Spring Is Here: Rodgers & Hart and the 1920s

Posted by Larita Shotwell on Friday, September 27, 2024

The Richard Rodgers centennial is cause for celebration, and the tributes have been plentiful in concert halls and cabaret. "Spring Is Here" also focused on the lyrics of Lorenz Hart, who's collaboration with Rogers produced some of the musical theater's most treasured and enduring moments.

The Richard Rodgers centennial is cause for celebration, and the tributes have been plentiful in concert halls and cabaret. “Spring Is Here,” at Weill Recital Hall on Thursday, also focused on the lyrics of Lorenz Hart, the diminutive poet who collaborated with Rodgers for more than two decades. The union produced some of the musical theater’s most treasured and enduring moments. Hart’s lyrics are marked by honesty, wit, longing and a sweet simplicity that clearly complement the accents and moods of Rodgers’ melodies.

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A seamless musical chronicle of Rodgers & Hart’s output in the ’20s, the program offered a flavorful balance of familiar tunes, peppered with delightful rarities. How refreshing to be reacquainted with such delectable ditties as “A Little Birdie Told Me So,” “One Damn Thing After Another” and “I Feel at Home With You.”

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The evening’s triumph was clearly J.D. Webster, a remarkably poised young tenor who rendered a wistful “This Funny World,” from the 1926 “Betsy”; the title song from the film “Love Me Tonight”; and the “weepy wailing” of “Atlantic Blues” from “Lido Lady.” Webster phrased beautifully and fused the songs with a burning intensity. Every Hart word and every Rodgers note were sublimely crystallized. He also was the only performer who appeared to have memorized his text.

“My Heart Stood Still” was well served by the lilting Broadway tenor of Howard McGillin, and he joined a fetching Christianne Tisdale to reveal the simple, cozy pleasures of “The Blue Room.” Debbie Gravitte reaffirmed “Manhattan” as an “isle of joy” and served as a totally beguiling lonely and disillusioned voyager on “A Ship Without a Sail.” Gravitte also posed as legendary nightclub hostess Texas Guinan, belting “Give This Little Girl a Hand,” from “Peggy-Ann,” with a big, burnished Mermanesque technique.

Christopher Fitzgerald offered an irresistibly playful “Thou Swell,” in a cozy duet with Gravitte. The song graced the score of “A Connecticut Yankee.” The year was 1927 and a mere 264 shows opened on Broadway (53 of them musicals!).

A pert and delightfully squeaky Jessica Stone and McGillin paired for a beguiling turn on “I’ve Got Five Dollars.” Foxy soprano Tisdale brought a distinctively quiet introspection to “A Tree in the Park” and added a sweet, girlish heart thump to “Here in My Heart.”

Stone, assisted by the impish Fitzgerald, added a flapperish take on “The Girl Friend.” These were clearly songs embedded in the American experience, and that Rodgers forged on with his creative genius for another five decades is a remarkable testimony to his extraordinary talent.

Finale united the entire cast for the complete version of “Isn’t It Romantic,” to re-create the opening sequence from the 1932 film “Love Me Tonight.” The movie tuner starred Jeanette MacDonald and Maurice Chevalier. McGillin and company gloriously re-created the waltzing beauty of the durable serenade, from its beguiling start to infectious finale. It’s impossible to leave the theater without humming it.

Marian Seldes hosted, adding considerable grace and dignity to the proceedings as narrator, with an appropriate bridging text written by Laurence Maslon. Seldes quoted generously from the writings of her father, Gilbert Seldes, a prominent theater and music critic of the period.

The buoyant twin pianos of maestro Rob Fisher and his keyboard companion, Joseph Thalken, were complemented by the violin of Laura Seaton-Finn. The trio provided the sumptuous Rodgers melodies with a lilting and enveloping warmth.

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Spring Is Here: Rodgers & Hart and the 1920s

Weill Recital Hall; 268 capacity; $42

  • Production: A Carnegie Hall presentation.
  • Crew: Written by Laurence Maslon. Musical director/piano, Rob Fisher. Joseph Thalkin, piano; Laura Seaton-Finn, violin.
  • Cast: Performers: Christopher Fitzgerald, Debbie Gravitte, Howard McGillin, Jessica Stone, Christianne Tisdale, J.D. Webster. Narrator, Marian Seldes.

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