Featuring a modern, multi-media presentation of some of Porter's most beloved songs in an unprecedented and unique way, Connick will delight audiences with his signature style that has been called by The New York Times "blatantly seductive", while celebrating the life's work of a legend's significant contribution to the Great American Songbook.
Now, don't expect the affable Connick to just plop down at the piano and sing. He certainly plays-at a grand piano and, at one point, on a variety of uprights. But at this point in his career, Connick is as much a performer as he is a musician-albeit one who did all the arrangements and orchestrations for every song in this show, thank you very much. And this certainly isn't his first Broadway rodeo. (Counting his two previous concert stints, in 1990 and 2010, it's his fifth; I'm not including 2001's Thou Shalt Not, for which he wrote the music and lyrics but in which he didn't star.) The man who headlined The Pajama Game and On a Clear Day You Can See Forever is going to bring a little personality to the proceedings-particularly if he's crooning moody numbers such as 'Love for Sale,' where he's accompanied beautifully by bassist Neal Caine, and 'Mind If I Make Love to You?' Connick calls the latter-originated by Frank Sinatra in the 1956 film of High Society-his favorite Porter song.
He's written one quite wonderful sequence, though, in which he shows us how he arranged 'Night and Day.' He walks us through the way that specific lyrics (a reference to a clock) make him choose instrumentation, and then, once he's chosen trumpets, how he decides between cup mutes and Harmon mutes. The projections show us how the notation changes, and the brass section behind him plays the heck out of the song in response. It's still all about ease - Connick tries singing the song in a couple of different keys, then chooses the one that 'doesn't make him work that hard.' But oh, the veil is down. We've seen the musicianship and care that all that relaxation requires, and it makes us melt a little further. We're in such good hands, after all.
2019 | Broadway |
2019 Broadway Premiere Broadway |
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