Review by Ron Fassler . . . .
In what was meant to be a 100th birthday party for Broadway lyricist Sheldon Harnick this past weekend at the 92nd Street Y, what took place instead was something of a memorial service. When Harnick passed away at age ninety-nine a year ago this month, in the glorious tradition that the show must go on, musical director Ted Sperling proceeded with love and respect in the two-hour retrospective (Wonder of Wonders: Celebrating Sheldon Harnick) he’d been working on for a year—one that highlighted Harnick’s entire career, spanning eight decades of work. Joined by a quintet of fine singer-actors, and backed by a strong nine-piece ensemble, the stage of the Kaufmann Concert Hall was ablaze with talent. And I can say unequivocally that Sheldon Harnick deserves no less.
One of the twentieth century’s most outstanding lyricists, his contributions to the American musical will forever stand the test of time. His elegant, sensitive, and incomparably witty songs never go out of style. What’s more, he was a true mensch, Yiddish for a person of intense honor and dignity. His profound love for words and wordplay made his contemporaries sing his praises. When Stephen Sondheim attended a preview of Harnick’s first musical, The Body Beautiful, written with composer Jerry Bock, he called his friend Harold Prince and said, “Hal, you’ve got to see this show. There’s a team that I think you should hear.” Prince bought a ticket, listened, and despite Body Beautiful not being a hit, hired the pair to compose Fiorello!, which not only was a smash, it also brought the entire creative team the Tony for Best Musical as well as the Pulitzer Prize.
In this concert we didn’t hear anything from Body Beautiful, and precious little from shows Harnick wrote with other composers such as Richard Rodgers (Rex), Joe Raposo (A Wonderful Life), or Michel Legrand (A Christmas Carol). But that’s all for the best, as nothing tops the work he did with Jerry Bock over the twelve-and-a-half-year span they wrote for Broadway. There were more than two dozen songs culled from the aforementioned Fiorello!, Tenderloin, She Loves Me, The Apple Tree, The Rothschilds, and of course, Fiddler on the Roof. I don’t think anyone complained and, at least for this critic, hearing Bock’s wide-ranging melodies made me appreciate what a tremendous songwriter he was all over again.
Ted Sperling served as musical director, pianist, and genial host. He knew Harnick personally, which added to the warmth of his remarks. He had his own structure for the show, doing things somewhat chronologically, but choosing to save Fiddler for last. He also didn’t restrict himself to songs we know from these familiar scores but cut material too, such as the hilarious “A Butcher’s Soul,” which was to have been a solo for Fiddler’s Lazar Wolf (Sperling did that one himself at the piano, full of such delicious wit as the fabulous non-rhyming line, “What gave you the idea that a man who makes his living handling livers, lungs and kidneys has no heart?”) Another cut song was the tender lullaby “Dear Sweet Sewing Machine,” which was to have been sung in Fiddler’s second act by Motel and Tzeitel after they’d been married. It was sung here by Sam Gravitte and Anna Zavelson with gorgeous purity.
When it came time for Fiddler, that was the cue for Adam Heller to offer “If I Were a Rich Man.” Heller, recently seen in Some Like it Hot, was a magnificent Teyve in a production that I was fortunate to have seen at Goodspeed Opera House in Connecticut about ten years ago. He’s about to play the role once again this summer at the MUNY in St. Louis, so if anyone is going to be out that way, stop in and see what wonders he makes of the role. He shared a sweet “Do You Love Me?” with Alysha Umphress for this concert as well and triumphed with a strongly sung and deeply felt “In My Own Lifetime,” from The Rothschilds, that brought down the curtain on the first act.
Umphress herself excelled with “A Trip to the Library” from She Loves Me, a comedic song that makes me laugh every time I hear it. She also sang, with gleeful abandon, “Garbage,” a song for which Harnick wrote both words and music. It’s from Shoestring Revue (1959) and was introduced by a young Beatrice Arthur before her eventual fame and fortune.
I was very impressed with Anna Zavelson, a young actress and singer who appeared last year in City Center Encores! summer presentation of The Light in the Piazza as Clara. Hearing her bright soprano made me sad I was unable to see that production, though rumors continue to float that it might come back sometime down the road. Having both Sam Gravitte and Adam Kantor on hand was an embarrassment of riches, as both possess two of the finest voices of any young leading men currently at work. Gravitte’s “Try Me” (She Loves Me) was charm personified; and his performance of the achingly beautiful “Where Do I Go From Here?”—cut from Fiorello!—makes one wonder how it could ever have been discarded. Kantor returned to the joys of “Miracle of Miracles,” which he last performed when he played Motel in the 2015 Broadway revival that featured Danny Burstein’s Tevye. Kantor also sang such comedy solos as “Tonight at Eight” (She Loves Me) and a juicy “Forbidden Fruit,” as the Snake tempting Eve (The Apple Tree).
The “Lyrics & Lyricists” series has been going on for so long at the Y that Ted Sperling mentioned early on that the first time, as a young person, he reached into his pocket and bought a ticket to see something with his own money was for this series. He’s come full circle now and aren’t we the lucky beneficiaries of this long-running production which, with any luck, will never stop bringing like-minded fans of Broadway together for informative and enjoyable sessions such as this one.
Wonder of Wonders: Celebrating Sheldon Harnick played June 1-3 at 92NY’s Kaufmann Concert Hall (1395 Lexington Avenue, between East 91st and 92nd Streets). www.92ny.org
Photos: Richard Termine
