SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

A Swell Party – A Celebration of the Life and Music of Cole Porter: Maria Friedman, Mary Carewe, Daniel Evans, Graham Bickley, Simon Green, David Firman (piano and music director), Jason Carr (piano and music director), Cadogan Hall, London, 6.8.2008 (BBr)

Cole Porter: Songs from Nymph Errant (1933), See America First (1916), Can Can (1953), Jubilee (1935), Fifty Million Frenchmen (1929), Red Hot and Blue (1936), Anything Goes (1934), The Gay Divorce (1932), Broadway Melody of 1940 (1939), Kiss Me Kate (1948), High Society (1956) and many more.


An evening with Cole Porter is an evening spent drinking vintage champagne and enjoying Beluga caviar. An evening with Cole Porter is an evening spent with some of the most intelligent and witty songs ever to grace the Broadway stage and the Hollywood screen.

This show, written by John Kane, and first seen in 1991, tells Porter’s life story illustrated through his songs. Simon Green took the part of Porter, and, although standing nearly a foot taller than the man himself, was quite credible in the role. He also occasionally came out of character and joined the company in performance. The “orchestra” consited of David Firman and Jason Carr playing two pianos in arrangements made, one assumes, by themselves because the programme made no mention of the arrangements, which were always true to Cole, baby, in their fashion. The singers wore microphones but the amplification was very discreet and unobtrusive.  However, on a couple of occasions the pianos were too loud and obliterated the singers.

How do you choose what to include in a show like this? From Porter’s hundreds of songs a mere handful have found their way into the two hours entertainment and, very sensibly, a  happy balance between well known and less well known songs was struck: towards the end, Daniel Evans sang I Gaze in Your Eyes – a most beautiful ballad, and an indisputable masterpiece, but shamefully unknown, to me at least.

Naturally, there were some well known numbers. A nice medley from Kiss Me Kate, included the rumbustious Brush Up Your Shakespeare for the men, and a medley from See America First – Porter's first show – included Bull Dog, the Yale football song. There was so much to enjoy in this show that it would be easy to simply list everything but I must mention a few real highlights.

Maria Friedman and Daniel Evans gave I Love Paris and You Don’t Know Paree (both from Can Can) in a relaxed manner – very restrained yet very exciting. Graham Bickley’s I’ve Got You Under My Skin (Born to Dance) was a lesson in how to deliver a complicated song as if it were the easiest thing in the world. Mary Carewe gave a powerful interpretation of My Heart Belongs to Daddy (Leave it to Me), which simply oozed sex and (non)availability.

Yes my heart belongs to Daddy,
So I simply couldn’t be bad.
Yes, my heart belongs to Daddy,
Da–da, da–da–da, da–da–da, dad!
So I want to warn you, laddie,
Tho’ I know you’re perfectly swell,
That my heart belongs to Daddy
'Cause my Daddy, he treats me so well.

To offer Love for Sale (The New Yorkers) as a male song was a stroke of genius. Evans played it low key, ballad–like, and brought out the tragedy of the streetwalkers lot. The arrangement of Begin the Beguine (Jubilee) was sheer brilliance. Using a bolero rhythm, transformed into four beats in the bar (naughty stuff), it became a big, almost operatic, scena. Evans was the supreme interpreter. The arrangements made us rethink some of these songs, treating them as ballads rather than the up-tempo numbers we know so well. Carewe gave a dreamy rendition of Night and Day (Gay Divorce) and the ensemble was superb in In the Still of the Night (Rosalie). Indeed, the ensemble work was very fine, the four voices working well together in consort. Green and Carewe joined forces for an heartbreaking interpretation of Ev’ry Time We Say Goodbye (Seven Lively Arts) left enigmatically incomplete for dramatic purposes and thus making it all the more poignant.

But how strange, the change, from major to minor

I’ve kept mention of the best for last. Graham Bickley’s magnificently understated Miss Otis Regrets was superb. He took his time as he told the story, deadpan, of the woman who cannot dine with us. Ever again.

And from under her velvet gown, She drew a gun and shot her lover down, Madam.

For me the highlight of the evening was Maria Friedman’s ecstatic, and in another context show–stopping, performance of I Happen to Like New York (The New Yorkers) – possibly my favourite Porter song. Starting quietly, giving us the information, pointing the Hackensack joke delightfully, then gradually building the tension and volume until her feelings were felt by all.

I happen to like New York, I happen to like this burg,  she sang,  and I can confidently report that this burg likes Cole Porter. To end, Well, did you Evah! (Du Barry was a Lady and High Society)

Have you heard it’s in the stars, Next July we collide with Mars? Well, did you evah! What a swell party this is.

And this was a real swell party. Cole Porter, You’re the Top!

Bob Briggs


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