The Wonderful Wizard of Song
Music of Harold Arlen at NY's St. Luke's Theatre
By: Susan Hall - Jan 11, 2013
The Wonderful Wizard of Song
The Music of Harold Arlen
Featuring The Three Crooners
George Bugatti, Marcus Goldhaber, Joe Shepherd
And Antoinette Henry
Concept: Sam Arlen, George Bugatti & Nigel Wright
Written by; George Bugatti
Direction and Musical Staging: Gene Castle
St. Luke’s Theatre
New York, New York
Opening January 10, 2013
Production photographs Anabele Gogley and Pamela Hall
Harold Arlen’s career spanned the 20th century, so it is not surprising that he wrote the song most often awarded best of the last hundred years, “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.” This song alone could open our hearts to this new production showcasing Arlen’s work. There is so much more in this show.
George Bugatti, a polymath who can sing, dance, write, and produce, put the charming review-bio together. It does not surprise that he was once the Bobby Short of the Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills.
Arlen’s songs are explored in the context of his personal story and his style of composing. Some scenes reflect his origins in an interesting Jewish/black merger. His father was an innovative Cantor. Living also in their home was an African American family with whom the young Arlen was close.
Much of the pleasure of the evening is the songs’ familiarity. Yet they seem fresh in their new contexts. Antoinette Henry, with her big bluesy voice, standing in for Pearl Bailey, Ethel Waters and Billie Holiday, is at once seductive and commanding.
Two line drawings of the composer by Abe Hirschfeld frame the stage. Projections gave us Arlen’s Central Park West apartment, where he worked with Johnny Mercer on "That Old Black Magic", "Come Rain or Come Shine", "Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive" and "One for My Baby", for instance. Mercer was considered a first-rate performer of his own work.
Stories about the penning of "One for My Baby and One More for the Road" tell of Mercer scribbling on a napkin as he sat at the bar at P. J. Clarke’s are well-known. He was attached to Tommy Joyce, the bartender, but could not get his name to rhyme with anything else, and had to replace it with “So set ‘em up Joe.” He called Joyce to apologize. Such civility. And "One More for My Baby" is a great torch song.
The serendipitous Arlen’s jazz and blues colored compositions and Mercer’s sophisticated lyrics meant one and one would equal much more than two.
The Three Crooners too are sexy, lyrical and civil, suggesting that entertainment can be all of the above. Henry is a highlight. Broadway veteran director Gene Castle brings the evening to life.
Paced between danced numbers, solos, work sessions and evenings at the Cotton Club, the evening engages. As mentioned earlier, Arlen's cantor father and closeness to an African-American family is no small part of the reason he was able to merge American jazz and blues so well. The Three Crooners and Henry displayed the blissful marriage in wonderful melodies ranging from vamp to pain.
If you enjoy Harold Arlen's music you will love The Wizard of Song.