excitement for a perfectly crafted Coleman song. His new show at Feinstein's at the Regency, A Collective Cy: Jeff Harnar sings Cy Coleman, celebrates the legendary composer's extensive songbook, and using both music and anecdote, recreates the career of one of Broadway's brightest lights.

"I love to tap into composers, lyricists and themes that inspire me, and that I am passionate about," Harnar says. "I always have some sort of objective about what I would like the show to be, the energy I'm looking for, and I really wanted this new show to be fun. I wanted it to be jazzy, and I wanted it to be like a party... My inspirations were Bobby Short, Elaine Stritch and Eartha Kitt, the performers who turned New York cabaret rooms into the New York Parties that you always dreamed were happening every night of the week." It is even more appropriate that this party would happen on Feinstein's acclaimed stage. The room, Harnar explains, "is where Cy Coleman made his final appearance two years ago. He was on that very stage and singing some of those very same songs. I feel that energy there."

"These are songs that resonate for me at this time in my life," Harnar continues. "I read through songs as if they're monologues to a play, and they really have to fit my skin, fit my point of view. There has to be something in it that speaks to me or that I want to communicate." Of course, time can change one's perception of a song, and while Harnar says he would have loved to perform a concert like this while Coleman was alive, he says that he simply wasn't ready for it at that time. "I needed to grow into these songs," he muses. Now that the songs fit him at this point in his life, he says, "I love the world they're in. I think of it as a color palate, and you want to have each song in your show be a different color. I think this music is incredibly rich and colorful. It's very playful and sexy, and I really enjoy that."

Behind Harnar on the stage at Feinstein's are four musicians recreating the Big Broadway Sound of Coleman's hit shows. "I call them my Rhythm of Life quartet," he quips, referring to the song from Sweet Charity. Dan Willis plays saxophone and flute, Ray Marchica plays drums, and Jay Leonhart (bass) and Alex Rybeck (piano and music direction) do double-duty as musicians and singers. Having such multi-talented musicians performing with him opened up new possibilities for Harnar and the show, and with the help of some new lyrics, the songs were reimagined for this particular presentation. "We approached David [Zippel] to tweak the lyrics to the song 'You're Nothing Without Me' from City of Angels. I asked him to customize that song for my musical partner Alex Rybeck and [me] to sing, and he wrote the most delightful set of lyrics incorporating our names and clever rhymes." Barry Kleinborn, a Kleban Award-winning lyricist, rewrote the lyrics to the melody of "My City" from Seesaw (original lyrics by Dorothy Fields), and the new song was woven into "My Personal Property" from the movie version of Sweet Charity. "It's a little New York valentine song," Harnar describes it, and adds that the new lyrics include references to the Time Warner Center, the Naked Cowboy and the TKTS booth. "All the other lyrics you'll hear are the original lyrics," he emphasizes, and adds that they have restored original verses of the Coleman/Leigh pop hit "Witchcraft" for the concert.

Further combining the worlds of Broadway and cabaret will be the guest stars at each performance, who will contribute their own talents to the Coleman songbook. Lee Roy Reams will join Mr. Harnar to sing "If My Friends Could See Me Now" this coming Sunday (November 12), Liz Callaway will sing "Our Private World" from On The Twentieth Century on Monday, Andrea Marcovicci will sing "I Walk a Little Faster" the following Sunday, and Karen Ziemba will sing "Baby, Dream Your Dream" from Sweet Charity at the final performance on November 20^th.

One of the special features of A Collective Cy is the number of rare songs being presented. One of the special numbers is "Somebody," one of the few songs with both music and lyrics by Coleman. "It's a great insight into his point of view," Harnar says, "into how hard you work your whole life trying to be somebody, and then comes the day you say, 'Hey, I am somebody,' only to realize you always were." Another rare Coleman gem is receiving its public premiere on the Feinstein's stage. "So Little Time" was cut from Barnum very early in production, but it was resurrected as a bonus track on the recent reissue of the cast recording. "When I went to meet with [Coleman's long-time assistant] Terrie Curran at Notable Music, I asked for that song, and she said that it was cut so quickly that he never wrote it out," Harnar recalls. "All that exists is that tape. So Alex Rybeck transcribed it and we've now given that [transcription] to Notable Music so that other singers can sing it. And it will be getting its first public performance in our show. It really is a gorgeous song," he continues, "and even more so when you hear it in the context of a tribute to his life's journey."

One of the more emotionally resonant songs of the evening is the lovely "Some Kind of Music," which Harnar credits as the inspiration for the retrospective. "As soon as I heard that song," he says, "I knew I had to do this show. It's a great lyric: 'All I want in this world is some kind of music/That my heart can listen to and cheer.' And that is exactly why I picked this songbook. That song became my anchor." The song, he continues, probably meant just as much to Coleman. "He never said what his favorite song was; he was far too diplomatic," Harnar remembers. "He would always say, 'Whatever song I'm working on.' But if you asked him to sing a song at a party, that's the song he would choose. It's insight into who he is. He once said, 'Everything you need to know about me is in my music, more than any autobiography I could have written.' And I think that song is his own personal thesis statement." Ultimately, the song became the epitaph on the cards handed out at Coleman's memorial service, rather than the more famous "Colors of My Life" from Barnum. "You sometimes wonder why a cabaret performer gets up to sing, what is it that they feel they want to say," Harnar says "And that song really expresses it."

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