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Regional Reviews: Phoenix What He Knew About Women: The Music of Cy Coleman
Also see Gil's reviews of Pippin, Oklahoma!, Charlotte's Web and Equivocation
With three women singing approximately two dozen of Coleman's songs, What He Knew About Women is an intimate revue that focuses on personal growth, relationships, love and romance (the title is a take-off on a song from City of Angels, "What You Don't Know About Women"). The focus on "women" is not only relevant because most of Coleman's shows dealt with strong female characters, but also because he worked with many successful female lyricists. He collaborated with Carolyn Leigh on the musicals Wild Cat and Little Me as well as the hit songs "Witchcraft" and "The Best is Yet to Come," and with Dorothy Fields, who provided the lyrics for Sweet Charity and the flop show Seesaw. Coleman also collaborated with Betty Comden, along with her writing partner Adolph Green, on On the Twentieth Century and The Will Rogers Follies. At Phoenix Theatre, Shana Bousard, Molly Lajoie and Debby Rosenthal gave grounded performances that not only focused on the words behind the lyrics but also on Coleman's music structure behind the songs. The three women formed a small but effective group more than able to deliver the approximately two dozen songs in solos, duets and some rousing trios. Music director Susan Braden, who skillfully played piano for the workshop, also provided some exquisite musical and vocal arrangements. There were no sets or costumes, which was fine—with Coleman's rich music you really don't need any extraneous material anyway, as the songs pretty much stand on their own. However, I did like the simple yet shimmering cocktail party ensembles worn by the women, all three in pants, which added a nice contemporary and empowering statement to the show, though I'm not sure if that was intentional. The evening began with an extended medley that featured some of Coleman's biggest songs, including "Big Spender" and "Hey, Look Me Over," which was nicely constructed and showed the varied types of music Coleman composed. There were several pairings of songs that were nicely done, including one that combined two songs from Little Me, "I've Got Your Number" and "Little Me," into a jazzy sequence and another that merged three Sweet Charity songs, "Baby, Dream Your Dream," "Where Am I Going?" and "There's Gotta Be Something Better Than This," into an effective story of the need to move on. "Hey Big Spender," "The Other Side of the Tracks" and "The Best Is Yet to Come" received splendid treatment that included some lovely overlapping vocal arrangements. Other highlights were well-delivered solos of "You Should See Yourself," "You Fascinate Me So" and two lesser known songs from The Will Rogers Follies , "My Unknown Someone" and "No Man Left for Me." Also, "We Had a Dream" from Coleman's last Broadway show, The Life, got a knock-out delivery. Another highlight was a solo piano piece that combined "Playboy Theme" and "Real Live Girl" from Little Me with narration from Braden that commented on Coleman's sophisticated musical abilities. A rousing "It's Not Where You Start" from Seesaw ended the show on an upbeat note. Quotes from famous people about women were used throughout the show along with comments about Coleman himself. These added a nice element and made the show more than just a revue of songs. At a talkback, the creative team spoke about future ideas for this revue and also asked the audience for feedback. The ideas mentioned included adding bass and drums to lend a jazz trio sound, making it more in line with Coleman's jazz background, as well as to possibly adding more songs to make the show run longer than the current 45 minutes. Both of those ideas are highly recommended, along with creating a clearer theme in order for the songs to land even better, and adding more humor, perhaps using some of Coleman's more comical numbers. I enjoyed What He Knew About Women: The Music of Cy Coleman, especially the use of some of his lesser known songs and the splendid vocal arrangements that many of the songs received. With just a few tweaks, some additional material, and a slightly more focused theme this could become an even better revue that pays tribute to a very skilled composer. What He Knew About Women: The Music of Cy Coleman ran March 7th and 8th at the Phoenix Theatre at 100 E. McDowell Road in Phoenix. Tickets for other Phoenix Theatre productions can be purchased at phoenixtheatre.com or by calling (602) 254-2151 Directed by and Conceptualized by Kathleen Conry Cast:
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