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KT Sullivan and Larry Woodard
August 29, 2012
“Glamorous Summer Nights”
Laurie Beechman Theatre – June 20, July 24, August 22, September 19
At the top of their show at the Laurie Beechman Theatre, KT Sullivan and Larry Woodard sing a kaleidoscopic medley of song snippets, leading off with a variation on Stephen Sondheim’s “Comedy Tonight” (called “Cabaret Tonight”). Here the pair tells us that there will be “nothing portentous or polite” in their act. Yet politeness seems to be one of the very components that Sullivan and Woodard’s enthusiastic audience embraces. These performers are known for their elegance, taste, and fondness for musical tradition. A fair amount of the music in this show comes from the world of operetta, and at one point Sullivan notes that she can no longer speak of her affinity for music from the last century. Now she relates strongly to music from the century before last. Clearly, raucous selections from the canons of Rick James and Lady Gaga are not going to be on the Sullivan/Woodard set list.
Unfortunately, on the night I attended, the duo got off to a rocky start with that opening medley. They didn’t seem as sure as they might have been about some of the trickier harmonies, and they came off somewhat tentative and wobbly. Happily, they acquitted themselves with their second duet: a quiet, graceful, and slowly paced take on Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Some Enchanted Evening.” Woodard began the number, then Sullivan chimed in. Pleasing counter singing and harmonies ensued.
Throughout the evening, Sullivan demonstrates her noted gift for vocal variety, from her gentle, lilting style on pop numbers to a more clarion legit sound during excursions into the worlds of Franz Lehar and Victor Herbert. She also displays her fine gift for mimicry—imitating Ethel Merman convincingly on Irving Berlin’s “You’re Just in Love” and channeling Helen Kane briefly on “I Want to Be Bad” (DeSylva, Brown, and Henderson). In the middle of “Bad,” though, she morphs into a brassy-broad sort of persona, signifying that her pouting pixie is on her way to achieving the ambitions announced in the song’s title.
Part way through the proceedings, Sullivan excuses herself from the stage, leaving Woodard to hold forth at the piano with a mini-set of songs showcasing his singular talent for lyric interpretation. Woodard doesn’t just sing a lyric. Instead, it seems, his mind turns each idea over carefully, letting the words emerge precisely but not calculatedly. He is especially good on songs laden with sense imagery—best of all, I thought, on “Night Song” from the Charles Strouse and Lee Adams score for Broadway’s Golden Boy. Though Woodard’s voice may be somewhat weathered by the years, his work at the keyboard is strong and confident. This contrast between voice and accompaniment frequently results in a movingly plaintive, yearning effect.
Among the several team efforts of the evening, the most successful to my ears is the pairing of Woodard’s take on Antônio Carlos Jobim and Gene Lees’s “Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars (Corcovado)” with Sullivan’s performance of Cole Porter’s “In the Still of the Night.” These songs portray contrasting versions of nocturnal reverie—the Jobim number showing romantic contentment and the Porter depicting longing. “Still of the Night” slows to its conclusion like the winding-down of a music box easing an awakened child back into slumber. It is perfectly lovely.
These singers don’t pretend to be anything other than the seasoned veterans they are. Yet, in the home stretch, they venture to sing Alec Wilder, Morty Palitz, and Bill Engvick’s “While We’re Young.” How much irony was intended, I’m not sure, but little if any seemed to be taken. The joy that these two veterans take in performing works as its own kind of potent youth elixir.
Mark Dundas Wood is an arts/entertainment journalist and dramaturg. He began writing reviews for BistroAwards.com in 2011. More recently he has contributed "Cabaret Setlist" articles about cabaret repertoire. Other reviews and articles have appeared in theaterscene.net and clydefitchreport.com, as well as in American Theatre and Back Stage. As a dramaturg, he has worked with New Professional Theatre and the New York Musical Theatre Festival. He is currently literary manager for Broad Horizons Theatre Company.
