Daryl Glenn Sings Steve: Songs by Sondheim—With Passion!

By Michael Barbieri**** Daryl Glenn is an engaging, likable performer, and he has… well, a Passion for the music of Stephen Sondheim.  In his latest show, Daryl Sings Steve: Songs by Sondheim, he shared his love for one of Broadway’s most iconic composers and gave us a glimpse of the Sondheim he’s come to know.

Born in Lexington, Kentucky, Daryl Glenn is an award-winning performer who has appeared at many of New York’s best-known cabaret venues, including The Metropolitan Room, Don’t Tell Mama, The Triad and most recently, Feinstein’s/54 Below.  In 2009 he received the MAC Award, the Backstage Bistro Award and the Nightlife Award for his show Daryl Glenn and Jo Lynn Burks Play and Sing Robert Altman’s Nashville

In Daryl Sings Steve, Glenn got personal.  To that end, his first two numbers were extremely well chosen.  He bounded onstage in a fabulous brocade tailcoat, full of great energy, opening with “Everybody’s Got the Right,” from Assassins.  In this truncated version, lyrics referencing presidential assassinations were omitted, which made the song more about his own hopes and dreams as a performer living in New York.  After telling us that he had moved to the city expecting—as so many of us did—that he’d be an overnight sensation, he went into “Now You Know,” from Merrily We Roll Along, which spoke to the realities of life and the changing nature of dreams.

Much of the show revolved around Glenn’s admittedly “mostly postal” relationship with Mr. Sondheim, which began when, as a young man in Kentucky, Glenn became obsessed with the Original Cast Recording of Into the Woods.  Disappointed when the vocal selections book didn’t include “Giants in the Sky,” a friend of his contacted the composer, who sent him a lead sheet for the song.  Since then, Sondheim and Glenn have corresponded regularly and he has even been invited to the composer’s apartment on several occasions.  At any rate, this sweet story led into Glenn’s performance of the song, which he handled nicely—adept with the patter sections but equally good with the legato moments as well.

One thing I noticed early in the performance was Glenn’s comfort on stage.  His affable nature was on display with a selection of songs from the 1990 film Dick Tracy.  With “Sooner of Later,” he toyed playfully with the audience and his delivery of both “Live Alone and Like It” and “Back in Business” was relaxed, with a bit of his natural Kentucky twang coming through.  The feel was less studied and serious than one sees normally with Sondheim shows.  It was a Sondheim with which everyone and anyone could connect!  With “What Can You Lose,” however, while his vocal was sensitive and lovely, I would like to have seen him a little more grounded—perhaps just standing center stage with the mic in the stand.

I had the same minor quibble with “I Remember Sky,” a personal favorite of mine, and “Take Me to the World,” both from the little-known made for TV film, Evening Primrose.  I felt he might have served the songs better if he had been less animated and pulled back vocally a bit. 

Conversely, Glenn’s renditions of “Loving You,” from Passion and “So Many People,” from Saturday Night, were simple, heartfelt and beautiful. 

Unfortunately, Glenn’s formidable Musical Director and pianist, Karen Dryer, was suffering from laryngitis and couldn’t sing her usual duets with him.  Fortunately for us, Glenn asked his friend, the wonderful Mardie Millit, to join him.  Together, they gave us “Unworthy of Your Love,” from Assassins and “It Takes Two,” from Into the Woods.  With the latter song, Glenn stumbled a bit with some of the lyrics, but his charm and good humor pulled him through, with the audience not minding in the slightest.  After all, these are Sondheim songs we’re talking about, and tackling those lyrics is no easy feat!

Millit also favored us with a couple of solos: “Moments in the Woods” (Into the Woods), in which her confident vocal emphasized the cleverness of the lyric, and “Losing My Mind,” from Follies, which she underplayed beautifully, yet displayed gorgeous depth of emotion and shimmering high notes at the song’s climax.

Toward the end of the show, Glenn presented us with another excellent choice, “Another Hundred People,” from Company.  In his hands the song felt truly like his own story.  At one time, he was one of those hundred people who “got off of the train and the plane and the bus” when he brought himself to New York to become that overnight sensation he dreamed of.

I’d like to make one last mention of how comfortable and unflappable Glenn can be onstage.  As the audience was waiting to be seated, a group of four or five people was asked by the host if they were there to see Daryl Glenn, to which they answered yes.  They were seated right in the middle of the room.  Two numbers in, they realized they were at the wrong show, and got up and left.  In such an intimate room, something like this can hardly go unnoticed, and after they’d gone, Daryl simply shrugged it off bemusedly, calling after them with a good natured “Oh, well… It’s okay… Bye!”  It’s a shame they left.  They missed a terrific show from a truly genial performer!

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