Interview: Paul Hope of WITH A SMILE AND A SONG at Paul Hope's Cabarets

For more than two decades, Houston performer Paul Hope has been theatrically preserving a musical legacy one cabaret at a time. Now, he’s turning his attention to a surprising corner of that tradition: classic Disney songs. It’s subject material that is a little outside the American Songbook or classical musicals, but certainly one genre most of us know.  In a conversation with BroadwayWorld’s Brett Cullum, Hope explains how With a Smile and a Song fits into his long-running mission and what audiences can expect. The cabaret runs Mondays in May at OVATIONS in Rice Village, and you can find tickets at https://www.paulhopecabarets.org/ 

Brett Cullum: For those who don't know, what are Paul Hope's Cabarets?

Paul Hope: I like to say, which is sort of a fancy-schmancy description, that our mission is to keep the Great American Songbook alive in Houston. And I've been doing these cabarets under one banner or another for about 20 years now. And when I started, we had been working chronologically through the Great American Songbook. The materials we first sang were in the public domain because we started in the pre-1900 period. And so now, we're leaving the ’40s and ’50s and tipping into the ’60s.”

One day, I thought, you know what? There's one group of songs from the Disney studios, their animated films, that we all grew up with. So many songs that have become part of the American consciousness. And they are really part of the Great American Songbook, even though it's not Broadway song literature. We're doing just Snow White through The Jungle Book, the songs from the movies recorded while Walt Disney was still alive. So, we're not doing Alan Menken, Little Mermaid, Frozen, or Aladdin. This is classic Disney!

Brett Cullum: Snow White goes all the way back to 1937, doesn't it?

Paul Hope: Exactly, exactly. The first full-length animated feature film. We are making sure to say that this is a grown-up cabaret. Do not bring your children. That's not to say an adult cabaret… we're not doing some sort of Rocky Horror version of Disney. It's just an evening for grown-ups. I think kids would be bored with an evening of just songs in a cabaret setting, but adults are a whole other story.

Brett Cullum: When you pick a composer, you sprinkle in factoids and trivia… but for Disney, it’s a little different, isn’t it? Are you still going to be doing a lecture in between?

Paul Hope: It's probably going to be a little more streamlined… a lot of the songwriters in early Disney are people I had not even heard of. We start to get into The Sherman Brothers around Jungle Book… but what I do enjoy doing… is drawing connections between the voice actors. I think this is a show where the audience brings their own movie to the show. You just sing these songs, and it's almost like you don't need to give a whole lot of info. We are singing stuff from Snow White, Pinocchio, Dumbo, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Peter Pan… we're even doing a number from Song of the South… and So Dear to My Heart, which is ‘Lavender Blue.

And there’s a playful finale. We do sort of a mash-up of a lot of the smaller Disney songs… in case you thought we forgot these… here… you know. I don’t list those in the program, because I want those to be a little parting gift.

Brett Cullum: Disney is almost like this cult thing. There are so many people who are just mega fans of it. The songs are so much more accessible than Broadway.

Paul Hope: Exactly! The Disney songs were written in the style of Broadway songs or American pop music in the ’40s and ’50s. And now Broadway has a different sound, and Disney is mirroring those tastes. We’re trying to have maybe a wink a little bit, but not send it up, because it’s just really lovely material. I said we have to do ‘I Wanna Be Like You’ from The Jungle Book! I’m actually doing that! Some of my younger singers are coming to this and go, ‘I’ve never heard this song, I love this song. It’s like a warm bath! These songs are so great. From “Hi-Ho” to “When You Wish Upon a Star,” the range is wide, balancing ballads with playful numbers. You get to have Tigger bounce around the room a little bit after you’ve sung something really pretty.

Brett Cullum: Paul Hope’s Cabarets are Mondays… May 4th, 11th, and 18th… what time does it usually start?

Paul Hope: 7:30 pm!

Brett Cullum: Well, it sounds very charming! I will definitely be there. Hats off to Disney, and put on your mouse ears, and come join Paul and his merry band of Disney princesses…

Paul Hope: Animals 

Brett Cullum: And princes?

Paul Hope: Yes. And cool cats.