KCMETROPOLIS.org
Kansas City's Online Journal of the Performing Arts

There are a few things of which one can always be certain when attending a performance at Quality Hill Playhouse:  First: the performance will be crisp, clear, impeccably rehearsed and skillfully managed. Second: pianist, singer, director and raconteur Kent Barnhart will charm the socks off the audience and play the keyboard like a house afire. Third: the evening will be full of wonderful familiar standards from the American Songbook.  QHP's current showing:  "Lullaby of 42^nd Street-The Music of Harry Warren"-more than lives up to the standards Barnhart has set for the past fifteen years.

With Barnhart as vocalist and at the piano, Ken Remmert on drums, Steven Lenhert on the bass, and four other singers, "Lullaby of 42^nd Street" works its way through Warren's career as a song-a-day composer for Hollywood to his definition of the Broadway milieu with 42^nd Street.  All of the singers in this show are QHP veterans: Lauren Braton, Molly Hammer, Julie O'Rourke and James Wright. They each have a sensitivity to the '30s and '40s style appropriate for this music.  Remmert and Lenhert join Barnhart in providing a heart-thumping instrumental sound.

You have heard Harry Warren music all your life, but were probably hardly aware of him as a composer.  However, he composed over 800 songs and was bested only by Irving Berlin in the number of hits on Your Hit Parade.  You have heard his music in over three hundred films, on stage and even in Looney Tunes cartoons.  His film work is associated primarily with 1930s and 1940s Hollywood, especially early musicals where he was required to compose for Busby Berkeley's outrageously elaborate production numbers.  From "The Lady in the Tutti Frutti Hat" (composed for Carmen Miranda, of course) to "Serenade in Blue," Warren's music stretches from the ludicrous to the lyrical.

QHP's "Lullaby of 42^nd Street" is an old-fashioned night-club performance, with sets of songs introduced by Barnhart and then performed in medley.  The opening set begins with "I Got a Gal in Kalamazoo" and "I Found a Million Dollar Baby (In a Five and Ten Cent Store), featuring James Wright's smooth croon, so suited for the Warren songbook.  Through "You're my Everything," "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" and "(You May Not Be an Angel But) I'll String Along With You" the cast establishes themselves both as soloists and as a integrated group capable of intricate harmonies and blended sound.  At the piano, Barnhart is keyboardist extraordinaire, whose work celebrates the tradition of duet between pianists singers, especially needed in complicated jazz arrangements.

The selections before intermission are some of Warren's lighter moments: "You're Getting to Be a Habit with Me," "We're in the Money," "Young and Healthy," and a deliciously funny "Shuffle Off to Buffalo," ending with the eponymous "Lullaby of Broadway" and "42^nd Street."

The songs after intermission establish a different tone and showcase Warren's command of the jazz ballad and lyricist Al Dubin's memorable words.   Beginning with the really unfamiliar but absolutely lovely "Sweet Music" sung by Barnhart and followed by some of the most familiar Warren tunes, the singers have a chance to shine in meaty solo numbers.  James Wright mixes it up again with "Lulu's Back in Town" and then "I Only Have Eyes for You."  Lauren Braton hits a delicate, vulnerable sound with "September in the Rain," and Molly Hammer croons deliciously through "You'll Never Know."  (Lyrics in this case by Mack Gordon.) Julie O'Rourke literally slithers over the piano in her quirky, fun duet with Barnhart  "You're an Education," but delivers a sweet and lovely version of "There Will Never Be Another You."  "Lulu's Back in Town" also features Steve Lenhert's knock-out jazz arrangement for piano, bass, drum trio.

To Molly Hammer, however, falls the juiciest Warren tune:  "At Last."  She lets loose with a Blues sound in true Etta James style that leaves the audience breathless.

The Company shows off their jazz chops yet again in two upbeat arrangements of "On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe" and "Chattanooga Choo Choo."

This celebration of the music of Harry Warren continues until May 23^rd.  Do not lose the opportunity to indulge yourself in Quality Hill Playhouse's music and memories.  You'll be reminded how great is the depth and breadth of both Warren's music and Kansas City's musical talent.

REVIEW:
Quality Hill Playhouse
Lullaby of 42^nd Street
Runs April 23 through May 23 (Reviewed Sunday, May 3, 2010)
Quality Hill Playhouse
303 W. 10th Street, Kansas City, MO
For tickets call 816-421-1700 or online at www.qualityhillplayhouse.com

Cover photo: Lauren Braton, Molly Hammer, Julie O'Rourke and James Wright.

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.