By Bart Greenberg***Award winning cabaret director Barry Kleinbort has had an accomplished second career as a songwriter, he said, of acid rock and Gregorian chants—um, no, he comically misspoke—of theater songs and special material, mostly with both music and lyrics by Kleinbort. After a brief and sweet introduction to The Kleinbort Collection from producer and longtime 
Kleinbort associate, Jamie deRoy, the writer took the stage to offer up a career spanning cavalcade (one number was written last week) with great humor and charm, presented by an impressive list of cabaret and theater stars.
The evening kicked off with Paul Greenwood at the piano (he shared music director responsibilities with Christopher Denny and David Gaines, and with bassist Tom Hubbard throughout) in a duet with Nicolas King on a medley of “Big City” and “Everything Is Waiting for Me.” Their voices blended beautifully for an energetic opening. Tony award-winner Judy Kaye offered up the lyric-filled “I Get Around,” originally written for the late Marcia Lewis. The sophisticated patter song “A Sondheim Song,” from the concept album Big City Rhythm, was delivered with great humor by Eric Michael Gillett, with the rhyme of “Bernstein” and “Kern Styne” meeting the approval of the saluted songwriter. Lewis Cleale used his clarion voice to express the deep emotions found in the character piece “Milwaukee,” and Haley Swindal joined him for a dramatic montage of “To Be Wanted” and “Ev’ryone Needs Someone.”
The cavalcade of stars continued with Karen Mason who brought quiet intensity to the touching “The 
Kindest Man” from a proposed musical version of the film, Marty. Kleinbort took the mic for a hysterical exploration of French vocabulary with “P-u-h-h-h,” before the French star of Company, Caroline Roelands, celebrated the charm of her pet who is “Tres Chic.” Both of these numbers came from the Franco-American revue, Metropolita(i)n, as did the moody and poetic “Se Reposer et Observer (Sitting and Watching)” beautifully delivered by Gregg Edelman.
Introduced as a true Broadway baby, Loni Ackerman brought show biz dazzle to “At the Liberty” and then veteran Broadway star Penny Fuller enchanted with the touching “One More Spring.” Gillett returned to deliver another number created for the same character in Big City Rhythm, now transported to his object of desire— New York City—with “I Belong,” a detailed description of his new home town. The elegant Lorna Dallas offered up the tone poem, “Stillness,” and then Mason was back for “Time” (music by Joseph Thalken), another moving piece. The bombastic Gretchen Reinhagen offered a song written for Kaye Ballard, the highly topical “When,” also from Big City Rhythm, with non-updated lyrics about aging that still seem relevant. That song brought the program full circle because that show was where Kleinbort first met deRoy. To bring things to a close, the composer offered his newest song, “Something,” a fine fitting end to this celebration.
