by Mike Hoban
‘George M. Cohan 2019 Revue’ – Presented by American Classics. Performances: Friday, April 26, 2019 at 7:30pm, First Parish Church, 75 The Great Road, Bedford, Massachusetts; Sunday, April 28, 2019 at 3:00pm, Pickman Concert Hall, Longy School of Music, 27 Garden Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Bradford Conner and Ben Sears of American Classics have been entertaining audiences with their unique offerings for over 20 years. Part history lesson, part musical theatre revue, the shows take a deep dive into the American Songbook by featuring the works of influential individual composers as well as exploring broad themes and specific eras from the 20th century.The duo has been aided through the years by a bevy of Boston theater luminaries, including Leigh Barrett, Amelia Broome, Mary Callanan, Bob Jolly, Kerry Dowling, and Davron S. Monroe, as well as John O’Neil, Brian De Lorenzo, Tracey O’Farrell, and the song duo Valerie Anastasio & Tim Harbold.
This season has seen a focus on the period following World War I, beginning with an encore presentation of the first ever revival (in 2010) of Irving Berlin’s WWI Revue Yip! Yip! Yaphank!, and was followed by Songs from After the War, featuring numbers from 1919 through 1922 by Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern, George Gershwin and others. Theater Mirror caught up with Ben and Brad as they were preparing for their final show of the season, the George M. Cohan 2019 Revue.
TM: What’s the creative process like when you’re putting together these shows?
Brad: First we have the idea or theme, and begin the research process. Then we develop a general idea of what songs we’re going to do – prioritizing the songs that everybody knows – because when you’re doing the earlier eras, if it’s just a bunch of obscure material, nobody is going to show up. (Laughs). But while we’re the ones putting it together and figuring out the songs, and who sings what, what the ensembles are, and the order…the fact is that the creative process is not just about us – it’s really about the ensemble. We have had actors that come in with suggestions based on what they’d like to do based on the theme, so we take their ideas and our ideas and the creative process comes together between us and them. Because when you’re doing things like the Cohan revue, it’s about artistic collaboration on a grand scale.
TM: With all of the talent you typically bring in for the shows, how do you decide who to get and who gets to sing what?
Brad: The cast is determined by who would work best with the theme, and also who’s available, quite frankly. Once you get the cast together, you take a look at that big song list that you’ve created and then you say, “Oh. SHE would be perfect in this number and in this duet,” and then you tailor the show for the talent you have.
Ben: And with certain shows, we’ll ask people if they have repertoire from that time, because if they don’t have to learn something new and we don’t have to go digging through stacks of music to find something that works, it makes for a more comfortable experience for the performer. And we don’t think that’s cheating – we’re just playing what they do well. In the final analysis, we’re creating a show that sticks to the theme and tells you a lot about that theme – especially if you don’t know it, and I don’t think a lot of people know much about Cohan these days because he’s kind of gotten lost in the shuffle. And we try to make sure that the show is a blend of the theme and informing people and getting the best performances of the people that we put together.
TM: Who have you recruited for the Cohan revue and what can people expect?
Ben: What we did is we sat down and made a list of who would work with the material best. In addition to Brad and me, we’ve got Amelia Broome, Eric Bronner, Christina English, and Karen May, and we’ve got this fabulous pianist Steven Sussman to accompany us. (Brad is generally the accompanist for the show in addition to his other duties). So we knew before the season started that this was the only concert that Amelia (Broome) would be free for – which is fine because we knew this would be such good material for her – and we know that she can do anything anyway. We asked Christina what shows she was available for and she chose this one. Karen May, who was in our New York-themed concert and did “Broadway Baby” and just stopped the show, is perfect for this brassy Cohan material. And we know Eric’s work, and he’s just so versatile. He can be the champagne tenor and more importantly for this show, he can be the Irish tenor, particularly for a song like “Mary’s a Grand Old Name”.
TM: What can we expect in terms of selections?
Brad: Obviously, we’ll be doing the well-known gems like “Yankee Doodle Dandy”, “Give My Regards to Broadway”, “Harrigan” and “Over There” but there’s a bunch of other songs that people don’t know that we’ve mixed into it. I haven’t figured out how many songs the guy wrote, but it must easily be 500, because he was just churning out those musicals. For tickets and information, go to: http://americanclassicsmusic.org/
