Playwright: Rodgers (music) and Hammerstein (lyrics). At: The Mercury Theater, 3745 N. Southport Ave. Tickets: 1-773-325-1700, www.mercurytheaterchicago.com; $25-$59. Runs through: March 10
"I can piss a melody," Richard Rodgers once remarked. Arrogant, perhaps, but more a statement of fact than a boast as Rodgers (1902-1979) proved in his illustrious Broadway and Hollywood composing career. He likely would have been successful even if paired with lesser lyricists than his first collaborator Lorenz Hart, then Oscar Hammerstein II. Radically different in temperament and style, Hart and Hammerstein were equally adept at stimulating Rodgers to work at his best. Also, the slightly-older Hammerstein (1895-1960) was recognized in his lifetime as a master theoretician of musical theater, whose innovations greatly advanced and expanded the form.
But to hell with all that. Rodgers and Hammerstein wrote great songs together and A Grand Night for Singing is a showcase for more than three dozen of them, mostly familiar to anyone acquainted with the Great American Songbook, with several lesser-known bonbons included. The songs are sung mostly with straight-forward elegance and crisp, clear diction by an engaging cast of three women and two men, backed by a wonderful six-piece orchestra (and it is an orchestra, not a band). A handful of tunes are given comic readings and a few others are jazzed up with close-harmony treatments or are given to a singer of the opposite sex from the song's original context. These changes generally refresh the familiar, although an eccentric rendering of "Shall We Dance?" is the show's only miscue.
Skillfully directed and choreographed ("Honey Bun" as a Charleston) by Kevin Bellie, A Grand Night for Singing is a lilting revue (partly because of Rodgers's fondness for 3/4 time) that focuses chiefly on R&H love songs, rather than novelty or character numbers or message songs (such as "Carefully Taught" from South Pacific). Fortunately, R&H recognized the nuances of love and they covered the waterfront. They especially excelled at songs of love lost or unrequited, and this revue features a good half-dozen, among them "Love Look Away," "We Kiss in the Shadows," "If I Loved You," "This Nearly Was Mine" and "The Gentleman is a Dope."
The last-named is one of the lesser-known bonbons, as the revue includes one or two numbers from each of the few R&H shows which were not giant hits: Me and Juliet, Pipe Dream and Allegro. One wishes there were more, although my personal wonderful tune discovery was "A Lovely Night" from Cinderella (originally a TV special).
The well-blended voices and nice smiles belong to Marya Grandy, Leah Morrow, Heather Townsend, Stephen Schellhardt and Michael Reckling (confidently subbing for an ailing Robert Hunt). Eugene Dizon is the reliably tasteful musical director and Elizabeth Doran is the personable conductor. Jason Epperson rendered the elegant night-clubish setting and lighting, and Mike Ross has provided subtle sound design.