Review by Marilyn Lester…
Each year at the beginning of October, The New York Pops has a special cabaret at 54 Below to support the organization’s significant educational program, PopsEd. Launching the evening, a champagne reception featured serenading by the PopsEd alumni ensemble, leading to a quick succession of welcoming by host, Pops Music Director and Conductor Steven Reineke, a video, remarks by student speaker Chase Haimoff, and an auction handled by the superb auctioneer, Robbie Gordy. A short break ensued, allowing waitstaff to serve the assembled their inviting dinners before the main event began, the evening’s entertainment.
This year’s performers were an exceptional team of Broadway stars and couple, Matt Doyle and Max Clayton. Both have very impressive credentials, but most recently, Doyle won a Tony Award® for his performance in the revival of Company, and Clayton has been cast as Fred Casely in “the never-ending revival of Chicago” (yes, humor abundantly dotted the evening). The newly-engaged pair have been together for nine years and no doubt would have been voted cutest couple in a high school yearbook. Their synergy was delightful, adding a great deal to the evening, especially in their narratives about personal history in both show business and childhood parenting and mentorships—and what they had to say was hand-in-glove with the mission of PopsEd. As they rolled out the set with numbers that reflected their careers and musical journeys, what else but to begin with a duet of “Being Alive” (Stephen Sondheim, Company). Both performers have remarkably expressive and flexible tenors; the arrangement, which turned the lyric into a conversation, was a blockbuster opener. Top themselves after that? They did, making it difficult to believe that this occasion was the first time the two have ever shared a stage together.
Highlights abounded: Doyle spoke of the process of being cast as Ol’ Blue Eyes in the new Sinatra The Musical, which had its world premiere at the U.K.’s Birmingham Rep in autumn 2023. He offered one of Sinatra’s signature tunes, “That’s All” (Bob Haymes, Alan Brandt) in the style of Sinatra but very much through the lens of Doyle. Clayton was Hugh Jackman’s standby in The Music Man (going on when Jackman was out with Covid). He offered Meredith Wilson’s tour-de-force piece “(Ya Got) Trouble” with ease, casting the audience (moving among them) as the citizens of River City. A duet from Jonathan Laron’s Rent, “Take Me or Leave Me” was the perfect musical study of personality; the pair had joked about one being more like a dog (Clayton) and the other like a cat (Doyle).
There were dedications: for Steven Reineke, who has been a champion to the duo, “Out There” (Alan Menken) from The Hunchback of Notre Dame. The aforementioned “Being Alive” was for three major Broadway stars who passed away very recently, somewhat unexpectedly within a week (Gavin Creel, Ken Page, Adrian Bailey). Clayton dedicated “They Can’t Take That Away from Me” (George and Ira Gershwin) to his mother (who was in the audience). The pair ended with songs unofficially dedicated to themselves. Acknowledging there’s more to come in their future, they sang a rousing “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” (U2 collaboration, lyrics by Bono), arranged closely to the original. Company’s “Getting Married Today” bookended the show in an encore handled by Doyle whose command of the Gilbert and Sullivan-like patter song was both amusing and astounding.
In Doyle and Clayton, Steven Reinecke chose a superlative pair to advocate for PopsEd. Their message to support the program was loud and clear, yet wondrously folded into the entertainment without ever being stridently overt. Yet, the importance of the programs was clear. The New York Pops Underground goes a long way to support programs that provide music education, arts access and performance opportunities for New Yorkers of all ages and backgrounds.
Musically supporting the singers was a quintet of five virtuosic musicians, led by pianist and music director, Will Van Dyke. Many of the tunes featured guitarist Alec Berlin prominently. Steve Gilewski played electric bass, and because there was no upright, the addition of a cello, played by Allison Seidner, added the texture only strings can provide. Holding the beat was the excellent drumming of Dena Tauriello.
Photos: Genevieve Keddy
