A chill was in the air but warmth was in our hearts as we ventured into Etc Etc for this week’s Salon. The evening was kicked off with our fabulous co-host, Rosemary Loar, fantastic Broadway singer and innovative songwriter. The first song she brought to us was, “One of A Kind” from holiday classic “The Grinch Who Stole Christmas” - a show that was created in my hometown of San Diego (and the home of Dr Seuss himself!) A production has, since, run on Broadway and toured around the country with Rosemary playing the hilarious role of Grandma Who. We were thrilled to hear the song premiered here at The Salon!
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| Co-Host Rosemary Loar |
Elaine St George, our first Salon guest, said that she wanted to sing her song for two reasons: namely, because she’d wanted to learn it for some time, but also because it contains the word “one”… a lot (ha!) -- “This Nearly Was Mine” from the musical “South Pacific.” Louisa Poster (one of a kind, herself) brought in the perfect, “Nobody Does It Like Me” from the musical “Seesaw.”
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| Louisa Poster |
Andy Gale, next week’s Salon co-host, came to the stage to sing the gorgeous, Bobby Gosh song, “As Long As She Will Stay.” Caroline Ferenczi brought in “Sweet Charity”’s delicious number, “Big Spender.” Rachael Hirsch, a budding student of Mark’s at Manhattan School of Music, was next with Jason Robert Brown’s, “Stars and the Moon.”
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| Rachael Hirsch |
Matthew Martin Ward accompanied himself (wonderfully, as usual) while singing the mashup, “It Never Was You /There Will Never Be Another You.” David Ballard completely charmed everyone (including our co-host, who feared she was becoming a cougar) with “What Do I Need With Love” from “Thoroughly Modern Millie.” Erin Cronican, (me!) took to the stage with “What Makes Me Love Him,” a song sung by Eve about Adam from “The Apple Tree.” We are so excited that Sierra Rein is finally back with us (and as tonight’s Etceterette!) Sierra sang the powerful, “Unusual Way” from the Maury Yeston musical, “Nine.” Sierra is a part of the vocal group, Marquee Five, who just put out their first CD. Copies of the CD are available at The Salon for only $15 - support your fellow musicians!
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| Sierra Rein |
“Rhapsody, by definition, means wandering in a fanciful way…” Mark Janas started Classical Corner by talking about The Salon’s origins. He was musical director on a show at the Algonquin’s Oak Room called, “The Talk of the Town.” One night after a show, Mark and the cast gathered in the lobby and started playing and singing at the piano, just for fun - sharing tunes and drinks in a warm and supportive environment. Out of that The Salon was born. On that night, Mark played Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” and has made that a Salon tradition ever since…. so Mark treated us to Gershwin’s amazing arrangement for solo piano. And now we're going to treat YOU - check out a recording of the performance on YouTube!
Second Set
Rosemary Loar came back to the stage with an amazingly eclectic 3 song set. She began with the aria, “Ain’t It A Pretty Night” from the Carlisle Floyd opera, “Susannah.” Next up was a simple and effective version of Sting’s, “Every Little Thing [He] Does is Magic.” The final song of the set was gorgeous pop ballad that Rosemary wrote, called, “Tears on the Table.”
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| Co-Host Rosemary Loar |
Rosemary is having a CD Release Party of her show, “Sting Stang Stung” with arrangements that, quote, “show off Sting’s great lyrics a little more than he does.” There will be two performances February 7 & 19th at The Metropolitan Room (CDs are available separately for those who are unable to attend.) I highly recommend the purchase - these songs are fantastic!
Tanya Moberly, The Salon’s fearless producer, brought us the all too real and heartfelt, “I Guess I’ll Miss The Man” from “Pippin” by Stephen Schwartz. We were so excited to have Joe Regan Jr join us, who sang the Johnny White song, “That’s Love, I Guess.” Joe Kolbow, a newbie to The Salon, sang the William Finn song, “I’d Rather Be Sailing.” Joe is Kevin McMullan’s neighbor (Salon regular) and met Mark at a recent party, and was excited to find out about this event. And WE are excited to find out about YOU, Joe!
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| Joe Kolbow |
Bill Zeffiro was next, with his sassy original tune, “Better Than Nothing.” We welcomed Matthew Martin Ward back to the piano, who played a Maurits Moskowski etude. It was lucky for us that Rachael Hirsch brought a book of music, because we got to hear a second song, the Gershwin classic, “Someone To Watch Over Me.” Louisa Poster was back, this time singing the lovely, “It Had To Be You.” Andy Gale came back for an encore with the lush and warm Johnny Mercer/Barry Manilow piece, “When October Goes.” In a 2nd appearance, Elaine St George brought us a jazzy version of “Somewhere Over The Rainbow.”
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| Elaine St George |
Caroline Ferenczi brought us another encore, with the song “This Can’t Be Love.” Erin Cronican was invited back and sang the Leonard Bernstein love song, “Somewhere.” Sierra Rein showed off her amazing soprano range with the darling Rodgers & Hammerstein song, “Mister Snow” from the musical, “Carousel.” And co-host Rosemary Loar closed our show with the honky tonk, up tempo tune, “Love Me Like a Man.”
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| Rosemary Loar |
NEXT WEEK: The optional theme for the evening is “Old Love, New Love, False Love, True Love.” Bring along any song that talks about having love or the absence of it (and not just romantic love. Be creative, folks!) We also welcome songs that are off-theme, and be sure to bring a second option, in case your song has already been reserved.) Our Co-Host will be the talented, Andy Gale. Andy is a veteran of such Broadway productions as RAGS, SIDE SHOW, and JANE EYRE. He has also done National Tours of CATS, LES MISERABLE and SECRET GARDEN. He is a Master Teacher, Coach and Director of Cabaret & Theatre. For more information, look for Andy on Facebook.
-Erin Cronican
Blogette for The Salon
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