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Craig RubanoSan Francisco Bay Times by Gene Price December 4, 2003 Craig Rubano, a class act A terrific voice. Charisma to spare. A delightful raconteur. Impeccable musical taste and vocal phrasing. Unassuming nice guy. They all apply to Craig Rubano whose sweet, clarion baritone is currently thrilling Plush Room audiences through this coming Sunday. In Finishing the Act, a cleverly conceived and beautifully balanced program of show tune standards and a few obscure Broadway gems, Rubano has assembled a unique cabaret show of Act One finales. The young singer exudes genuine warmth that blessedly lacks the often over-polished, patronizing veneer of more seasoned performers. Not that Rubano hasn't paid his dues. He sang Marius in the Broadway production of Les Miz for two years, played Zeppo Marx in the Goodspeed Opera's revival of Animal Crackers, and has performed internationally from Bangkok to Monte Carlo to Copenhagen and in concerts at such prestigious venues as Avery Fisher Hall and Carnegie Hall. His debut recording of Finishing the Act was named the 2001 MAC award-winning record of the year, and in 2002 he won the Back Stage Bistro Award and the MAC award for outstanding vocals. He graduated summa cum laude from Yale and earned a Master's degree from Columbia. With Barry Lloyd at the piano, Rubano's Finishing the Act avoids Broadway's big "eleven o'clock" numbers and explores the intriguing, plot-defining pre-intermission numbers. He admits to a near epiphany when he first heard the Mother Superior's "Climb Every Mountain" from The Sound of Music, and pays tribute to that memory with a subtly personal treatment of Hammerstein's lyrics. He delivers a bilingual, sensitive, and less pompous version of "The Impossible Dream" than we are used to hearing. His "Anything Goes" was innocently suggestive, "Sexually Free" from I Love My Wife, was a bit of whimsical exuberance, and the intertwining of "One Day More" with "Empty Chairs at Empty Tables" from Les Miz was eloquently understated. Perhaps the most rewarding numbers of the evening were a reprise of such seldom-heard gems as Sondheim's "Sunday," the introspective heartbreaker "There's always One You Can't Forget" from the 1983 flop Dance a Little Closer, the soaring revelation of Pipe Dream's "All at Once You Love Her" (in duet with Barry Lloyd), and from William Finn's Falsettos the poignant "Father to Son." In homage to the Great White Way, he merged "Give My Regards to Broadway" with "Welcome to the Theater," Lauren Bacall's first act closer from Applause. Such don't miss evenings of truly pleasurable discovery are few and far between. | ||
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