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By JOHN FLEMING
© St. Petersburg Times, published February 8, 2000
TAMPA -- Burton Lane was one of the great Broadway and Hollywood composers, but few people have heard of the man who wrote the melodies for How Are Things in Glocca Morra?, On a Clear Day You Can See Forever and Old Devil Moon.
I Hear Music!: Songs of Burton Lane, a revue receiving its premiere at Gorilla Theatre, puts Lane's irresistible music on display. Including more than 30 songs on which he collaborated with lyricists such as Alan Jay Lerner, Frank Loesser, E.Y. Harburg and Ira Gershwin, the show is an embarrassment of riches when it comes to catchy tunes.
However, a successful revue is more than one fine song after another, and co-conceivers Paul McKibbins and BT McNicholl, who directed, have not found the right conception to bring Lane's music to life. They try a variety of dramatic situations on for size, but the staging doesn't add up to a coherent whole.
The show begins with an homage to Edward Hopper's painting, Nighthawks, with the four cast members arrayed around a late-night diner. While one sings, the others freeze in place, like so many George Segal sculptures. Then there's a transition to what appears to be a therapist's office. Subsequent scenes include props ranging from life preservers (On the S.S. Bernard Cohn) to a ladder (If This Isn't Love).
Lane's music is wonderful, but it's impossible not to wonder why this show is being done. What's the slender thread of logic that holds it all together? What do McKibbins and McNicholl have to offer that illuminates the songwriter's art? These questions are not really answered in the two-hour show.
The casting doesn't help. Neither of the men -- Eric Grundy and Matthew Aibel -- is much of a singer. In some songs, such as Aibel's treatment of Come Back To Me, the lack of vocal talent is camouflaged by some goofy stage business, but straightforward crooning leaves the guys painfully exposed.
When the patter singing of pianist J. David Skouson and fellow band members starts to sound kind of interesting -- they chime in on Don't Let It Get You Down from their perch above the stage -- you know the actors' voices are weak.
The women are better. Monique L. Midgette has the biggest voice, a bluesy alto, heard to good effect in the torchy What Did I Have That I Don't Have? Becky Rosenbluth is a soprano ingenue in the sexy/sweet tradition, but she foundered on the inventive harmonics of Old Devil Moon.
Still, the show has some great musical moments, such as the ravishing four-part harmony of Look to the Rainbow.
I Hear Music! is being touted as bound for New York after its sojourn at Gorilla. That may explain why the show unfortunately omits one of Lane's bounciest tunes, Wait Till We're Sixty-Five, with Lerner's resourceful lyrics on retiring to Florida, including this hilarious rhyme of specifically local interest:
Safe from disaster
No one has to
Take care of Ma and Pa
All brown and rosy
Living cozy
Down there in Tampa, Fla.