Linda Lavin: Love Notes at the Crazy Coqs, London
Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩
Billy Stritch: Cy Coleman Revisited at the Crazy Coqs, London.
Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
La crème de la crème from the New York cabaret scene were at the Crazy Coqs for the London debut of the great Linda Lavin, star of Broadway, Hollywood and television. In the good company of her best friend and musical director extraordinaire Billy Stritch, Lavin took us on a journey through her versatile career, most happy to be sharing her love of music and her sense of humour with the loving, packed audience.
Love was certainly in the air with her tongue in cheek selection, including ‘Nobody Else But Me’, ‘I’ve Got My Eyes On You’, and ‘I Wish I Were in Love Again’, followed by romantic ballads such as ‘I’m in Love Again’ and later in the evening the haunting ‘My Foolish Heart’.
There was also the humorous duet ‘Ace in the Hole’/‘Rap Tap On Wood’, ‘I Can’t Tell You Why/I Walk a Little Faster’ and the Stritch solo ‘You Fascinate Me So’.
Of course, it was also a thrill to see Lavin re-create her performance of ‘You’ve Got Possibilities’ (Charles Strouse/Lee Adams) from the musical It’s a Bird…It’s a Plane…It’s Superman, over a half of a century later. But throughout the evening jazz was the vibe, with a selection of upbeat numbers from the artist’s album Love Notes, such as the mash up of ‘It Don’t Mean a Thing’ with ‘I Got Rhythm’, enhanced by an excellent band with Tom Hubbard (bass), Daniel Glass (drums) and the amazing Aaron Weinstein showcasing his talent on the violin in a brilliant solo to Cole Porter’s ‘Just One of Those Things’. The theme from the TV series Alice, which propelled Lavin to worldwide fame was a fitting conclusion, with her recalling she once turned on a television in an Italy and was amazed to see herself speaking Italian!
The same duo of Hubbard and Glass on drums were used by Billy Stritch for Cy Coleman Revisited, a show of great pleasure and wonderful discovery, in which the artist performed some unreleased and uncut material that his songwriter friend had passed down to him.
With an impressive catalogue of work, deserving his place alongside Stephen Sondheim, Jerry Herman and Kander and Ebb, Cy Coleman had a long and prolific career, not only on Broadway with over a dozen musicals, but also as jazz pianist and singer.
Perhaps his lack of fame among the general public has to do with the fact that he’s more versatile than the three aforementioned, who always had a distinct, recognisable style. One could never guess that City of Angels (the jazziest musical ever), On the 20th Century (quasi operetta) and Barnum (19th century circus music) were written by the same composer.
Starting with material not from musicals, such as the real standards ‘The Best is Yet to Come’, ‘Why Try to Change Me Now’, ‘When in Rome’ and ‘Witchcraft’ – made famous by Sinatra – Stritch moved on to perhaps Coleman’s masterpiece, City of Angels, with a breathtaking rendition of ‘Every Breath I Take’ (lyrics by David Zippel).
A hilarious comedy number followed, ‘The Laarge Daark Aardvark Song’, then came a trio of ballads, including ‘Let Me Down Easy’ and ’I’ll Be Coming Back’.
The packed star-studded audience was then delighted by a medley from Coleman’s most famous musical Sweet Charity, though it was disappointing that there was no selection from Seesaw, a less successful musical that nonetheless contains so many gems, like ‘Nobody Does It Like Me’ and ‘It’s Not Where You Start’.
Stritch’s personal favourite, ‘It Amazes Me’, with lyrics by Carolyn Leigh, followed along with the two closing numbers from the underrated musical Little Me, ‘I Wanna Be Yours’, written for the revival, and ‘I’ve Got Your Number’, the only musical number performed on TV by Rudolf Nureyev (in Julie Andrews’ Invitation to Dance in 1980) choreographed by Bob Fosse.
‘Use What You Got’ from The Life, Coleman’s last musical on Broadway about the pre-Disney gritty Time Square milieu in the 1970s, was a perfect encore since he actually recorded this song in the concept album of the musical with his friend Liza Minnelli.
Throughout this magical evening, Stritch talked about the music soirées he used to go to at Minnelli’s New York apartment, where they would eat Kentucky Fried Chicken amongst the likes of Tony Bennett and Coleman. He spoke about collecting Coleman’s songs in sheet music made just for him. Every tribute of the night reflected those friendships: how much Stritch has learned from and loved them, proving that in music, friendship is the best teacher and the greatest gift.
We sure can’t wait for a recording of Billy Stritch’s Cy Coleman selection, the next best thing after having experienced these magic moments live at the Crazy Coqs.
Patrick Honoré
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