‘Hamptons Summer Songbook : By the Sea’ – A Preview

By Alix Cohen

Former musical-theater actress Donna Rubin and former artistic director of Guild Hall Josh Gladstone have embarked on a third sparkling season bringing popular cabaret artists ordinarily seen in Manhattan clubs to the Hamptons. Not-for-profit LTV, serving the East End community 40 plus years, offers Saturday-night shows at its reconfigured television studio replete with intimate, café table seating, modular staging and a Baby Grand.

From June 28 through August 29, a short trip to Wainscott, New York will save you driving into the city or enduring crowded jitneys to see your favorite artists. The Songbook’s benefit/preview was held at the Triad Theater. All performers donated their time. The Triad donated its space.

Hosted and produced by Broadway to Mainstreet’s Laurence Maslon, Eric Comstock and Barbara Fasano open tonight’s program with an excerpt out of their August 1 show, A Swell-Egant, Elegant Party (titled from Cole Porter’s “Did You Evah?”)

The evergreen couple continue to offer the kind of performance to which you might’ve been privy at a penthouse opening night fete. They exude glamour. Comstock begins with an infectious “It’s Today!” (Jerry Herman); Fasano conjures a “Hollywood Party” – intermittently, tongue in cheek,“Par-tA”- as if amusedly present. (Richard Rodgers/ Lorenz Hart).

“We love our brilliant, resilient, helluva town,” Comstock tells us. “And need a party now more than ever,” Fasano adds. ‘Too true. A medley by John Kander/Fred Ebb follows. “It’s a waste of moonlight to be counting sheep/Tomorrow morning, I’ll sleep…” To uncork your ‘happy’, join them.

July 25’s Beyond the Blue Moon- And Before the Broken Hart – how clever is that title?!, is helmed by producer/host/raconteur, longtime journalist David Alpern who takes an entertaining, anecdotal look at Lorenz Hart’s trajectory and talent. Eric Yves Garicia’s rendition of “Blue Moon” arrives with ezeeee piano, vocal affection, and panache. (Richard Rodgers/ Lorenz Hart)

“There’s a railroad around lovers lane/And the conductor is you” he then wistfully sings. (Rodgers & Hart’s first collaboration, “Any Old Place with You”) Next is a jaunty “To Keep My Love Alive” (the revival of A Connecticut Yankee), co-written with “another Columbia graduate”, Oscar Hammerstein II. The song was gifted to Broadway star, Vivienne Segal, to whom, despite natural proclivity, Hart repeatedly proposed.

“Local performer and lifestyle expert”, Pamela Morgan, delivers a mash-up of “I Can Cook Too” (Leonard Bernstein/Betty Comden & Adolph Green) and “All That Jazz” (John Kander/Fred Ebb) with Yasuhiko Fukuoka on piano. The vocalist is amped up and burlesque-like. She gives it her all. What’s Cooking? August 23.

Cabaret icons KT Sullivan and Mark Nadler bring venerable highjinks to Hey Old Friend! A Cabaret Jubilee on August 22. A duet of Stephen Sondheim’s “Old Friends” is clearly personal.

Sullivan then sings an arc of gracefully aging from songs were made to sing “While We’re Young” (Alec Wilder/ William Engvick) to “I’m Glad I’m Not Young Anymore” (Alan Jay Lerner/Frederick Loewe) to “Young At Heart” (Johnny Richards/Carolyn Leigh) Again, lyrics seem bespoke.

The show will also feature Christine Pedi (absent tonight) and Stephanie Pope. A John Kander/Fred Ebb devotee, Pope performs a molasses version of “Maybe This Time” savoring every lyric. The 11 o’clock number offers a dash of jazz and a pinch of Motown. All three performers then bubble up with “Sunny Side of the Street.” (Jimmy McHugh/Dorothy Fields)

Nadler’s solo “Cabaret” with special lyrics, closes the program with a bang: “LTV’s hotta/Than a sauna/All because of/Josh and Donna…”

Mark your calendars!

Hamptons Summer Songbook is made possible by generous support from Eleanor and Howard Morgan, Lynn and Bruce Surry,
Ricki Kane Larimer

Missing from the preview due to scheduling conflicts were:
Norm Lewis (Sunday, June 28), Ann Hampton Callaway (July 11), Klea Blackhurst and Billy Stritch (July 18) Maria Abous who will appear with Eric Yves Garcia and David Alpern (July 25), Christine Pedi who will appear with KT Sullivan and Mark Nadler (August 22), and Donna McKechnie (August 29)

Photos by Alix Cohen
Opening Montage by Raffaele Pacitti

TRIAD THEATER, 158 West 72nd St, 2nd floor