Musical Theater Heritage steps out with Cole Porter
Musical Theater Heritage goes rogue with its latest show, veering away from its usual semi-staged, line-of-mics platform into what looks like a jazz club — or, perhaps, a penthouse — with sofas and lamps, and musicians in view. We feel like part of the party as cast members sing, dance, carouse and converse their way through An Evening With Cole Porter, George Harter’s joyful two-hour immersion course in the life of the famous composer.
MTH executive director and founder Harter has a way with teaching that never feels like a lesson, and his script weaves anecdotes and biography with musical performances. He’s had practice. His syndicated radio show, A Night on the Town, broadcasts to 82 stations in the United States and Canada and is heard locally on Kansas Public Radio. Here, with a talented cast and band, he delves into the Porter archive to reanimate a musical genius whose era has passed but whose music is deathless.
With witty and sophisticated lyrics, Porter’s compositions, many written for Broadway and Hollywood — he’s best-known for Fifty Million Frenchmen, Anything Goes and Kiss Me, Kate — have been covered by Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Diana Krall, Sheryl Crow and Elvis Costello, among others. While Porter competitor Oscar Hammerstein II is said to have been uninterested in rich people in penthouses, the wealthy Porter paints that world — his world — from the inside out, incorporating classical, European and North African influences.
Directed and choreographed with energy and verve by Steven Eubank, An Evening (especially Act 2) feels like an intimate gathering that gets a bit rowdy at times. Cast members Josh Atkins, Lauren Braton, Tyler Eisenreich, Ben Gulley, Elise Poehling, Shon Ruffin and Licia Watson appear to enjoy themselves and one another in successive standout performances. They launch An Evening with the animated tap-dancing of “Anything Goes,” followed by the beautifully sung, jazzy and moving love tunes “What Is This Thing Called Love” (sung by Ruffin) and “Night and Day” (Gulley). Different accounts of the latter song’s inspiration — with its novel rhythms and harmony — attribute Moorish architecture or the chants of Islamic prayer. An operatic tenor, Gulley moderates his powerful voice in keeping with the Porter songbook. Accompanying on reeds, Matt Baldwin impresses on clarinet and sax and flute.
Musical director and pianist Jeremy Watson plays no small part. In a rousing, crowd-pleasing “Friendship,” he and bassist Julie Danielson double up, sharing the singing and trading instruments. (Drummer Julian Goff also contributes good work.) Among many other memorable moments: “True Love” (Braton and Gulley), “You’ve Got That Thing” (Eisenreich and Poehling), “Let’s Do It” (ensemble), “Brush Up Your Shakespeare” (Eisenreich and Atkins) and a Kiss Me, Kate medley (ensemble). Eisenreich electrifies with acrobatic dance moves, and both Braton and Ruffin take turns atop the piano.
The preview I attended still had a few kinks — miscues, rough transitions and voices dropping out, mere distractions that will no doubt smooth out — and not all of Harter’s jokes work. But these are very minor critiques for An Evening so well spent with Porter, Harter and company.
