Review: Lovely Performers Honor Marilyn Bergman With KEEP THE MUSIC PLAYING! at Feinstein's/54 Below

Boy, those folks over at 54 Below don't waste any time. The legendary lyricist Marilyn Bergman died on January 8th and Feinstein's programming director Jennifer Tepper reached out, almost immediately, to impresario Scott Siegel with a request that he create a tribute evening to the prolific writer whose career spanned six decades and garnered three Academy Awards. Ms. Tepper, whose reverence for the creative leaders in the business was so beautifully present in last year's 54 Below Hal Prince tribute, and Mr. Siegel, who has spent a lifetime celebrating the artistry of show business proficients, were the perfect pair to helm a tribute to the woman who (with her husband) wrote more of Barbra Streisand's hits than any other artist, including "The Way We Were." Last night, not one month after the passing of the prolific writer, the results of Ms. Tepper's idea and Mr. Siegel's industry was presented in a well-crafted evening of story and song.

For his concert A CELEBRATION OF THE SONGS OF MARILYN AND Alan Bergman: KEEP THE MUSIC PLAYING! Mr. Siegel called upon the services of six gifted members of the live arts community, each with a special quality to their work that was ideally suited to the numbers chosen for them to represent the Bergman canon. With Willy Falk doing double-duty on some ballads, Haley Swindal and Hunter Ryan Herdlicka covering the Streisand recordings, and Deborah Tranelli taking character-based compositions with lots of acting opportunities, the evening was rich with reward, especially with Mr. Siegel's in-depth research skills having been put to good use in the creation of the show. For each musical performer that graced the stage, Scott Siegel had entertaining anecdotes to deliver and informative facts to impart. His love of the history of show business and his reverence for the artists who make history shows up in all of his oratory explorations, making him one of the show's stars, albeit not a singing one. The gentleman is a charming host and a thorough dramaturg, though his were not the only stories told during the concert. The super-suave Billy Stritch had tales of his own to tell before his back-to-back offerings of a significantly (and appropriately) jazzy "That Face" and his own personal version of "Ordinary Miracles" (featured on his album BILLY'S PLACE). The most personal stories, though, came by way of the extraordinary chanteuse Melissa Errico, who was one degree of separation from The Bergmans, due to her association with regular Bergman collaborator Michele Legrand.

Scott Siegel wisely invited Ms. Errico and her esteemed colleague and Musical Director Tedd Firth to do a mini-set of three Bergman/Legrand songs, complete with the Errico rhetoric that keeps audiences bewitched and beguiled. Performing Oscar-winning songs from Yentl and The Thomas Crown Affair, as well as the poetic paean to optimism, "You Must Believe In Spring," Ms. Errico lent an air of ethereal fantasy to an evening already bordering on perfection. The only thing missing was the presence of a BIPOC artist; it was a genuine shame that, on the second day of Black History Month, there were no people of color in the cast. Imagine a Derrick Baskin "Love Affair" or a "Hello and Goodbye" from La Tanya Hall or a Vivian Reed performance of "Little Boy Lost" - the imagination reels with possibilities. Perhaps the speed with which Ms. Tepper and Mr. Siegel put the evening together restricted the casting net, hopefully, there will be more diversity in Mr. Siegel's upcoming shows, of which there are plenty. In the meantime, the guests of 54 Below who were lucky enough to catch the Bergman Tribute are, no doubt, using their devices and search browser to fill their day with more music from the songwriting duo whose works will continue to bless the artists and the audiences for years to come.

The Keep The Music Playing! Musical Director was Andrew Bourgoin.

Find great shows to see at the 54 Below website HERE.

Scott Siegel regularly presents 54 SINGS BROADWAY'S GREATEST HITS and 54 SALUTES Frank Sinatra. Dates, information and tickets to the former can be found HERE and to the latter, HERE.

THIS is the website for Scott Siegel.

The Keep The Music Playing! cast gets a five out of five microphones rating for performing their entire show without the use of a lyric sheet, tablet, or music stand.

Photos by Stephen Mosher

To post a comment, you must register and login.