Tom Wopat at The Metropolitan Room: Still A Good Ol' Boy

I haven't seen anything like it since my long ago days as a singing waiter in Boothbay Harbor, Maine, but as Tom Wopat was mingling with his audience Friday evening after the opening performance of his two-night gig at The Metropolitan Room, a satisfied customer actually came up and handed him a tip.

"This is for you because you were so good," said the enthusiastic gentleman, handing the former Dukes of Hazzard star turned Broadway leading man and fine cabaret interpreter of American songbook classics at least one neatly folded greenback.

"Thanks.  I'll take my girlfriend out," offered Wopat, graciously accepting the man's sincere show of appreciation.

I've never met the man, but one of the great pleasures of watching Tom Wopat singing showtunes, jazz standards and country hits is that he just seems like a really nice guy.  There's a swell accessibility to his presence; warm and masculine with a rugged but openly sensitive appeal.  His smooth and easy baritone gently glides through a jazz arrangement of the Gershwins' "But Not For Me" and a softly emotional Lennon/McCartney "And I Love Her."

He's got a playful, self-effacing sense of humor, relating Donaldson and Kahn's "Makin' Whoopee" to his two previous marriages (wish him luck on his upcoming third) and Annie Ross and Wardell Grey's "Twisted" to his own grasping of sanity.  Dave Frishberg's "I'm Hip" is played for all it's nonsensical cool.  There's a beautifully still "By The Time I Get To Phoenix" followed by an unamplified "The Moon's A Harsh Mistress," both by Jimmy Webb.

Wopat is joined by Ted Firth ("The King of Caberjazz!"), who created many of the arrangements, at piano and Dave Fink at bass, who provide snazzy instrumental solos throughout the show.  Wopat and Firth co-arranged a West Side Story medley moving from a softly jazzy "Somewhere" to lightly tense renditions of "Cool" and "Something's Coming" building to a declarative "Jet's Song" and finishing with a very tender "I Have A Love."

By the time many of you will be reading this it may be too late to catch Wopat's May 26^th closing performance, but keep your ears open for his return.  This one's a real winner.