KT Sullivan & Mark Nadler
Make Someone Happy
The Algonquin's Oak Room
One long-running creative partnership is giving tribute to another as KT Sullivan and Mark Nadler - who have presented musical salutes to songwriters Dorothy Fields, Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, Stephen Sondheim and others - now turn their spotlight-with-song on Betty Comden and Adolph Green. It was Comden and Green who created the lyrics and/or book for On The Town, Wonderful Town, Bells Are Ringing, Peter Pan and, for films, Singin' In The Rain, The Bandwagon, and more. In an imaginative departure from cabaret's customary march of miscellaneous numbers, Mark and KT have fashioned a fresh mini-musical of their own, borrowing from plots and dialogue of Comden and Green's own film scripts, then wittily weaving dialogue and songs into their new "production." Theater and film-goers will have added fun recognizing the sources.
Nevertheless, as is customary with KT and Mark, it's the music that makes the evening - their solos and duets, their medleys and harmonies, and their continuing surprising, sophisticated exchange of musical ideas, all delivered with their individual sweetness and sense of fun. Go.
Peter Haas
Cabaret Scenes
March 20, 2007
www.cabaretscenes.com