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Richard Rodgers teamed with Lorenz Hart in the 1920s and 1930s, before Hart’s untimely death in 1943 and Rodgers’ later work with Oscar Hammerstein. This duo’s music is often equally as familiar to us, but much less connected to the Broadway musicals for which they wrote. Songs like “Isn’t it Romantic,” “The Lady is a Tramp,” “My Funny Valentine,” and “My Romance” have separated from their roots as features in a musical play and become “stand-alone” hits and jazz standards for some of the great singers of the 20th Century, like Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Doris Day, or Rosemary Clooney. Rodgers and Hart worked together on nearly thirty stage musicals, the most familiar of which to us now might be Pal Joey, Babes in Arms, or On Your Toes, but it is for the songs themselves, and the witty, ironic, often poignant lyrics of Lorenz Hart that their work is best remembered. When you attend My Romance: The Songs of Rodger and Hart at Quality Hill Playhouse, it will be hard for you to keep from humming along. Many of the favorites are here as well as some lesser known gems.

Director J. Kent Barnhart has assembled five accomplished performers for this show: singers Stephanie Laws, Jon Daugharthy, and Lauren Braton, as well as Brian Wilson on bass and Ken Remmert on drums. This is a lively, affecting, and emotionally diverse selection of songs delivered with extraordinary skill and sensitivity. Early highlights in the program included Barnhart’s take on “Mountain Greenery,” from the 1926 musical The Garrick Gaieties. Taken at a steadier and less exuberant pace than usual, it was sweet and gently humorous. The first set of songs also had several strong duets including Braton and Barnhart in “My Heart Stood Still,” and then Braton and Daugharthy in a witty “Thou Swell.”

Barnhart takes pride in presenting even well-known tunes in such a way as to reveal depths and colors not always understood. This skill was revealed with the help of Braton and Laws in a complex rendition of “Ten Cents a Dance,” performed with character development not usually seen in this piece. The first half of the program ended with several selections from On Your Toes, as well as a snappy doo-wop version of “Blue Moon,” with all four singers a cappella.

The second half of the program featured the most impressive performances from everyone on stage. Stephanie Laws, in her first outing on the Quality Hill Playhouse stage, was simply and utterly stunning in a rendition of “Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered” that drew from the audience long and sustained applause. Lauren Braton really sank her teeth into a juicy character piece called “Zip,” and Daugharthy gave a commanding performance of “The Lady is a Tramp” that also featured some electrifying playing from Wilson and Remmert as well as Barnhart on the piano.

There is something for everyone in this program, and it is a reminder of the intensity of emotion and power of these Rodgers and Hart tunes that have so deftly woven themselves into our cultural consciousness.

REVIEW:
Quality Hill Playhouse
My Romance: The Songs of Rodgers and Hart
Quality Hill Playhouse
303 W. 10th Street, Kansas City, MO
Runs through February 19 (reviewed Sunday, January 23, 2012)
For tickets, call 816-421-1700 or online at www.qualityhillplayhouse.com

Top Photo: Cast of Quality Hill Playhouse's My Romance

By Sarah Young

Classical and Musical Theatre Contributor

Sarah Young is a freelance writer and performer in opera, theatre, choral and musical theatre. She has been seen locally with Wichita Grand Opera, Kansas City Symphony Chorus, Kansas City Civic Opera, Lawrence Community Theatre, Chestnut Fine Arts Center and in other local venues.  She studied voice at the University of Kansas, and has been trained in artist programs at Indiana University, Aspen Opera Theatre and the American Institute of Musical Studies in Graz, Austria.