LAUREN KENNEDY in concert TONIGHT at Birdland!

[Caruso]

Posted: 11/5/07 at 10:31am

November 5 at 7pm
LAUREN KENNEDY IN CONCERT
Birdland, 315 West 44 Street, NYC

Her debut album, SONGS OF JASON ROBERT BROWN, created quite a splash among show music aficionados. Now Lauren Kennedy expands her vision to take on the newest crop of composers and lyricists shaping Broadway and popular song. HERE AND NOW (PS Classics) is a thrilling pop-infused collection with arrangements tailored to Lauren's dynamic delivery. Included on the cd (and in the Birdland concert) are songs by David Yazbek, Andrew Lippa, David Kirshenbaum, Georgia Stitt, Adam Guettel, Frank Wildhorn, Marcy & Zina, Jeff Blumenkrantz, Dan Lipton and Jason Robert Brown, among others. Lauren recently starred on Broadway as The Lady of the Lake in the Tony Award-winning Monty Python's Spamalot. She also appeared as Nellie Forbush in Trevor Nunn's Royal National Theatre production of South Pacific, as well as in the Broadway productions of Side Show, Sunset Boulevard and premieres of The Rhythm Club and White Christmas. She originated the role of Kathleen in Jason Robert Brown's The Last Five Years.

$25 cover, $10 food/drink minimum
Birdland - 212-581-3080

Birdland

[ashley0139]

Posted: 11/5/07 at 10:56am

Man, I wish I could be there. Hope there are lots of reviews!

[InfiniteTheaterFrenzy]

Posted: 11/5/07 at 11:51am

I'll be there!!

[commasplice]

Posted: 11/5/07 at 11:58am

Be sure to give us a full report!

[Caruso]

Posted: 11/5/07 at 2:10pm

Great! Come say hi!

Jim

[InfiniteTheaterFrenzy]

Posted: 11/5/07 at 10:25pm

The concert was absolutely phenomenal. Lauren Kennedy's Songs of Jason Robert Brown has been one of my favorite CDs since it first came out, and I've always loved her performances in shows. Also, I admire her championing of comparatively young musical theatre writers. In fact, the most fantastic performance of hers I had seen before tonight was her rendition of Losing Track of Time, the David Kirshenbaum song from Summer of '42, at a concert at Joe's Pub.

Her concert tonight at Birdland was essentially celebrating her new CD, Here and Now, and she sang almost all of the songs on it. Each song is by a fantastic musical theatre songwriter (or team) of the new generation. I was overjoyed when this was announced; Not that I don't enjoy musical theatre artists making solo CDs of varied material (Julia Murney's CD is a good mix), but I so prefer hearing magnificent theatre performers like Kennedy singing new musical theatre material.

She started off with Here I Am, the David Yazbek song from Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. Of course she sounded fierce, and the song was an appropriate lyric- ed opener to the night. (The Sherie Rene Scott connection continues.)

She sang Unanswered Question by David Kirshenbaum, a beautiful story song with great lyrics.

She sang a song from the show she was in, Rhythm Kings, by the Wedding Singer guys, Matthew Sklar and Chad Begeulin. The show got stalled on the road to Broadway a few years ago. When the title garnered applause, she remarked that those people must have seen the Rhythm Kings poster up in Shubert Alley--- where it was for one day. She rattled off casual jokes like this one all night and was altogether very funny. Sklar played piano for his wonderfully slithery Pretending That I'm Somebody Else.

Dan Lipton from Don't Quit Your Night Job also played for Lauren when she sang his song from the CD, You'll Want Me To Shine, where a mother echoes her child's thoughts. She said she was happy to be recording a song about a mother, since she is a mother, and she gave a shout- out to her 3 year old daughter. Dan and Lauren riffed that this was his first recorded song, and made some jokes about her being "his first".

There was a merry mood in the room, being that it was completely filled with seriously talented theatre professionals. A lot of the cast of Lone Star Love were there to cheer Lauren on, including three female cast members who backed Lauren up on Spread a Little Joy, the bouncy Andrew Lippa song. I am so glad this is on her CD- I heard him sing it in concert once, and it's fabulous. She mentioned that she was recording the CD while Lone Star Love was in rehearsals, and one day she asked the girls to come give some sass to the song. Robert Cuccioli was in the audience as well, and I think Dee Hoty was too. Made me very disappointed that we're not going to see these fantastic folks at the Belasco this season

Anyway, she sang a Georgia Stitt song called My Lifelong Love, and explained that Stitt wrote the song as an assignment when asked to write about her first love. The song was adorable and extremely well- acted, about falling in love with "the smartest boy in 6th grade", and then discovering her REAL true love. If you want to know what that is, you'll have to get the CD. (And Georgia Stitt's CD too, which is wonderful.)

Speaking of Stitt, there are also two Jason Robert Brown songs on the CD, In This Room (which Kennedy did not sing; I'm excited to hear it on the CD... I assumed she wanted to stick to one song per writer from her CD perhaps) and Mr. Hopalong Heartbreak, a sassy kick- ass "I'm leaving you" kind of song from Urban Cowboy. Lauren Kennedy made a joke about being one of the three people who saw Urban Cowboy and Jeff Blumenkrantz from the audience shouted that maybe she was just one of the three people that paid for it! I thought about telling them on the way out that I paid for it during it's pre- Broadway tryout in Florida but didn't get the chance to. Urban Cowboy did have it's redeeming features, among them the songs written by Jason Robert Brown and Jeff Blumenkrantz! Kennedy sounded energetic as all hell singing the song, and I'm so glad it's available on recording now. Now if only someone would record I Take It Back, Matt Cavenaugh's first act finale by JRB, that got cut out of town! But I digress.

Kennedy sang Easy, the Frank Wildhorn song from Waiting for the Moon, and pointed out that her co- star, Jarrod Emick was in the audience. He waved from the bar.

She gave a flattering intro to Marcy Heisler and Zina Goldrich, and then flew into their song, "Apathetic Man", which got a lot of laughs from the audience. Great cabaret number. And bravo for women songwriters on the CD! I saw Marcy Heisler there, cheering, but I don't know if Zina Goldrich was there. I saw them in concert a few years ago, and Lauren is right- they are both excellent performers in their own right.

She also sang the Adam Guettel song Through the Mountain, and commented that this was from Guettel's first show. Then she admitted that she didn't know if it was his first show or not. Then she said it was playing when she moved to New York, so it was HER first Guettel show and that's what counted! At one point, she also said that she was glad to see people there, because she had thought it might only be her husband (awesome Sunset Boulevard star Alan Campbell) and her parents!

Kennedy sang Just Not Now by Salzman and Cunningham, from I Love You Because. She mentioned that the PS Classics guys had really wanted her to include a song from this show, and that at first, she was like, no I really have all the songs I need. But then when she heard Just Not Now she was thrilled and wanted to include it because she felt it encompassed one of the main themes of the disc. It was the last song they recorded.

My favorite song of the night was the GORGEOUS delicate number that Lauren sang, with music by Jeff Blumenkrantz and lyrics by (well, poem by) Edna St. Vincent Millay. (Lauren called her Edna Vincent Millay, and asked Blumenkrantz if this was correct. He said, almost, and added the "St.". She admitted in a humorous way that she didn't finish college so she never read those poems! Oops!) Blumenkrantz and Kennedy sat together at the piano and I believe Kennedy began the song acapella. I believe the poem is entitled Recuerdo. The opening lines "We were very tired/ We were very merry/ We had gone back and forth all night on the ferry" were perfectly set to the most delicate, beautiful music. The song was so simple and yet so deeply layered. It was definitely my favorite moment of the night. At one point, I thought Lauren had tears in her eyes. The kicker is that this was the one song sung at the concert that is not on the CD. She sang it because she wanted to represent Jeff Blumenkrantz but was not actually ready to sing "I'm Free", the song of his she sings on the CD, live yet. She adequately explained that it's this legitimate, hugely orchestrated number on the CD, and made a joke about having to belt a high E for the last 30 bars of the song. Well, even though we don't get the amazing Blumenkrantz/ Millay song on the CD, at least we can look forward to hearing "I'm Free", which sounds amazing. Lauren shared that she first heard Victoria Clark singing it, and thought: I'm going to do that number on my CD! I have to! It will prove that I am legit! Can't wait to hear it.

As Lauren bowed after her "last number", I turned to the friend I was with and whispered that she would definitely do a Jason Robert Brown encore. I assumed she'd do In This Room, but she (without leaving the stage, in a funny nod to expected encores) scored high with I Can Do Better Than That. I adore the orchestration from her version of that song, and she belted it to the high heavens, using every bit of energy. I would've loved to see her Cathy. The room erupted in cheers after the song, and the audience clapped for so long, I almost thought there would be an ACTUAL encore.

It was a wonderful concert, and I can't wait to listen to the CD (which I ordered online from PS Classics--- please come soon!) I would definitely recommend this CD to anyone, especially anyone interested in amazing new generation of musical theatre writers. Seriously, the line- up of songwriters on this CD blows my mind. Lauren Kennedy blows my mind too! AMAZING!

Updated On: 11/5/07 at 10:25 PM

[ashley0139]

Posted: 11/5/07 at 10:38pm

Thanks for the AMAZING and detailed review. Makes me feel like I was there. I'll definitely be buying this cd.

Is there any way you could split your really really long paragraph into shorter paragraphs? It's really hard to read that way.

[InfiniteTheaterFrenzy]

Posted: 11/5/07 at 10:42pm

You're absolutely right. I went back and fixed it. I got a little bit overexcited thinking about how great the concert was and completely forgot to create paragraphs

[commasplice]

Posted: 11/5/07 at 11:07pm

Thank you so much for the great review!! Now I'm just ITCHING for my CD to come in the mail (it's on the way...let's go, USPS!).

And one itty bitty correction: the Sklar/Begeulin show she sang from is the Rhythm Club, not the Rhythm Kings (I love that score, even though I'm really not a fan of the Wedding Singer's score, and wish the show had gotten a chance to play in NY. Alas.)
Updated On: 11/5/07 at 11:07 PM