By Marilyn Lester***Thank you Tom Lehrer? Well. yes… but thank you Bobby Underwood for bringing this genius of parody and his marvelous music back to life at City Winery with Thank You Tom Lehrer: A concert celebrating the wit and brilliance of legendary Satirist Tom Lehrer. Comedian-actor-vocalist 
Underwood sang and spieled, and Zalmen Mlotek (conductor-composer-arranger and the Artistic Director of the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene) who manned the keys, were the absolute perfect pair to celebrate one of America’s most cogent philosopher-wits in and out of song.
With sturdy vocal chops, a smart narrative and comedic timing all his own, Underwood started big—with one of Lehrer’s best known (and darkest) tunes, “Poisoning Pigeons In The Park.” Just a few words of the verse: “Spring is here…” were enough to bring voluble cheers from the audience. Artfully interweaving biographic notes with the songs, and his own quips and observations, Underwood, with the energetic, enthusiastic playing of Mlotek, spun out a love letter to the Master, who passed away at age 97 in July 2025.
Although Underwood had been introduced to Lehrer as a child by his parents, it was during the COVID-19 lockdown that he revisited the material and this show began to marinate. And then
in October 2022, Lehrer put all of his songs into the public domain, almost an omen to keep marinating. One of the ingredients of Lehrer fare is that the material is evergreen—the lyrics are as meaningful today as when written, giving the songs wide appeal. “Pollution” speaks for itself. War and nuclear proliferation… there’s “Who’s Next,” “So Long Mom” and “We Will All Go Together When We Go.” A new Pope? Long before Leo XIV there was “The Vatican Rag.” All of thes pithy numbers were cheekily, artfully and lovingly performed by Underwood.
Lehrer wrote about 37 songs in 20 years, from 1953 till the early 1970s, when he stopped to pursue a career in mathematics education. (He did write occasionally thereafter, but never again in formal performance.) The very first Lehrer song published, “Fight Fiercely, Harvard” was sung most genteelly by Underwood, underscoring the hilarious intent of the number as the antithesis of a rallying anthem for sport—befitting a toffy Ivy League institution. Lehrer’s songs also covered more than politics. In the department of love, there was the ironic “She’s My Girl” and the macabre “I Hold Your Hand in Mine,” which Underwood noted might be most loved by fans of Sweeney Todd.
A mathematician by training and preference, Lehrer’s material also encompassed science in general as well as his own area of study. Underwood performed 
“Lobachevsky” (an ode to 18th century Russian mathematician Nikolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky), channeling both Lehrer and Danny Kaye’s comic “Stanislavsky,” which inspired the Lehrer song. Probably the most popular of Lehrer tunes in any genre is “The Elements”—a listing of chemical elements to the tune of the “Major-General’s Song” from The Pirates of Penzance. As patter songs go, it’s a killer tongue-twister and Underwood performed it flawlessly.
Encore was one of Lehrer’s very first satires, “I Got It from Agnes” (1952) and his reputed last: “(I’m Spending) Hanukkah in Santa Monica” (1989), commissioned by Garrison Keillor for his radio show, American Radio Company of the Air, presented as a cheerful, uptempo sing-a-long. To better understand Lehrer’s appeal and how well Underwood captured the material, go to YouTube and note how brilliantly Lehrer performed his tunes, especially in his immaculate timing. Metaphorically, Underwood and Thank you Tom Lehrer embodied one of Lehrer’s sweet songs, “Sunshine:” “You can start in by holding your hand out/I’ll take it and show you it’s grand out.”
Thank You Tom Lehrer: A concert celebrating the wit and brilliance of legendary Satirist Tom Lehrer returns to City Winery on Monday, February 16. For tickets, click here.
