Hanna Burke: Why Is Everyone Laughing?

Joel Benjamin | August 3, 2016

Hanna Burke

Why Is Everyone Laughing?

Metropolitan Room, NYC, July 17, 2016

Reviewed by Joel Benjamin for Cabaret Scenes

Photo: Maryann Lopinto

Hanna Burke’s tribute to the late Madeline Kahn, Why Is Everyone Laughing?, was moving and entertaining in equal measure. A fine singer herself, Burke somehow found new and different facets of her own voice by infusing it with shades of Kahn’s eccentrically sweet soprano.

After a short series of film/video clips—Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, Paper Moon, What’s Up, Doc?—Burke began her musical exploration of Kahn’s life and career, dividing the song list among her musicals, films and some odds and ends meant to illuminate the short—but brilliant—life and career of this extravagantly funny lady who never truly, deeply understood “Why is everyone laughing?”

The odds and ends included a sweet “Make Believe” (Kern/Hammerstein) and four songs from Sondheim’s Anyone Can Whistle [The actress had performed Angela Lansbury’s original role in a one-night concert which was recorded for CD]: “There’s Always a Woman,” “Cookie Chase,” “Me and My Town” and “There’s a Parade in Town,” the last paired with Jerry Herman’s “Before the Parade Passes By,” all of which served as comments on different periods of Kahn’s very busy life, including the trials and tribulations of her career and personal life. A sassy “You’d Be Surprised” (Irving Berlin) and a crazily nervous “Getting Married Today” (Sondheim) added humor to the proceedings.

From On the Twentieth Century (Coleman/Comden & Green), a musical rife with disappointments and triumphs for Kahn, Burke sang the epic “Babette” and the adamant “Never” with great humor, hitting the outer edges of her soprano.

The highlight of the show was the song most identified with Kahn as her ersatz Marlene Dietrich character, Lili Von Schtupp, from Blazing Saddles: “Tired” (Mel Brooks). Burke, a beauty in her own right, added just the right note of sexuality.

She was helped immensely by the musical direction of Matthew Bennis and her talented and witty musical cohorts—Will Anderson, Rachael Joyce and Adrian Rifat.

Tags: Adolph Green, Adrian Rifat, American Songbook, Anyone Can Whistle, Babette, Before the Parade Passes By, Betty Comden, Blazing Saddles, Broadway, Broadway Musicals, Cabaret, Cabaret Reviews, Cabaret Scenes, CD, Clubs, Comden & Green, Composers, Cookie Chase, Cy Coleman, Getting Married Today, Great American Songbook, Hanna Burke, Irving Berlin, Jazz, Jazz Singers, Jazz Vocalists, Jerome Kern, Jerry Herman, Joel Benjamin, Lili Von Schtupp, lyricists, Madeline Kahn, Make Believe, Marlene Dietrich, Maryann Lopinto, Matthew Benni, Me and My Town, Mel Brooks, Metropolitan Room, Musicals, Musicians, Never, Nightclubs, NYC, On the Twentieth Century, Oscar Hammerstein, Paper Moon, Popular Song, Rachael Joyce, Revues, Show Tunes, Singers, Sondheim, Songbook, Standards, Stephen Sondheim, Supper Clubs, There’s a Parade in Town, There’s Always a Woman, Tired, Venues, Vocalists, What's Up Doc, Why Is Everyone Laughing?, Will Anderson, You’d Be Surprised, Young Frankenstein