Layne Littlepage offers delightfully enjoyable love letter to local audiences
Reviewed by Natalie Plotkin
The delightfully enjoyable and richly professional duo of Layne Littlepage and Barney Hulse began the theatrical season of 2003 with a program on a subject close to most people's hearts. It couldn't help but appeal to us.
"Love, Layne Littlepage: An Evening Of Songs About Love" is a one-woman performance which is offered as a "love letter to local audiences."
Happily, though the composers and lyricists on the program are well known, the artist's choice of music to carry out her theme avoided the old familiar repertoire, bringing freshness and a sense of excitement and diversity to the evening's entertainment.
The Carl Cherry Center for the Arts has recently been renovated, making it a more comfortable yet elegant venue for intimate productions. The stage setting with its royal blue sequined draperies and gauzy white curtains and a few straight-backed tall chairs looked austerely classy and was a fine backdrop for this warm and charming presentation.
A "Love Medley," which included a few old friends like "You Are Love" and "What Is This Thing Called Love" managed to toss in a few bars of some operatic arias and made a tasty opening for this well chosen romp through the subject matter. But from there on, new territory was explored.
Littlepage was attired with uncharacteristic informality in a casual red shirt and black pants which left her free to move, dance, twirl and even get up on the piano for a hilarious performance of a most unusual and cleverly worked out transversal of "Fraught" by Marc Blitzstein. This was one of the outstanding numbers on the program, yet it is almost never performed (elsewhere).
Another gem was "One Hundred Easy Ways To Lose A Man" by Bernstein, Comden and Green. Littlepage's finely honed humorous delivery was memorable, always featuring the excellent diction she is noted for, thus making sure every wild idea could be easily appreciated.
There were also some serious song interpretations delivered thoughtfully and affectingly. "So Many Stars" by Sergio Mendez was most interesting. "I Wish It So" by Marc Blitzstein was a lovely lieder-like art song.
After the intermission, Littlepage changed her persona and became an elegantly attired night club singer, but one with an eclectic mix of music and a frothy sense of humor.
"Comes Love" was dramatic, "Let's Face The Music And Dance" was serious and weighty. But in contrast, three Sondheim selections, beginning with "You Could Drive A Person Crazy" addressed to a handsome male fashion dummy was outrageously funny and showed the opposite side of the coin of love.
"Buddy's Blues" was about mismatched personalities and "Not Getting Married Today" was performed with manic comedic details. It was a riotous tour de force.
Following this with Musetta's "Waltz Song" by Puccini displayed Littlepage's versatility, flexibility and a very well trained voice.
Barney Hulse was a superior accompanist throughout the evening. His precision, awareness and careful sensitivity in support of Littlepage's performance was a major contribution to the success of the evening.
This is a new kind of show for Littlepage, one where she is strictly her own artistic creation.
***
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