By Bart Greenberg***The talented and witty Madelaine Warren came onto the stage at Don’t Tell Mama before a packed room to celebrate the careeer of Dorothy Fields—the incredibly productive lyricist of early jazz, pop songs, Broadway tunes and Hollywood ditties for a half a century. Fields deserved the celebration, and Warren’s biggest issue was narrowing down a huge catalogue to 20 selections. She chose well, with a nice, effective mix of standards and obscurities. Paired with music director Christopher De
nny and director Barry Kleinbort (the two shared arranger duties) and bassist Tom Hubbard, the show was highly satisfying and illuminating, as well as showing off the singer’s fine vocals.
Working in roughly chronological order through Fields’ oeuvre, the show gave a sense of shifting styles and cultural changes. Of the great lyricists, Fields was one of the most tied to thhe vernacular of the time. From her early days at The Cotton Club with songwriter Jimmy McHugh, to the Great Depression (“On the Sunny Side of the Street” and “Hey Young Fella” – both with McHugh), to the swinging ’60s with “Big Spender” and “It’s Not Where You Start” (both with music by Cy Coleman), she was there. And Warren captured all of this input and distilled it to her audience.
Throughout her career, Fields worked with some of the best composers in the 
business. Jerome Kern brought forth both the adorable “You Couldn’t Be Cuter” and the haunting “Remind Me,” given a deeply emotional reading by Warren. She also chose two contrasting numbers by Arthur Schwartz, the lovely “Make the Man Love Me” and the brilliant character number “He Had Refinement,” which the star put over with comic flair and specificity. And then there was the granddaddy of them all: Sigmund Romberg (composer of Broadway and operetta, whose career began in 1914) with whom she wrote the wicked and wise “Currier and Ives,” another comic gem for Warren to deliver perfectly.
Warren made all the right and optimal choices for this show, from the selection of songs to the detailed but not overlong biographical comments to her lovely delivery of the material. A fine addition to the biocabaret genre.
Photos by Bart Greenberg
