BWW Reviews: Bruce Kimmel Does It Right Again @ Kritzerland at the Gardenia

On Wednesday July 6 Kritzerland at the Gardenia presented a salute to the lesser known music of Kander and Ebb - The Kander and Ebb Album - two of the most prolific composers of the 20th century. Think Chicago or Cabaret, and you need go no further. These two wildly popular shows still receive international mountings and provide us with some of the greatest Broadway pop tunes ever. Ahead of their time, Kander and Ebb produced shows with a substantially dark and biting edge not found in other composers' music and lyrics. Bruce Kimmel, whose Kritzerland recording company continues to enjoy enormous success worldwide, again served as narrator of the evening telling short, funny anecdotes about his encounters with John Kander and also detailing Kander and Ebb's failures as well as successes. Liza Minnelli's Broadway career soared because of K & E - it started with Flora the Red Menace in the 60s and continued through the next couple of decades with hits and flops such as The Rink and 1977's The Act, which began in LA as Shine It On. K & E certainly didn't fare too badly either with Liza's name on their bill. Think of what she did for the movie Cabaret with her Academy Award winning turn as Sally. However, such was not the case with their film New York, New York which received some pretty scathing reviews in the late 70s; the pair were none too pleased that a small musical The First Nudie Musical (Bruce Kimmel)fared far better than their multi-billion dollar disaster. It's always such fun for theatre lovers to hear about the down side of the business, and particularly via Kimmel's straight-forward, droll take on it.

Highlights of the evening, which boasted 7 singers and great musical director John Boswell, included: a rousing opening of "Wilkommen" and "City Lights" from The Act sung by 13 year-old Melody Hollis, whose amazing voice makes anyone sit up and take notice. There was also lots of pizzaz from petite comic virtuoso Marsha Kramer, essaying "So What?" from Cabaret, and "Yes" from 70 Girls 70. The beautiful Juliana Hansen did a knockout job with "My Coloring Book" and "The World Goes Round", and lovely Lauren Rubin performed "A Quiet Thing" so well... and the poignantly beautiful "Isn't It Better?" from the film sequel to Funny Girl, Funny Lady. The male talent included Zachary Ford doing "Sometimes A Day Goes By" and the rarely heard "Second Chance" from the 90s Steel Pier. Also performing one song from Pier was special guest star Gregory Harrison who starred in the original show. The song was "First You Dream", sung in the Broadway show by the late Daniel McDonald. Harrison told in his own warm way a story about how he was forced to stand behind a tiny scrim every night while awaiting his cue, and as he heard McDonald and Karen Ziemba sing the song, it gradually became his favorite part of the show even though he was out of sight. Damon Kirsche was also on hand with splendid renditions of "All I Care About Is Love" from Chicago, "Married" from Cabaret and "The Skin of Our Teeth" from the show of the same name.

It was a terrific evening of song, as is the case with all of Kimmel's Kritzerland shows. Kritzerland happens the first Wednesday of every month and will celebrate its first anniversary this September. Don't miss a salute to Schmidt and Jones on August 3 at the Gardenia and Melody Hollis' very own cabaret, directed by Bruce Kimmel, at Vitello's in Studio City on August 10, entitled Melodyland.

www.vitellosrestaurant.com

and for the Gardenia @ 7066 Santa Monica Blvd., West Hollywood, CA
Phone: (323) 467-7444

photo credit: Daniel G. Lam

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