Joanne Tatham

October 11, 2013

“Soundtrack New York”
Café Carlyle  –  October 3, 4, 10, 11

Joanne TathamThe Los Angeles-based Joanne Tatham is not so well known in New York, but that could change quickly as a result of this satisfying set at the storied Café Carlyle. Tatham’s voice is both pleasant and powerful, and she is passionately committed to her show’s premise: songs from movies set in New York, and mostly filmed in Manhattan. They range from 1949’s On the Town to 1991’s The Prince of Tides. (James Newton Howard wrote the musical score for the latter film; however, Marilyn and Alan Bergman’s lyrics to “Places That Belong to You,” written for the film, were not heard in the picture, but they are here.) Not all of the songs were written for their particular movies; indeed, many had been written years ealier, such as the Gershwin medley from Manhattan and the multi-composer selections from New York, New York. By no means are all the songs in this show borrowings from, or contributions to, the Great American Songbook. Tatham’s eclectic approach to her song list is a large part of what makes her set so engaging.

For example, my favorite moment involving “new” numbers is the lovely coupling of two early 1980s movie theme songs: “It Might be You” (Dave Grusin, the Bergmans) fromTootsie and “Arthur’s Theme (The Best That You Can Do)” from Arthur (Bacharach, Carole Bayer Sager, Christopher Cross, Peter Allen). My favorite Tatham employment of an “old” song is her finale, a touching tribute to the Café Carlyle, Bobby Short, Woody Allen (the Carlyle’s regular clarinetist), and Cole Porter, singing the composer’s “I’m in Love Again,” which was used in director Allen’s Hannah and Her Sisters. Other highlights include her sultryThe Best of Everything (title song by Alfred Newman and Sammy Cahn) and a bouncy duet with pianist and musical director Billy Stritch on The Odd Couple theme song, with its virtually never-heard lyrics. (Tedd Firth replaces Stritch at the piano on October 10 and 11.)

Not to worry, Tatham covers familiar and welcome high points of Manhattan movies very well, including “Moon River” from Breakfast at Tiffany’s (Henry Mancini, Johnny Mercer), and both songs entitled “New York, New York,” from On the Town (Bernstein, Comden & Green) and from New York, New York (Kander & Ebb). Fun fact (not to mention, an ironic one): New York, New York is the only Martin Scorsese movie NOT filmed in the city, even in part.

Given her frequent Streisandian tendencies, at first I was convinced that Tatham’s Tri-State accent in both speech and song was a subtle, perhaps unconscious, tribute to Barbra. But Tatham’s all-out tribute to the “Funny Girl” who influenced so many singers that came after her, “Don’t Rain on My Parade” (Jule Styne, Bob Merrill), proved that was not the case, for here Tatham employed a much stronger accent than Streisand did. Tathan’s own accent is simply a matter of her geographic provenance: “Like the movies themselves, I was born in New Jersey, came to New York, and then I went to California.”

I have a few reservations. Her fulsome set could use a little trimming. Does anybody really remember the 1965 movie Promise Her Anything, or even its formulaic title song by Burt Bacharach and Hal David? “Cool” (Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim) might not have been my choice of song from West Side Story, but its jazzy flavor does show up the superb backup musicians: Steve Doyle on bass, Sean Harkness, on guitar, and Peter Grant on drums. Finally, Tatham’s excessive arm and hand motions began to cloy. Carly Simon’s Oscar-winning “Let the River Run” from Working Girl hardly needs all that “hallelujah!” arm-raising to convey a powerful anthem; the lyrics and music themselves do that, and Simon of course sang it effectively entirely off screen.

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About the Author

Robert Windeler is the author of 18 books, including biographies of Mary Pickford, Julie Andrews, Shirley Temple, and Burt Lancaster. As a West Coast correspondent for The New York Times and Time magazine, he covered movies, television and music, and he was an arts and entertainment critic for National Public Radio. He has contributed to a variety of other publications, including TV Guide, Architectural Digest, The Sondheim Review, and People, for which he wrote 35 cover stories. He is a graduate of Duke University in English literature and holds a masters in journalism from Columbia, where he studied critical writing with Judith Crist. He has been a theatre critic for Back Stage since 1999, writes reviews for BistroAwards.com, and is a member of The Players and the American Theatre Critics Association.