A Grand Night for Singing: As Corny as Kansas in August

Rodgers and Hammerstein are, of course, among the most accomplished and well-known creators of musical theatre.  In 1993, Walter Bobbie got the idea to take songs from their oeuvre and turn them into a musical revue called A Grand Night for Singing. Presenting the songs out of their original contexts, and with new musical arrangements by Fred Wells, the show is enjoyable, though much fluffier than its source materials- R&H were primarily musical dramatists, and without the stories to render the characters as real people, the songs don't always carry the same emotional freight, and can sometimes come off as corny or (in the case of changing the tone of the piece or the sex of the performer) gimmicky.  Some of the medleys are also frustrating- sometimes only a phrase or two of a song is heard, before we're on to another show.

Theatre Ten Ten's production is innocuous.  Fine piano work is done by Michael Harren.  His nimble fingers lead the night as he plays non-stop.

The cast is mostly winning- Mishi Schueller is the tenor, his simple charm and handsome features are perfectly suited to the material; he never seems to wink at the audience- he performs "Maria" from The Sound of Music as if to an exasperating girlfriend, and though he's mostly comic through the evening, his "Love, Look Away" is a highlight of act II.  Jessica Greeley is equally fine and diverse, taking on "I Cain't Say No" as well as "If I Loved You".  David Tillistrand works his soaring baritone with "Oh, What a Beautiful Morning", as well as a jazzy "Honey Bun", though he was sometimes difficult to hear in the cavernous Theater Ten Ten space (none of the performers are amplified).  Kerry Conte is appealingly earnest with her songs, but doesn't always do more than scratch the surface of her characterizations.  Judith Jarosz (also Producing Artistic Director of the theatre) has some lovely discrete notes, though they don't seem to work together in her voice- she seemed to be constantly shifting register through her ballads, though in uptempo comic numbers like her "Shall we Dance" with Mishi, she shone.  The cast works together wonderfully, with some nice Manhattan Transfer-style arrangements of certain songs.

Costumes by Viviane Galloway don't really flatter the women, who are clad in somewhat bizarre evening gowns, though the gentlemen look fine in tuxedoes.  The set, by Giles Hogya, is incongruously Japanese- bamboo, hanging lanterns and such.  The setting is listed in the program as "A Romantic Place": apparently that's Benihana.

All in all, it's an amusing night out for those who enjoy Rodgers and Hammerstein.

A Grand Night for Singing
Theater Ten Ten
1010 Park Ave
in the Park Avenue Christian Church building
between 84^th and 85^th Streets
on the upper East Side of Manhattan

Remaining performances:
Thursday, May 22 - 7pm   Note: Early curtain!
Friday, May 23 - 8pm
Saturday, May 24 - 8pm
Sunday, May 25 - 3pm -- Final Performance

L-R: Michael Harren, Jessica Greeley, David Tillistrand, Judith Jarosz, Mishi Schueller, Kerry Conte
Photo: LAB Photography

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