By Marilyn Lester***Take a stellar cast, top musicians, great material and a seasoned impression to put it all together and you’ll get one of the best concerts that producer-writer-host Scott Siegel has mounted to date. The third edition of the inaugural Broadway by the Season at Merkin Hall was electric with energy as the songs of 1964/65 and 1972/73 musicals, put into context by Siegel’s always interesting and 
informative narrative, filled the hall with musical majesty.
Starting big at the top of the show, two notoriously difficult songs to put across came across as if effortless. From Funny Girl, the breakout star, Jule Benko, belted “Don’t Rain on My Parade,” (Jule Styne, Bob Merrill) putting to rest the notion that no one will ever best Barbara Streisand’s version. Fiddler on the Roof‘s now iconic “If I Were a Rich Man” (Jerry Bock, Sheldon Harnick) is trickier than it seems. There are a lot of musical changes in it; it also requires comedic acting, a great sense of timing, animated movement and a substantial vocal range. All of these items were ticked off the list with ease and consummate skill by Willy Falk.
And then there was a delightful foray into vaudeville. Danny Gardner, a presence throughout the evening, was a constant source of wonderment. Not enough that this wizard of tap can also sing beautifully, but who knew he could do impressions! Powering through the title song of Hello, Dolly! (Jerry Herman) as Robert De Niro, Cary Grant, Kermit the Frog, Katherine Hepburn and…Scott Siegel, 
among others, he went on to do dance impressions of Kelly and Astaire, and also Cyd Charisse. Gardner later returned to assist both Gunhild Carling and Bill Irwin with their vaudevillian turns as well as sing and dance to his own numbers.
Carling is a unique entertainer: a singer, tapper and multi-instrumentalist. She hasn’t met the instrument she can’t play and in Funny Girl‘s “I’m the Greatest Star” and “There Are Worse Things I Could Do” (Jim Jacobs, Warren Casey) from Grease, she brought out bagpipes, tin whiste, harmonica, trumpet, trombone and displaced Ross Patterson at the piano for a time. Another uniquely mult-italented performer, Bill Irwin is an actor and acclaimed clown who’s acknowledged as occupying one of the most top branches of the tree in the art of clowning. His brilliant comic turn, a send-up of “Send in the Clowns” (Stephen Sondheim, A Little Night Music) was based on his doing the tune, which he never actually got to, “under protest.”
In the realm of beautiful voices, a top prize goes to Jill Paice, whose clarity and pure vocal tone invoked the legendary Barbara Cook’s. Her rendition of “Ribbons Down My Back” (Hello, Dolly!) was especially thrilling. Back in New York after too-long a hiatus, concert artist Maxine Linehan applied her strong alto to “Freddy My Love” (Grease) accompanied by the graceful and giifted tapper Kendrick Jones. Opera star John Easterlin went unplugged with Man of La Mancha‘s “The Impossible Dream” (Mitch Leigh, Joe Darion) with a resonance that possibly could have been heard a few blocks away at the Metropolitan Opera.
As always, the preternaturally talented music director-pianist Ross Patterson, led the Little Big Band of Tom Hubbard (bass) and Eric Halvorson (drums) with evocative skill.
Enjoy this photo gallery of images from the show, by Maryann Lopinto
