By Michael Portantiere***Famously warm and charming in both voice and personality, and with a still-boyish quality well into his maturity, Daniel Reichard seemed in advance to be the perfect performer for the show he presented at the Laurie Beechman Theatre at the West 
Bank Café, sweetly titled Hello, Neighbor: Songs We Grew Up To for a Grownup World. And, indeed, he was.
One of Broadway’s original Jersey Boys, now a longtime member of The Midtown Men, and a veteran of Forbidden Broadway, Reichard has a voice golden enough that another of his major credits was the title role in a New York City Opera production of Candide. At the Beechman, ably assisted by pianist Brandon James Gwinn, with bassist Tina Lama, drummer Zachary Eldridge and reed player Erick Miranda, he offered a self-written show that allowed each and every audience member to reconnect with their inner child.
As the evening’s title hinted, much of the program consisted of songs written by Fred Rogers and featured on the iconic, happily long-lived TV series “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.” After welcoming the audience with “Won’t You Be My Neighbor,” Reichard jogged our collective memories and stirred our hearts with 
lovely renditions of such other Rogers songs as “You’ve Got to Do It,” “I Like to Be Told,” “Just for Once,” “Please Don’t Think It’s Funny” and “Are You Brave?”
In a natural segue from invoking one classic children’s series to another, Reichard had fun with “Everybody Wash” from “Sesame Street,” urging audience participation in the form of getting everyone in the sold-out crowd to pretend-scrub themselves. That ditty led into three more songs from the Street: “Rubber Ducky,” “C is For Cookie” (with a perfect vocal impersonation of the Cookie Monster) and “I Don’t Want to Live on the Moon.”
Shifting from TV to the movies, our host and star had the excellent taste to give us two songs from one of the finest scores ever written for a family-oriented film: the Sherman brothers’ “A Spoonful of Sugar” and “Chim-Chim-Cheree,” from Mary Poppins. Next came a bonus in the form of another, lesser-known but delightful tune by that same team of siblings, “Ugly-Bug Ball” from Summer Magic.
One of the show’s brightest highlights was 
Reichard’s heartfelt performance of “The Rainbow Connection” (Paul Williams, Kenneth Ascher) from The Muppet Movie, his sensitive patter introduction and beautiful delivery of the song highlighting the wistful yearning of the lyrics, which have deeper meaning for adults living in a fragmented country and world than they do for youngsters who as yet don’t fully comprehend such division. This was followed by another highlight: Fred Rogers’ “I’m Taking Care of You,” presented in loving remembrance of his now departed dog, Bosco, and also as an ode to Reichard’s parents, both on hand for the occasion, who have been married 62 years and had a total of nine children.
Rounding out the evening were “Grandma’s Feather Bed,” by John Denver, and two more Fred Rogers songs: “It’s You I Like” and “It’s Such a Good Feeling.” If one had taken a poll of the audience at the end of the show, there would assuredly have been universal agreement that Fred Rogers, the Sherman boys, and the other songwriters represented would have absolutely loved it.
Photos by Michael Portantiere
