By STEPHEN HOLDEN
If any show in the 92nd Street Y’s Lyrics and Lyricists series looked like a sure thing, it was “Fred and Ginger in So Many Words: The Astaire-Rogers Songbook,” which had five performances, Saturday through Monday at the Kaufmann Concert Hall. Written and hosted by the Y’s new artistic director, Deborah Grace Winer, it offered filet mignon for an audience that becomes restive when the programming strays from the great American songbook’s main composers, and chicken is the entree.
It would have been enough just to present the songs (11 of which were written by Irving Berlin) with the cast assembled by Ms. Winer: James Naughton, Debby Boone, Billy Stritch, Karen Ziemba and David Elder, performing with an excellent swing quintet led by John Oddo. The béarnaise sauce, if you will, was Ms. Winer’s insightful narration, which went considerably deeper than the anecdotal minihistories that accompany most of the series’ programs.
Midway in Sunday’s matinee, Ms. Winer wondered out loud what kind of songs Stephen Sondheim might have written for Astaire-Rogers before concluding that the team’s heyday ended before psychoanalysis invaded popular music. Even in the most sophisticated lyrics of the 1930s and ’40s, she observed, introspection was minimal and much remained unsaid.
She also suggested that the songs’ absence of intense sexuality reflected the relationships of Astaire-Rogers characters, whose romantic ideal was not passionate lovemaking but “dream dancing,” to quote a Cole Porter title from the movie “You’ll Never Get Rich.” Ms. Winer speculated that the airy lyrics invented by mostly East Coast songwriters transplanted to Beverly Hills also reflected their insulation from the worst of the Depression.
Although the program focused on Astaire-Rogers movies, it also explored songs they performed by themselves in other films, and included two melodies (“I’m Building Up to an Awful Letdown” and “Not My Girl”) that Astaire had a hand in composing.
Most of the singing (with little dancing) was a cut or two above the series’ usual competent run-throughs. Mr. Naughton applied his rich Joe Williams baritone to “I Guess I’ll Have to Change My Plan,” “Too Late Now” and “The Way You Look Tonight.” Mr. Stritch belted a robust “Let’s Face the Music and Dance,” and with Mr. Naughton sang a playfully competitive “Steppin’ Out With My Baby.” Ms. Ziemba and Mr. Elder captured the gliding Astaire-Rogers dance-floor style in a pas de deux. Ms. Boone had the show’s most intimate musical moment, delivering a flawless “Be Careful, It’s My Heart,” accompanied by Bucky Pizzarelli’s languid solo guitar.
This filet mignon was the way most people like it: medium rare, tender and juicy.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/24/arts/music/24lyrics.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
