BWW Reviews: New York Pops Salutes Rob and Kathleen Marshall

Not since Fred and Adele Astaire have a pair of brother and sister dancers achieved success on Broadway like Rob Marshall and Kathleen Marshall.

The older Rob danced on Broadway as a chorus gypsy in Cats and Zorba before graduating to dance captain for The Rink, contributing additional choreography to Kiss of The Spider Woman and getting his first Broadway choreographer credit for the 1994 revival of Damn Yankees. He joined the ranks of Broadway's director/choreographers with the 1998 revival of Cabaret and as a film director his work includes the movie versions of Chicago, Nine and Into The Woods, plus the television film version of Annie.

Kathleen Marshall's Broadway career began as an assistant to her brother before earning her first choreographer credit in 1995 for Swinging on a Star. The next year she was named artistic director of City Center Encores! and when her concert mounting of Wonderful Town transferred to the Hirschfeld she became a Broadway director/choreographer; a credit she retained for revivals of The Pajama Game, Grease and Anything Goes and the premiere of Nice Work If You Can Get It. This season she made her Broadway debut as a straight play director with Living On Love.

The New York Pops' 32nd Birthday Gala Concert at Carnegie Hall paid tribute to the talented siblings with a dazzling all-star concert hosted, as usual, by the company's charismatic music director and conductor, Steve Reineke.

Alan Cumming set the tone for the evening singing Cabaret's "Willkommen," and was followed by a line-up packed with artists who have worked with the Marshalls recreating their show-stopping moments. There was Victor Garber's dapper "Those Were The Good Old Days," Brian Stokes Mitchell's hammy "Where Is The Life That Late I Led?," Sutton Foster's brassy "Anything Goes," Kelli O'Hara's ethereal "Someone To Watch Over Me," Bebe Neuwirth's classic "All That Jazz" (before Broadway she played Velma in a Los Angeles production of Chicago directed by Rob Marshall) and Queen Latifah's saucy "When You're Good To Mama."

Margo Seibert and James Snyder gave audiences a taste their performances in the upcoming Paper Mill production of Ever After, which will be directed and choreographed by Kathleen Marshall, with Zina Goldrich and Marcy Heisler's dramatic ballad "Out of Darkness."

Other selections from Broadway favorites included Rachel York's sexy "Le Jazz Hot" and tender "Children Will Listen" and Laura Benanti's touching "Unusual Way." Rob McClure clowned with children from New York's Ronald McDonald House for "You're Never Fully Dressed Without a Smile" and the kids from Camp Broadway marched up and down the aisles for a rousing "76 Trombones."

Surprise guest Renee Fleming lent her silvery soprano to "Summertime" and Ken Watanabe introduced the New York Pops' orchestral arrangement of excerpts from John William's film score for the Rob Marshall directed Memoirs of a Geisha.

Cumming returned to lead the entire company in a grand finale of Cabaret.

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