By Maryann Lopinto***Broadway star Karen Mason returned to Birdland jazz club with a brand new show Just in Styne: Karen Mason Sings Jule Styne, encompassing his songs from both the movies and Broadway, both classics and those not so familiar.
Starting with a medley of “LET ME ENTERTAIN YOU” and “I HEARD THAT SONG BEFORE,” the audience was immediately captured, especially with director Barry Klienbort’s special lyrics and insertion of lines from other songs. Therein followed a mini-biography of Styne, London- born as Julius Kerwin Stein, a musical child prodigy who came to the US with his family as a youngster. Not destined for the classical stage, Styne started playing with dance bands and also became a vocal coach. A move to Hollywood brought award-winning success. On Broadway he wrote 25 shows and in total in his career, over 1,500 songs. He passed away at the age of 88 in 1994.
At the age of 19 Mason played Mazeppa in a Mount Prospect, Illinois production of GYPSY. From there her journey too her to Broadway, where she built a repertoire of Styne songs, including as Mama Rose in three productions of GYPSY. Her set included “JUST IN TIME,” ” ITS MAGIC,” “RIDE ON A RAINBOW,” “DIAMONDS ARE A GIRLS BEST FRIEND,” “I’M IN LOVE” and more.
There were backstage stories, such as the near cut of “PEOPLE” from FUNNY GIRL. Two songs were done in duet with her musical director Christopher Denny (with Tom Hubbard on bass): “EV’RY STREET’S A BOULEVARD IN OLD NEW YORK” and “TOGETHER. She went on to sing “KILLING TIME,” a beautiful quiet and sentimental song which was written with Carolyn Leigh at the age of 90–and her final song. Styne was given the lyrics to this at a card game by Leigh ,and asked him to write the music. Mason closed the show with a song that had been cut from the Broadway show SUGAR and was added to later productions: “THE PEOPLE IN MY LIFE.” It was paired with “ROSE’S TURN,” a real heartbreaker, and making her performance seem like a one-act musical. Her encore consisted of “I HAVE TO THANK YOU” followed by “MAKE SOMEONE HAPPY.”
Mason’s skill ia her perfection is in understanding what is written, not just singing it, but performing the lyric. She can make you cry in one minute and then come back and make you laugh in the next.
Enjoy these photos from Just in Styne: Karen Mason Sings Jule Styne
