By Marilyn Lester***Scott Siegel and company celebrated The 4th of July at Feinstein’s/54 Below with pure Americana—a Siegel version of Walt Whitman’s I Hear America Singing, with music from Broadway, Hollywood, Nashville, Motown, and more. Producer, writer and host Siegel has been creating thematic variety shows for decades with plenty of flair. He has a knack for it, born of a savvy for spotting talent and narratives that always inform in the most entertaining way. This particular outing, about, as he put it, the heroic American Experiment called The United States, was full of fun and a sly reminder that our 245-year journey hasn’t been all apple pie and ice cream.
Our musical history lesson began at the beginning, with revolution—and comedy. There’s no better source for camp than Brian Charles Rooney and his King George (“You’ll Be Back”) from Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton was completely delicious. Rooney is a Siegel staple and thank the stars for that. He’s a versatile performer, a shape-shifter of characters, uncannily able to be in the moment with absolute authenticity. His rendition of “Molasses to Rum” from 1776 (Sherman Edwards) was breathtaking. Musical accompaniment from Ross Patterson, Siegel’s go-to and proven pianist, matched the tour-de-force delivery of Rooney.
Another Siegel staple, William Michals can always be depended on for stellar performances. He possesses a superlative baritone, with honey-smooth clarity, coupled with an upbeat and winning persona. He was kinetically “on” as “Professor” Harold Hill in “Seventy-Six Trombones” from Meredith Willson’s The Music Man. On the distaff side, Mia Gerachis offered an emotive “Back to Before” from Ragtime (Stephen Flaherty, Lynn Ahrens) and an affecting “On My Way” from the little-known 2014 Broadway musical Violet (Jeanine Tesori).
If dependability is a word that comes to mind with a Siegel production, so is the fact that there will always be emerging talent on the stage. The performing twins John and Matthew Drinkwater were on hand (self-accompanying with guitar and percussion) with an energetic “Freedom” (Richie Havens, based on “Motherless Child”) paired with “This Land Is Your Land” (Woodie Guthrie, based on the Carter Family’s “When the World’s on Fire”). The earnest Adan Gallegos offered a very appropriate “Only in America” (Jerry Leiber, Mike Stoller, Barry Mann,Cynthia Weil) and an impassioned “Eve of Destruction” (P. F. Sloan), the only protest song to reach the top of the Billboard charts, and as Siegel pointed out, a number that could never have been written or publicly performed where democracy is absent.
To close America’s birthday party, Michals offered a beautiful patriotic tune, and one of Frank Sinatra’s favorites, “The House I Live In” (Earl Robinson, Abel Meeropol aka ‘Lewis Allan’). The number was followed by a stunning a cappella first verse of “America the Beautiful” ( Katharine Lee Bates, Samuel A. Ward). Joining Michals on stage, the full cast, plus audience, joined together to finish the song—no lyric sheets required.
When the last note died out, and despite the current troubles of today, for a little short while, gratitude for our nation filled the room through the music that’s long been America’s gift to the world.
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