"Great Songs," Great Singer, Not-So-Great Show

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                               There is a wonderful group on Facebook called Forgotten Musicals, in which every day, a concentrated core of men and women who have worked on and off Broadway in a variety of capacities, congregate to discuss mainstage musicals which time has passed by. These extremely savvy individuals would no doubt have absolutely adored Great Songs Seldom Heard, a recent offering by songstress Sandy Bainum at the Laurie Beechman Theatre, for its inclusion of material from such shows as Irving Berlin's Stars on Your Shoulder and Kicks by Tom Eyen and Alan Menken, not to mention the unproduced Sondheim flick Singing Out Loud. Unfortunately, although Bainum is a riveting entertainer whose blonde statuesque beauty is truly blinding, and who possesses a set of pipes that are equally staggering to the ear, there is so much wrong with this presentation, as to make it gravely disheartening. On the bright side, however, every single element will be imminently fixable once a proper director is employed therein.

Bainum is literally a living example of the Broadway Cinderella story; she went from popular local girl in Philadelphia to the chorus of David Merrick's 42nd Street in the very early 1980s, then sallied forth on the national tour in a more prominent role and was ultimately spotted by Senator Stewart Bainum, Jr., who promptly made her his wife and with whom he enjoys a marvelous marriage to this day. She has always kept a hand in entertainment, however, concertizing at such locales as the Kennedy Center and such staples of the DC theatre scene as the Signature (where she played Ellie in Show Boat) and in featured roles in Jason Robert Brown's Parade at Ford's Theatre. Last season, she cause quite the notable stir in her cabaret show Excuse My Dust, based on the writings of Dorothy Parker, which tore it up at Metropolitan Room (where it has returned at the time of this writing), so it seemed that Great Songs Seldom Heard would be a fantastic idea. 

Alas, the biggest obstacle here is that not every song employed is a great song, nor are any of them truly seldom heard; indeed, the average foray to a piano bar on any given weeknight will prove that at least seventy-five percent of the material is performed in regular rotation. Most puzzling is the inclusion of such numbers as "Can You Read My Mind?" coupled with "Somewhere Out There," Carly Simon's "Let the River Run" and a Dorothy Fields medley that features such chestnuts as "Big Spender," "I'm in the Mood for Love," "On the Sunny Side of the Street," "I Can't Give You Anything But Love" and "A Fine Romance." In addition, most likely because Bainum opted to do this show sans director, her patter is extremely wooden more often than not. And it seems borderline offensive when she sets up her delivery of "59th Street Bridge Song" with a seemingly-condescending backhand about the borough of Queens, considering that it was written by Paul Simon, one of the proudest sons in the history of that part of New York.

But, those caveats aside, her often-somnambulistic soprano belt and gloriously-rich lower tones are displayed gorgeously on "Extraordinary Machine" by Fiona Apple, "Sand" by Sondheim, and Gershwin's "By Strauss." And she at her finest when embodying the brilliance of original material, including "Apathetic Man" by Marcy Heisler and Zina Goldrich, or "If Life Was More Like a Musical" by David Friedman. Furthermore, Lanny Meyers is his usual divine self at the piano, and both Mary Ann McSweeney and Sue Evans, on bass and drums respectively, provide stellar instrumental support.

Ergo, Great Songs Seldom Heard will most certainly not emerge as Sandy Bainum's ticket to cabaret stardom in its present incarnation. However, enough raw material is there to allow this show to evolve into an evening that even the most anti-cabaret will want to visit and savor. Its potential, and most certainly the potential of its leading lady, are a breath of fresh air when everything blissfully goes as properly as it can. And when that does happen over the course of the hour, it is a joy to behold.