Review: In Terrific and Festive Show, MICHAEL FEINSTEIN Is Better Than Ever At The Club Now Bearing His Name

Thirty years ago, championed by Liza Minnelli (Ira Gershwin's goddaughter), young Michael Feinstein debuted at the iconic Oak Room of The Algonquin Hotel. I was there, having been escorted by an older, more sophisticated friend. As I recall, Feinstein was alone at the piano; thoroughly engaging, telling stories of his time as Ira Gershwin's assistant, even then, peppering the show with lesser-known songs.

This past Sunday, this standard bearer of The American Songbook began a run (through December 30) in partnership with the New York club now bearing his name, Feinstein's/54 Below ("The only place I have to sleep with myself to get the job," he quipped). Though he's performed in the city since the 2012 closing of his room at Loew's Regency Hotel, the artist no longer had a place to call home in New York. This has happily been rectified.

After three decades of countless concerts, recordings, and the establishment of The Great American Songbook Foundation centered on preservation, research, and exhibition, the indefatigable Feinstein has never been better. Vocals are fuller, more powerful, his style never warmer (or perhaps funnier), and numbers well chosen and sequenced. With the splendid Tedd Firth helming as Musical Director/pianist, Sean Smith on bass, and Mark McLean on drums, this is a flat out terrific show.

The performer has chosen to not to center on holidays, offering just a few seasonal songs. Content seems autobiographical and avowedly Broadway-centric featuring "not necessarily the most popular numbers because I am Michael Feinstein." An opening medley saluting The Great White Way ranges from a light-touch version of 1915's "There's a Broken Heart for Every Light on Broadway" to the funky "On Broadway." A particularly fine arrangement with slow and powdery chorus, answering piano refrain, and traditionally backed verses, "Lullaby of Broadway" feels almost fresh. Bookended by appreciation, is the curious inclusion of Dale Gonyea's parody lyrics to "New York, New York" which are about as disparaging as one can be about a lyric: . . . the tune is catchy I know/But so is the clap . . .

Feinstein sits at the piano for heartfelt ballads including, in part, Jerry Herman's "To Be Alone With You" (from Ben Franklin in Paris)--"If you know the words to this, you've had a lonelier childhood than I did"--and a stunning tandem, "You and Me (We Wanted It All)/"I'd Rather Leave While I'm in Love" in tribute to dear friends, Peter Allen and Liza Minnelli (who were briefly married). The instrument's keys are caressed, vocals hushed, sensitive, pristine.

A section including specialty lyrics is amusing. It's a testament to the entertainer's seemingly more palpable sincerity that lyrics by David Colin Ross collectively elicited sympathetic response: His family found him different from a very early age/They tried to overlook the signs, thinking it a stage . . . the child wasn't quite the same as all the other boys . . . Was this Feinstein's own childhood? The payoff is that this boy's anomaly is being left-handed!

"People inevitably ask whether I think the Great American Songbook will survive," prefaces Feinstein's response in the person of guest singer, 19-year-old Lucas DeBard, the 2015 winner of his foundation's sponsored competition. Youth, he implicitly declares, will carry on. DeBard has natural stage charm, an appealing tenor, good, easy swing phrasing, and more than a little resemblance to the younger Feinstein. His "I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter" morphs into tweet myself a twitter . . . a lotta hashtags at the bottom . . . Feinstein's implicitly winking response? "I'll say to you what Cy Coleman said to me, 'Rotten kid.'"

Also included are classics like "Hooray For Hollywood," or as Grandma Feinstein titled it, "Hooray for Challah Bread," replete with additional, updated lyrics and the artist's own 30- year-old arrangement of "Alexander's Ragtime Band." The terrific number starts taffy-pull slow with bass backbone, feathered cymbal, and piano that sounds like a swinging hammock. As it swells, the lyric grows neither faster nor louder (a neat trick), then suddenly speeds up wildly to dense, ragtime piano, ending with the pronounced rhythm extension of an exiting stripper. One of the evening's highlights.

Michael Feinstein knows when to hold'm and when to fold'm. Consummate musicianship is reflected in pace, arrangements, vocal control, and respect for lyrics, not to mention superb piano playing. He's arrived with a new, soaring note which will cause hair to rise on your arms and seems to have broken through the kind of polish that impeded real empathy. Not only will you be thoroughly entertained, you'll enjoy spending time with the man.

Tedd Firth reaffirms that there's nothing he can't do. Subtlety, multi-genre skill, and creative interpretation are signatures. Mark McClean and Sean Smith are reliably super.

Photos by Stephen Sorokoff

Michael Feinstein
Tedd Firth-Musical Director/Piano; Mark McClean-Percussion; Sean Smith-Bass
Feinstein's/54 Below at 254 West 54th St.
Through Wednesday December 30. http://54below.com/artist/michael-feinstein/

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