Review: TO LIFE: A CELEBRATION OF SHELDON HARNICK'S LEGACY ON HIS 100TH at 54 Below

54 Below honored legendary lyricist and composer Sheldon Harnick on Tuesday April 30th with two touching tribute shows. To Life: A Celebration of Sheldon Harnick’s Legacy on His 100th Birthday featured a 7 pm and 9:30 pm show, each with a completely different lineup of celebrated singers who were touched in some way by Harnick’s work. 54 Below’s tributes to Broadway icons are really wonderful, providing an in-depth look at a specific lyricist, composer or other figure that you wouldn’t get at a normal show. The evening was produced by Rob Schneider, with skillful music direction by Greg Kenna. Broadway historian Deborah Grace Winer hosted, providing context about Harnick’s life and the origins of the featured shows and guided us gracefully from song to song, show to show, era to era.

Howard McGillin, who had played Kodaly in the 1993 revival of She Loves Me, opened the 9:30 pm show with a lovely “Dear Friend,” drawing laughs with his hilarious delivery of Harnick’s witty lyrics. Winer called She Loves Me “a perfect show.” Harnick wrote many perfect shows with composer Jerry Bock, many of which were on display at the show. Harnick was as skillful a playwright and master of dialogue as he was a lyricist, many of his songs providing intimate windows into the characters’ lives. The singers provided wonderful interpretations. Coulby Jenkins cut into the pathos of “When Did I Fall in Love?” from Fiorello with a deeply moving rendition. Harnick’s word economy is on beautiful display in that song, with such deceptively simple lyrics that the performer can shine. “Will He Like Me?” from She Loves Me, sung by Maggie Langhorne, is another such song, sounding simple but with depths if you study the lyrics. Langhorne delivered the song in a flawless soprano, with just the right amount of fear and hopefulness in her voice. Harnick doesn’t use flashy rhyme schemes or showy vocabulary; these are subtly written love songs where the skill in writing is not immediately obvious. They sound more like true internal monologues. Look at the alliteration in “Will he know that there's a world of love / Waiting to warm him?” and the assonance (“the shy and quiet girl he’s going to see”). Melody Munitz sang another simple, pure ballad, "Far from the Home I Love" from Fiddler.

Harnick is of course, also known for his funny side. In the “Boston Beguine,” Mary Callanan showcased one of Harnick’s early revue songs, to which he wrote words and music. Winer noted that the song was about the banning of erotic literature and sex education in Boston. Callanan sang it in a high-brow operatic tone, making the sudden slips into Boston accent all the funnier. Eric Michael Gillett sang “It’s a Fish” from The Apple Tree, explaining that as scary it is to be a father, it’s scarier still being the very first father. Gillett had the crowd guffawing with act outs from the song.

Bruce Landry sang another standout character song, “It’s Been Grand Knowing You” from She Loves Me, playing the prick astoundingly, addressing people in the audience directly as Kodaly sings to Ilona and Sipos, a clever touch in staging. Janine LaManna sang the touching “I Couldn’t Be With Anyone But You” from A Wonderful Life (music by Joe Raposo). Stephen Mo Hanan played “Artificial Flowers” from Tenderloin for laughs, saying it was such a strange song that when he heard it he didn’t know “whether to laugh of cry” before launching into a deliberately overacted, hammy version of the song, drawing laughs. (In the context of the show, “Artificial Flowers” is a ridiculous story fabricated by a journalist to ingratiate himself into a church.) The inimitable Christine Pedi sang “The Ballad of the Shape of Things,” showing off her versatile acting in this song that tells a story from beginning to end.

There were also several original cast members from Harnick’s show featured in the lineup. Edmund Gaynes, who joined the cast of Harnick and Bock’s first show The Body Beautiful (1952) as a child came onto the stage and spoke about working with Harnick on that show, about boxers. He couldn’t sing because of a vocal injury, but he delivered some of the lyrics to “Every Man for Himself.” It’s not often that you hear lyrics spoken without music at a cabaret show – usually if anything, it’s the other way around, with instrumentals and no singing – but it was a haunting choice that worked beautifully for a show honoring a lyricist. Without music, Harnick’s lyrics sound as natural as if they were a regular part of the script – even if, perhaps, an unusually poetic one. Penny Fuller, in the original cast of Rex, sang a lovely “So Much You Loved Me,” and told the story of how the song got cut from the original production. Years later, she made the case to Harnick that it was necessary for the show. He listened to her, and came up with a “fix” to restore it to the show, writing new incidental music to lead into it more gradually. Austin Pendleton, who originated the role of Motel in Fiddler, talked about getting “Now I Have Everything” taken away from his character so that Perchik and Hodel could have a song, replaced by “Miracle of Miracles,” which he sang wonderfully. It was touching seeing so many actors from original Harnick shows sharing their stories about those productions and working with him (Harnick’s wife Margery and their son Matt were also in attendance).

Winer’s additional context and history throughout the night was a marvelous addition. She invited Michael Lavine up to sing a song he had discovered in the archives at the Lincoln Center Library, “My North American Drug Store,” cut from She Loves Me. It was an excellent reminder that although Harnick has so many songs that are well-known and beloved, there were even more gems left on the cutting room floor.

Jim Brochu closed out the night with one of Harnick’s most enduring songs, “If I Were a Rich Man” from Fiddler. He did a perfect Tevye, understated but full of joy and wistful longing.

Find more shows at 54 Below and learn where to follow them online on their website.

Header image credit: Maryann Lopinto

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