Review: Barbara Bleier & Austin Pendleton Enchant in LIFE, AND LOVE, AND WHO KNOWS WHAT ELSE? at Pangea

Barbara Bleier and Austin Pendleton are at it again. But to be honest, even during the pandemic they were never gone. They created a show that Pangea streamed for virtual audiences. Tonight that show LIFE, AND LOVE, AND WHO KNOWS WHAT ELSE? had its debut in front of a live audience in the back room of Pangea. Bleier explained to us that when they were putting the show together two years ago, they intended to write a show with a political theme. But in these extraordinary times, they have discovered that really everything is political. Everything. And that's the show they have put together: an evening about the politics of patriotism, the politics of career, the politics of aging, the politics of men and women, the politics of marriage, the politics of family, and the politics of falling in love. It is, in fact, a show about everything.

Barbara Bleier and Austin Pendleton have been making music and art together for some time now. They met when Bleier was a student in Pendleton's acting class. Over the years they have gone from being teacher and student to being colleagues, creating several shows along the way. Both are respected multi-hyphenates. Bleier is an actress, singer, writer, and a Doctor of Clinical Psychology. Pendleton, of course, created the role of the Tailor Motel Kamzoil in the original Jerome Robbins production of Fiddler on the Roof. Since then he has become one of America's most respected character actors with hundreds of theatre and film credits as well as a highly in-demand director and teacher. He currently teaches the class once presided over by Uta Hagen at HB Studio,

So these two artists together represent a lot of years of fine acting. The show they have created along with director Barbara Maier Gustern contains only about 4 lines of spoken dialogue. And yet it is a master class on how to act through the medium of song. Barbara Bleier and Austin Pendleton introduce us a to gallery full of interesting characters dealing with the vagaries of human interaction

Ms. Bleier opened the evening with Stephen Sondheim's "Flag Song" which was added to Assassins for its Broadway run. Mr. Pendleton provided a variation on a theme with Simon and Garfunkel's "America," setting up the political theme of the evening. They gave us the first duet of the evening with Anya Turner & Robert Grusecki's "Don't Worry," a song about letting go of one's cares even in the worst of times. They gave us a love scene-in-song with Harry Chapin's "Taxi" showing us the unlikely friendship between a cab driver and a socialite. Continuing the theme, Austin Pendleton wonderfully handled John Bucchino's flurry of words, "Taking the Wheel." Adding a variation, Ms. Breier gave us Amanda McBroom and Michele Brourman's musical monologue "Wheels."

The pair gave us a real treat, performing almost the entire bench scene from Carousel. "If I Loved You" is one of Rodgers & Hammerstein's most rapturous melodies and Bleier and Pendleton gave it a beautiful twist, making it about courtship among octogenarians. Austin Pendleton returned to Amanda McBroom, singing her wonderfully nostalgic "Erroll Flynn." They welcomed a special guest star, director Barbara Maier Gustern, who sang one of my all-time favorite songs, "Look to the Rainbow" from Finian's Rainbow, complete with a touch of an Irish brogue.

The last section of this show dealt with all kinds of relationships, starting out with Maltby & Shire's wry "There." Barbara Bleier gave us a very funny look at intergenerational dating in "Am I Old Enough?" The pair gave us two more interconnected songs by Amanda McBroom, "Old Love" and "This Far" before wrapping up their show with Leonard Cohen's very popular "Hallelujah."

Barbara Bleier and Austin Pendleton were wonderfully supported by Paul Greenwood, who acted as their musical director and one-man orchestra. For the encore, Greenwood added his vocals along with Barbara Maier Gustern, to Stephen Sondheim's gorgeous lullaby "No One is Alone." It was a wonderful full-circle moment, beginning and ending with Sondheim. It is a joy to see these two fine actors working together. It is obvious they enjoy each other as much as we enjoyed seeing them create together.

For more information on Barbara Bleier, visit barbarbleier.com or follow her @docbcs on Twitter or @barbarableier on Instagram. To learn more about Austin Pendleton, follow him @AustinPendleton on Twitter or @apendleton41 on Instagram. To find more wonderful acts at Pangea, check out pangeanyc.com.

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