Jeff Harnar: Dancing in the Dark

Grand Center Cabaret Series

When Jeff Harnar brought his all-Sammy Cahn show to what was then the Grandel Cabaret series back in 2003 I wrote, among other things, that he performed "with a seemingly effortless grace and confidence that's basically irresistible". I noted that he was a "consistently charming and compelling singer" with "a smooth light baritone that flows like liquid gold and soars effortlessly into a solid falsetto".

The Grand Center Cabaret series has brought Harnar back this year, and I'm happy to say that nothing has changed. His remains one of the most polished cabaret acts you're ever likely to see, but without the superficiality that often comes with polish. The patter may be well rehearsed, but his obvious affection for the songs makes it all completely persuasive.

The title of this year's act is Dancing in the Dark and, in fact, there's even a little bit of basic soft shoe to go with it in the second act, but the underlying inspiration for the evening is Harnar's life-long love affair with New York City. In some numbers, such as Bernstein's ruefully rhapsodic "Lonely Town" (from On the Town) or the somewhat obscure "East Side of Heaven" (from the 1939 Bing Crosby / Joan Blondell film of the same name) the connection with the Big Apple is explicit. In others - such as the "Dancing in the Dark" medley or Noel Coward's witty laceration of stage mothers, "Don't Put Your Daughter on the Stage, Mrs. Worthington" (complete with some extra lyrics that were apparently considered too vulgar to be printed back in 1935, if my copy of the sheet music is any indication) - the theme is so far in the background as to be nearly invisible. But it hardly matters, since what ties everything together is the combination of Harnar's charismatic stage presence and top-notch performances from the entire ensemble.

I use the word "ensemble" deliberately. Pianist and arranger Alex Rybeck and bassist Jared Egan have a long association with Harnar - both on stage and on recordings - and are more partners in the act than backup musicians. Ditto Mort Silver, who has a particularly effective sax solo during Cole Porter's "You Can Do No Wrong" (from the 1958 Gene Kelly vehicle The Pirate) and doubles on flute elsewhere.

Rybeck and Egan are also stalwart backup vocalists. Harnar's duets with Rybeck, for example, are a delight, especially in a first act Cole Porter medley that includes, in rapid succession, "Well Did You Evah!", "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?", "Friendship", "You're the Top", "Cherry Pies Ought to be You" and at least one other that went by so fast I missed it. All three join in a tight vocal trio for the Andrews Sisters hit "Bei Mir Bist du Schön", which closes the show.

A few notes regarding the songs themselves: they're a consistently interesting and varied mix of the familiar and the obscure, often mixed in very clever ways. There's an "Angel Medley" in the first act, for example, that ingeniously combines Heaven-themed songs from Vincente Minnelli films with piano triplets right out of "The Great Pretender" and '50s-style falsetto vocals. Harnar, it should be noted, clearly has a great deal of affection for the rock-and-roll crooners of the period, as his Because of You: Fifties Gold CD clearly demonstrates. The second act includes a four-song cycle that moves from the Dietz-Schwartz classic "Dancing in the Dark" to Lane and Lerner's "On a Clear Day (You Can See Forever)" by way of Hoagy Carmichael's "How Little We Know" (from To Have and to Have Not where it is sung, more or less, by Lauren Bacall) and the touching "By Myself" (Dietz and Schwartz again, this time from 1937's Between the Devil).

That act opens, by the way, with a relative (but welcome) rarity for a Grand Center Cabaret show: a collection of sharply satirical political songs from late-50s musicals such as Li'l Abner, Fiorello and The Sound of Music (the often overlooked "No Way to Stop It"). Sadly, they're as relevant now as they were nearly a half-century ago. That medley includes particular favorites of mine about political cronyism, "A Little Tin Box". I've never been able to listen to it without wanting to do a little soft-shoe. Apparently Harnar hasn't either.

The bottom line is that with Dancing in the Dark, Jeff Harnar and company have, once again, put together a thoroughly entertaining and informative evening of gems from the Great American Songbook. Which, once again, demonstrates what a treasure St. Louis has in the Grand Center Cabaret series. Performances continue through this Sunday [October 23, 2005] at the acoustically excellent Sheldon Concert Hall; call 314-534-1111 for tickets or purchase on line at metrotix.com. On your way into the auditorium, though, make sure you pick up one of the free cushions; the backs of those Sheldon seats are notoriously unforgiving.

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