The American
Classics folks know how to throw a party. Well, it was disguised as a concert,
but for the hundred or so of us at Longy on Sunday, it felt like a party. Their
DIZZY FINGERS: Piano Pyrotechnics and
Delectable Ditties offering featured dazzling piano rags and hilarious
novelty songs from the first half of the 20th century (and one
naughty song, by Tom Lehrer, from slightly later).
Brad Conner and
Ben Sears are celebrated for their wealth of historical knowledge on the
subject of the American Songbook so you always learn something new at their
performances: An obscure song by a familiar composer or a bit of ephemera you
can pass along to your friends. If that isn’t enough, they’re consummate interpreters
of those songs as well.
American
Classics co-founder, Margaret Ulmer, is equally knowledgeable in the realm of
ragtime so it was especially thrilling to hear (and see those incredible
fingers fly with) Felix Arndt’s wildly syncopated “Desecration: A Rag
Humoresque” which must be the Mt. Everest of piano rags for its twists and
turns, not to mention those perilous crevices! Joining Ulmer in the rag
department was Steve Sussman who made Zez Confrey’s “Stumbling” rag seem like
the perfect soundtrack for a silent movie…Laurel & Hardy perhaps.
AC’s resident
romantic tenor, Eric Bronner, exercised his funny bone with Frank Loesser’s
“Rumble, Rumble, Rumble” about a man being driven mad by the pianist “upstairs
from me…making a nightmare of some melody.” Cynthia Mork lent her vocals (and a
nifty update) to the song long associated with Rosemary Clooney, William
Saroyan & Ross Bagdasarian’s “Come On-a My House.” (Who knew Saroyan wrote
those lyrics? Sears and Conner, of course.)
Sears introduced
us to a wonderfully ditsy song called “When Yuba Plays the Rhumba on the Tuba”
by Herman Hupfeld (most famous for CASABLANCA’s
“As Time Goes By”). Hupfeld rhymes tuba with Cuba, then shamelessly applies
literary license to “knocking ladies for a loop-a” and “funny looking boob-a.”
But what makes the song (which Sears and Conner unearthed from the bedrock) is
Sears’ duet with Eli Newberger, punctuating those outrageous rhymes on the
tuba!
Conner showed
off his superb comic timing with the Edwin Weber, Will Mahoney & Jack Hoins
gem, “I Love Me (I’m Wild About Myself),” then topped himself in a quirky piece
with Zachary Chadwick on piccolo called “Piccolo Pete.” We were even treated to
Conner dancing a jazzy gigue to the song. And these are only a few of the astonishing
party favors cooked up by the company. See what you missed!
Put November 14
and 16 on your calendars now because American Classics’ next production is Irving Berlin’s
first Broadway show, WATCH YOUR STEP. You can’t see it anywhere else!
