By Bart Greenberg***Long time lawyer and a longer theatrical aspirant, Steve Magnusson, a made his cabaret debut at Don’t Tell Mama with his show That Happy Feeling, under the guidance of veteran director Tanya Moberly. Performing certainly has given him 
a happy feeling, for early in the show he declared, “This is so fun! For me!” And fun for the audience too, as Magnusson shared his life, both personal and professional with song selections thhat wisely illustrated and illuminated his stories.
Kicking off with a medley of “You’re Nobody Til Somebody Loves You” (Russ Morgan, Larry Stock, James Cavanaugh), “Fly Me to the Moon” (Bart Howard) and “Come Fly With Me” (Jimmy Van Heusen, Sammy Cahn), he noted that his first interest in popular music arose from his exposure via television of the Rat Pack: “real men who sang show tunes.” His early romantic life was celebrated with another triplex of related numbers, “Candy” (Alex Kramer, Mack David, Joan Whitney), “Candy Man” (Leslie Briscuse, Anthony Newley) and “Pure Imagination” (Briscuse, Newley)—a construct of clever cabaret.
In between these life events so far, Magnusson strongly felt a desire to move away from his hometown, communicated with a revised lyric of “Some People” 
(Jule Styne, Stephen Sondheim, Magnusson and Moberly), powerfully delivered even when he had a momentary brain glitch shifting between the original lyrics and the parody version; Magnusson quickly improvised some words in between (“I just made that up,” he informed the audience with a grin). He also delivered a powerful “Corner of the Sky” (Stephen Schwartz).
Two Stephen Sondheim songs (“Anyone Can Whistle” and “Not While I’m Around”) marked tales of his complicated relationship with his father—arguably the most emotional moments of the evening. Proving his versatility, his experience as a trial lawyer led to “Razzle Dazzle” (John Kander, Fred Ebb), complete with some charming tap dancing. Yes, there was a cornucopia of songs in the show, all carefully tied into the autobiographical story he was telling. Fully supported throughout by the music director Dan Furman, other numbers ranged from “There’s a Kid Inside” (Craig Carnelia) to the theme from the Burger King commercials. All of this versatility promises a bright future in cabaret for Steve Magnusson.
Photos by Bart Greenberg
