Barbara Brussell

Cabaret Scenes (online )
Barbara Brussell

ALMOST LIKE BEING IN LOVE:
The Lyrics of Alan Jay Lerner


Danny's Skylight Room
by Peter Leavy             
October 8, 2004\]\


Barbara Brussell not only finds her métier with Almost Like Being In Love, she fashions a show with Alan Jay Lerner’s lyrics that is sure to hit lists of this year’s Ten Best. There is little doubt that presenting this show is a labor of love, one she shares with her audience as she weaves a tapestry of songs, biography, anecdotes and theater history that devotees of musical theater will relish as being as fascinating as it is charming.

Over four decades, Lerner collaborated with Broadway’s and filmdom’s finest composers. In addition to co-writer Frederick Loewe, with whom he crafted Brigadoon, Paint Your Wagon, Camelot, Gigi and, of course, My Fair Lady, Lerner also wrote with Burton Lane, Charles Strouse and Kurt Weill. Brussell has a voice as satisfying as a fine cello in a virtuoso’s hands, and with the backing of Patrick De Genaro’s excellent keyboarding, Lerner’s oeuvre of melodic and romantic songs is a treasure trove of perfect material for her. The show—and Brussell—is in turn poignant, informative, joyful and absorbing. In the course of the evening, she touches all the bases. Which is appropriate, because with Almost Like Being In Love, Barbara Brussell hits the cabaret ball right over the outfield fence.

Almost Like Being In Love is at Danny’s Skylight Room, Saturdays through November. 346  W. 46th ( bet 8/9th Aves.) Res: (212) 265-8133