What Cabaret Needs Now

By the time Patrick DeGennaro gets around to recalling accompanying the school chorus at the piano as they sang Burt Bacharach songs, he remembers thinking, “I just don't get it!” This revelation happened in the middle of his dynamic new show, 'The Burt Bacarach Songbook,” which wrapped up a run at the Metropolitan Room last weekend. He mentions this after singing one of the shows many highlights, a sincere “Whoever You Are I Love You.” That song, one of the most overlooked and beautiful from the Bacharach canon, is one of many high points in one of the single most commercially viable shows to pop up in a club in years.

In the case of Mr. DeGennaro, unlike his younger days spent in the auditorium at the piano, he clearly gets it just right now. The end result was a sterling performance by one who has been absent from the cabaret scene too long. His rangy pop tenor remains as passionate as when he made his cabaret debut at Don't Tell Mama in the late 80's and his energy level is high for this ambitious show that could easily find a life outside the intimate confines of a cabaret space.

Dressed casually in black, he seemed comfortable with the material and gave it his all. Fronting the pumped up band led by musical director/arranger Ian Herman, the show was punctuated with amusing anecdotes about Bacarach's life and his often schmaltzy melodies. While most of the hits are from his somewhat erratic collaboration with lyricist Hal David, he also wrote songs with Bob Hilliard, Carole Bayer Sager and Elvis Costello.

With Dionne Warwick as the catalyst for most of the mega hits, DeGennaro included mainstays like “I Say a Little Prayer,” “Windows of the World,” “Always Something There to remind Me” and “What the World Needs Now,”etc. By the end of the show, the audience was eating out of his hand and sighing and singing along as they recognized the opening bars of a familiar favorite.

Patrick DeGennaro is a refreshing force to be reckoned with in this show directed by Lina Koutrakos. Hopefully, this team will think outside the box and book the show into theatrical venues across the country where these familiar tunes will be even more appreciated than in the overly savvy New York arena where Sondheim wannabes churn out unmemorable ditties about angst and hysterically lethal lyrics with little heart. Like the songs or not, few people over the age of thirty, don't recall a Burt Bacharach hit song. Who doesn't know “Alfie?” (given an excellent treatment here.)

In the right managerial hands, this show can have a life as I mentioned earlier and hopefully, someone in the know will book one of the most exciting crowd pleasers to walk on by.

--John Hoglund

Patrick DeGennaro
The Bachrach Songbook