The Leading Men: Sopranos Need Not Apply

Men may have the upper hand when it comes to corporate America, politics and professional sports, but in the world of musical theatre and the cabaret stage, it's the women who get the bulk of the glory. Belting divas and glorious sopranos traditionally get far more accolades than the smooth baritones, rich basses and dashing tenors.

But for the past two and a half years Wayman Wong has been the internet's most ardent advocate for the guys who sing, and his monthly Playbill.com column, The Leading Men, updates fans on the latest doings from musical actors and cabaret crooners.

So it was only natural that the boys of summer stock would get together at Joe's Pub to show off their pipes in a benefit performance for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. With Wayman Wong producing, Alan Muraoka directing and musical direction supplied by Seth Rudetsky, The Leading Men Concert was a wildly entertaining boys' night out.

Host John Tartaglia set the tone for the evening with a Vegas lounge style rendition of the Village People's "YMCA", with Jamie Harris providing campy choreography for his backup crew, "The Johnettes" (Jennifer Barnhart, Kelley McKinnon, Telly Leung and Lucas Steele)

Tom Andersen followed with a comically intense interpretation of Tony Hatch's pop classic "Downtown", complete with an audience sing-along.

Tom D'Angora wished the crowd a happy Fleet Week before launching into a hilarious parody of Alan Menken's "Somewhere That's Green", penned by himself and Tom Orr. In this version he dreams of place, "Not too fancy, like Provincetown" where he could settle down, "with Cheyenne":

Versace in the closet
And a marble tub and sink
In a penthouse that we share
Somewhere that's pink.

Max von Essen, fresh from his show-stopping turn at The Paper Mill's production of Stephen Schwartz's The Baker's Wife, treated the crowd to one more robust performance of "Proud Lady."

A surprise performer was Wayman Wong himself, lending a strong and twangy voice to his own country/western tune, "I Took My Heart and Gave It To My Love", a very funny number about an unusual romantic gesture.

The Farley Brothers, Brian and Ted, kept the laughs coming with a comic telling of the first time they laid eyes on each other, leading to Stephen Schwartz's "What Is This Feeling?", the Wicked song of mutual loathing.

"I come from a small town outside of Nashville, Tennessee, so when I think of leading men I think of Norma Rae.", quipped Scott Coulter before his lovely rendition of that film's song, Norman Gimbel and David Shire's "It Goes Like It Goes."

Ben Strothmann is better known for photographing the stars, but he certainly clicked with the big band number, "It's Oh So Quiet", by Hans Land, Bert Reisfeld and Erich Meder.

Barrett Foa followed with an energetic and funky "Movin' Too Fast" by Jason Robert Brown.

Chad Kimball told a funny (and completely false) story of an argument he had with Stephen Sondheim, who wouldn't allow Chad to sing "Giants In The Sky" his way. Finally getting his chance, Kimball delivered the number in a hip swing arrangement.

Cabaret singer/songwriter Tim Di Pasqua was thrilled at the thought of being called a "Leading Man". "This is going on my resume!", he joked. With backup vocals from Tom Andersen and Scott Coulter, he sang and played his beautiful, "What Do I Know?"

"I'm not funny, so I'll just sing." said Matthew Morrison with a smile before charming the crowd with Georgia Stitt's "One Day More".

Cheyenne Jackson followed with a wonderfully silly Scott Warrender story/song, "Mr. Potato Head", about a son dealing with his mom's unusual second husband.

You can't have Seth Rudetsky at a show without a little bit of his comedy routines so Broadway's funniest stand-up (sorry, Mr. Mason) shared a story about seeing The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee and being driven crazy because nobody sang with vibrato. Not happy with the explanation that the actors were playing kids so they had to sing in straight tones, Seth played us a childhood tape of him singing "Tomorrow", complete with full vibrato and a sassy riff. His next routine about Bea Arthur singing "Don't Rain On My Parade" for a 1970's TV special must be experienced live.

Christopher Sieber told an amazing story about being called by his agent at 7:30 one morning to see if he could attend a noon audition that day and sing for Mike Nichols and Eric Idle. He needed to prepare something comic and heroic, and the only song he could think of was "Agony", the Stephen Sondheim number he performed in Into The Woods. But since "Agony" is a duet, he needed to play both roles at once, as he demonstrated to joyous approval. Needless to say, he got the role and is now a Tony nominee for Spamalot.

But before Sieber could leave the stage he was "confronted" by John Tartaglia, hurt that his buddy has been "avoiding him" all season. Of course, this was all just leading up to a funny and sweet duet of Henry Krieger and Bill Russell's "I Will Never Leave You."

Before singing a gentle "I'll Be Here" by Andrew Lippa, Jai Rodriguez cleared up a problem from earlier in the evening. Chad Kimball had intended to phone his mom in the middle of his number "Giants In The Sky", but he had trouble using Rodriguez's borrowed cell. So Jai made the call himself and Chad's mom wished us all a great evening.

As a grand finale, John brought back The Johnettes for a rousing performance of Paul Jabara and Paul Shaffer's "It's Raining Men."

Kerry Meads was on drums all evening and musical direction and accompaniment for certain numbers was provided by Mark Hartman and John McMahon.

With the sell-out crowd leaving Joe's Pub all smiles, there's no doubt that The Leading Men II will certainly be required in the near future.