CONCERT: JERRY HERMAN’S GIRLS
Last Sunday evening at the Tennessee Williams Theater Vincent Zito led a cast of eleven singers and a band of twenty-three musicians in “Jerry’s Girls,” a celebration of some of the best songs by former Key West resident and enduring local favorite Jerry Herman. The show was a much revised successor to a revue of the same name which opened almost thirty years ago. Three woman singers—Susan Speidel, Kristen Michelle, and Holly Logue—were out front, in a well designed mix-and-match program. All three are familiar to local audiences, having appeared in earlier Pops concerts or at the Waterfront Playhouse. The song list omitted, or alluded to only in orchestral selections, a few Herman favorites—“If He Walked Into My Life,” “It Only Takes a Moment,” and, surprisingly, “Hello, Dolly”—but the rest of it was of very high quality. The concert was a benefit for the Keys Chorale, the Emily Boyd Lowe music fund, and the Franko Richmond Scholarship fund.
After a well played overture, the concert proper opened with the entire cast delivering “Movies Were Movies,” a nostalgic look at the time when movies brought us Keystone Kops and heroines tied to railroad tracks.
Among the male singers, Bobby Nesbitt sang “Song on the Sand.” The dynamics were right, and there was an especial clarity in his diction. It was one of his best performances. One high point of the first set was J.B. McClendon’s singing of “A Little More Mascara.” The arrangement had a strong beat, and Mr. McClendon used that as the basis for dramatic phrasing, with accents all over the measure, so that the lyrics came across colloquially and clearly.
In the second set, Dean Walters and Holly Logue had a duet on “Shalom.” Both were in very good voice, so that the song came across strongly. Another high point was Nathan Gay and Chris Tanner singing and dancing “With You On My Arm,” a rendition which featured a truly wild looking headdress. Kyla Piscopink’s choreography, effective throughout, was especially expressive here. Eric Haley, in “I Won’t Send Roses,” caught the mixed feelings inherent in a refusal of the expression of romance which he knows his lover deserves.
But the evening really belonged to the women singers. Throughout the concert Kristen Michelle’s singing was emotionally strong: from heartfelt fury, in “Wherever He Ain’t,” to optimism at the thought of revived energy in “Before the Parade Passes By.” “Look What Happened to Mabel,” about the character’s rise from deli waitress to stardom, was also tellingly sung. Holly Logue, in addition to her duet on “Shalom,” caught the essential pathos in two songs: “Time Heals Everything,” expressing the hope that she will be able to forget her lover, and “I Don’t Want to Know,” a refusal to give up pleasurable memories in a world gone flat.
Susan Speidel has been a locally popular performer for some time now, from her earlier appearances in Pops concerts. She can do a robust red-hot-mama turn, and in virtually everything she does she sings full bore, with intensity and conviction in every note. Commenting on one of her songs, a friend said she thought Ms. Speidel actually took over the direction, driving the orchestra with her phrasing. Her final number was “I Am What I Am,” the gay anthem: she simply belted it out, with the power of her singing building right up to the song’s end.
Vincent Zito’s conducting was, as always, crisp and authoritative. The orchestra played well throughout the evening. Herman wrote very emphatic rhythms—think Louis Armstrong on “Hello, Dolly”—which work very well for the musical stage, and this group handled them with precision and verve. There wasn’t a weak place anywhere, and the brass section, in which there were four local players, was especially strong. This might well become the regular orchestra for future concerts of this kind.
The concert’s apparent last number, predictably, was the Herman favorite “The Best of Times,” sung by the whole cast. When the song ended, and the audience rose for a standing ovation, they recognized the season by breaking out into “I Need A Little Christmas.” It was a brilliant way to end an enjoyable evening.
Jerry Herman came from the generation in the Broadway musical theater after Gershwin, Cole Porter, and Jerome Kern. He was both composer and lyricist for many musical comedies, three of which, Mame, Hello, Dolly, and La Cage aux Folles, ran for more than 1500 performances. The latter two won Tony Awards. He himself received a Tony for Lifetime achievement, and three years ago he was the recipient of Kennedy Center Honors. Several of his songs have become standards; most of these were sung at Sunday’s concert. He lived in Key West part of the time in the 1980’s and 1990’s, and he has left his mark locally in another way: he has an avocation for restoring houses, among which are two houses on Fleming Street across from the library, and he also had an estate on Sugarloaf Key.
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