Dane Terry splits his artistic life between painting and music. The musical half frequently leads him to cabaret stages around town. Most recently he brought his show, How to Play the Piano, to Pangea in the East Village. The show is a look at the singer/composer’s back catalog of material, which he has revisited and sometimes reimagined. It is an intriguing collection of stories both raw and fanciful and, if he is to be taken at his word, autobiographical. His warm, winning vocals could easily be showcased in a more traditional setting, doing crowd-pleasing covers and pop-inspired originals, but he takes a decidedly different route in this show. His accomplished musicianship on the piano allows his music, even in its most melodic of moments, to function primarily as a cinematic underscoring for his hypnotic lyrics and stories. Some don’t seem like traditional songs at all, but whatever they are, they are inspired and remarkably successful.
Dane Terry(Photo: Krys Fox)
His eccentric repertoire opens with “Sensodyne,” a very early song about his mother, a TV weatherman, his night of discovery with a neighborhood boy at age 11, and a tube of toothpaste. They miraculously blend into a snapshot of a storyteller in the making. “Incident at Devil’s Mound” follows and fully explores his musical interests in country western, weird sci-fi music, and theatre songs. Later on, surreal lounge music will be added to the mix. Terry’s evangelical childhood in Ohio supplies the inspiration for “Lightning Round,” singing of his first boyfriend, Jesus, and confessing that he found his abs and loincloth irresistible. His genuine, guileless sweetness softens the edges of this audacious, blasphemous set-up and manages to be touching when he works his way to the declarations, “I know I have you to call in the lightning round….”
“My Baby Don’t,” with its Jerry Lee Lewis vibe, is perhaps his most traditional song, bursting with fiery piano and classic early-rock vocals. “Telephant” has a science fiction underpinning that often hides in the shadows throughout the evening. Its mysterious Outer Limits frisson is intensified by some electronic manipulation of the microphone with metallic echo effects that, far from being a distraction, proves as much an expression of his art as his piano and voice. Running parallel to this unique element is a bracingly explicit eroticism that heightens but never overwhelms. From a collection he calls “Grindr Love Songs,” “Sugar Neighbors” is bathed in the afterglow of a “sufficient” hook-up during COVID lockdown in a small, upstate town.
In the course of the evening, the stories and songs develop their own distinct vocabulary—a vocabulary as evocative and persuasive and moving as a more traditional style. Moments of poetry jump out. Iin “Eagles,” a story about a visit to Disney World brought to a tragic halt by the Challenger disaster, describes “fire weeping down from the skies.” Elsewhere he observes, “You’ve got wings, but nobody knows you can fly;” the line is just tossed out but it stays in the back of the mind, informing songs already heard, and songs still to come.
There are musical tales of seducing straight boys attracted to his piano playing, fighting with his father over his coming out, a song sung by a roach (which must be seen to be believed), a shanty about cruise ships and stormy seas, and on and on. How to Play the Piano is filled with laughs, shocks, confessions, twists and turns, delights, and tears. It is quite special and quite unlike anything you’re likely to find anywhere else. It’s as if Dane Terry is on a journey through his dreams on stage and he invites the audience to join him. It is a journey well worth taking.
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Presented at Pangea, 178 Second Ave., NYC, August 24, 2024.
Gerry Geddes has conceived and directed a number of musical revues—including the Bistro- and MAC Award-winning "Monday in the Dark with George" and "Put On Your Saturday Suit-Words & Music by Jimmy Webb"—and directed many cabaret artists, including André De Shields, Helen Baldassare, Darius de Haas, and drag artist Julia Van Cartier. He directs "The David Drumgold Variety Show," currently in residence at Manhattan Movement & Arts Center, and has produced a number of recordings, including two Bistro-winning CDs. He’s taught vocal performance at The New School, NYU, and London’s Goldsmith’s College and continues to conduct private workshops and master classes. As a writer and critic, he has covered New York’s performing arts scene for over 40 years in both local and national publications; his lyrics have been sung by several cabaret and recording artists. Gerry is an artist in residence at Pangea, and a regular contributor to the podcast “Troubadours & Raconteurs.” He just completed a memoir of his life in NYC called “Didn’t I Ever Tell You This?”
