Lyrics & Lyricists: I Have Confidence: Rodgers After Hammerstein
Lyrics & Lyricists
I Have Confidence: Rodgers After Hammerstein
92nd Street Y, NYC, May 22, 2016
Reviewed by Peter Haas for Cabaret Scenes
Karen Ziemba
Composer Richard Rodgers and lyricist Lorenz Hart began a celebrated songwriting partnership in 1919 that lasted until shortly before Hart’s death, in 1943. By then, Rodgers had already worked with lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II on Oklahoma!. Together they created the scores for many memorable Broadway musicals (The King and I, South Pacific, etc.), a film (State Fair), and television (Cinderella). After Hammerstein died, in 1960, Rodgers continued to write shows with other lyricists as well as writing both the music and lyrics himself, until his own death. It was this last phase of Rodgers’ work that was the focus of May’s Lyrics & Lyricists program.
Serving as the evening’s artistic director and knowledgeable narrator was Ted Chapin, president and creative director of the Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization. He was joined on stage by the evening’s cast, singing and dancing with warmth and freshness: Ben Crawford, Betsy Wolfe, T. Oliver Reid and Karen Ziemba (pictured). In addition, actor Larry Pine served as stand-in for Rodgers, reading from Rodgers’ writings about his work, collaborators and performers.
The four singers opened the evening brightly performing the evening’s title song, “I Have Confidence,” for which Rodgers wrote both music and lyrics for the 1965 film version of The Sound of Music. Several songs which Rodgers wrote solo followed: “This Isn’t Heaven” (from the motion picture, State Fair), performed sturdily by Crawford; a tender rendition by Reid and Wolfe of “The Sweetest Sounds,” from the 1962 musical, No Strings, and, from the same show, Ziemba singing and dancing perkily with “Loads of Love.”
Rodgers’ collaboration with Stephen Sondheim, which began in 1965 with the show, Do I Hear a Waltz?, was introduced with “What Do We Do? We Fly!,” performed smartly by the cast, followed, from the same show, by Wolfe’s charming “Someone Woke Up,” Reid’s romantic “Someone Like You,” and Ziemba and Crawford in a frolic turn together with “Thank You So Much.”
Act Two included Rodgers’ work with still other lyricists. He wrote with Martin Charnin for the Danny Kaye musical, Two By Two, which contained the songs, “Ninety Again,” delightfully performed by Crawford; “An Old Man,” lovingly sung by Ziemba as Noah’s wife, and “I Do Not Know a Day I Do Not Love You,” brought to warm life by Reid. In an amusing film clip, Sheldon Harnick described his trepidation at the prospect of bringing his first lyrics to Rodgers’ apartment inaugurating their collaboration, in 1975, on Rex. Their teamwork came to sweet life as Crawford and Wolfe performed “Away from You.” It was Rex that also provided the evening’s finale, as the cast gathered for a warm-hearted “No Song More Pleasing.”
Lyrics & Lyricists now folds up its music stands until next winter, when, hopefully, this fan —attending the series since Maurice Levine created it in 1970—will again be reporting.
Category: Cabaret Reviews, New York City, New York City Cabaret Reviews, Regional
