By Bart Greenberg***Lyricist and book writer Michael Colby returned to the Winter Rhythms festival at Urban Stages with the second part of his celebration of characters created for the musical stage. Once again, he gathered up an impressive list of theater performers who, under the seamless direction of 
Sara Louise Lazarus and the expert music direction of Joe Baker, recreate the vivid personalities he conjured up. The auditorium was packed, and Colby was thrilled: “pardon me, I’m having my Sally Field moment.”
Kicking the performance off was a wry meditation on the economics of theater, “We Can Still Have Fun” (music by Ned Paul Ginsburg), performed with theatrical flair by Jack LaLonde, Craig Pomranz and Jane Seaman. Next, “Just for What You Are” (Gerald Jay Markoe), a love duet that managed to be both haunting and wacky at the same time, was deftly delivered by Daniel Castro and Megan Styrna. More humor followed with another atypical love song, one delivered to a dog with appropriate animal sounds. “That’s My Pooch” (Andrea Colby) was sung with delight and honesty by Jennifer Smith. Leah Hocking brought wonderful specificity to the tale of a troubled widow with “Every Morning the Same” (Ginsburg), while Stephen Berger was a spritely senior (“retired but renewed”) declaring “It’s Still Me” (Gins
burg).
The audience next took a trip to theLower East Side as two major figures in the early Yiddish theater battled it out with a medley of “The First Family of Second Avenue” and “Oy Yo You!” (Artie Bressler). The battlers were brought to life by Joel Blum and Pomranz. A mob boss known as Poison Eddy—enacted by Adam Heller—declared the effect he has when he enters the room in “When I Come In” (Jack Urbont) and Hocking returned for a star turn as she speculated on “What’s a Witch?” (Urbont) as a cantankerous sorceress.
The population of Tinsel Town was featured in three numbers with lyrics by Paul Katz. Jill Geddes and her Farmhands (yes, there were definitely echoes of another would-be vaudeville tyke) demonstrate why “I Belong in Hollywood” with a cute act embroidered with more animal sounds. Nat Chandler embodied a romantic star with an ego problem seeking “Someone to Want Me” while Gina D’Acciaro declared with Ethel Merm
an stentorian tones “I Can Sing”—and she certainly can. Four major performers helped to wind up this delicious show. Jill Paice slithered through a Latin blues, “Not All Jakes” (John Introcasso), draping herself over the piano and the pianist, Baker. Eric Michael Gillett touched the audience’s collective heart with the tale of an ousted “Elevator Man” (Peter Millrose), bringing a quiet dignity to the number. “Bubbles in My Bonnet” (Markoe) gave Ann Harada a chance to do what she does best, steal the scene, the scenery and probably a couple of seats in the auditorium. Finally, Michael McCormick brilliantly delivered an absolutely filthy song, with not a single vulgarity, all about vegetables.
The entire company offered up a very touching and very appropriate message with “The Theatre Will Survive” (Ginsberg). With inventive and witty lyricists like Michael Colby, it certainly will.
Photos by Bart Greenberg
