Music Review By Andrew Poretz . . .
Grammy and Oscar winner Howard Ashman wrote lyrics for many of the best songs of the modern Disney catalog for films like The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and Aladdin, as well as the off-Broadway show (and later film adaptation) Little Shop of Horrors before his untimely death in 1991, at age 40, from AIDS. The long-running Lyrics & Lyricists program at The 92nd Street Y honored Ashman with Tale as Old as Time: The Songs of Howard Ashman, which presented a marvelous evening of his songs, brought to life—or should we say live action—by a talented ensemble, with helpful introductions and slides. The songs were staged as if this were a jukebox musical, with much humor and physical comedy.
The excellent cast of Heather Ayers, John Cariani, Nadina Hassan, Manu Narayan and Khadija Sankoh presented songs from various aspects of Ashman’s career, predominantly featuring music composed by Ashman’s longtime writing partner, Alan Menken. (Songs by other composers are so indicated.)
The program opened with a whimsical “Be Our Guest” from Beauty and the Beast by the ensemble. Following some requisite biographical presentation came a a solo turn on “Prince Ali” from Aladdin by delightful performer, Nadina Hassan. Hassan has qualities not unlike a young Fanny Brice, and she delivers comedically as well as musically.
Heather Ayers’ “Poor Unfortunate Souls” from Little Mermaid had more of a dark, Weimar cabaret vibe that worked perfectly for this Kurt Weill-like material.
It’s not often you hear a song about a Bela Lugosi-like Muppet who can’t pronounce his W’s. In this case, the song never made it to air, but was one of this program’s highlights. The very funny “The Count’s Lament,” written for but cut from Sesame Street, featured John Cariani as Count von Count. His delivery was spot-on, with lines like “Vy can’t I say Double-U”?
No Ashford/Menken tribute is complete without songs from the off-Broadway staple (and acclaimed film) Little Shop of Horrors. “Mean Green Mother” featured Khadija Sankoh, now in green. She is lithe and athletic, at one point performing a split and a “Curly” dance. This version of the song contained Easter eggs, referencing an earlier version of the script. Cariani and Hassan sang a lovely duet on the somewhat de rigueur musical-theater staple “Suddenly Seymour.”
Happily, there were two songs from the “lost” Broadway show Smile (Marvin Hamlisch), which ran only 48 performances in 1986, and for which there was no cast album recorded. The title song featured Narayan and the company. “Disneyland” has taken on something of a life of its own. Hassan’s youthful appearance and voice (she conjured the teen angst of the young girl for whom Disneyland was calling. Though the show was a flop, this song led Ashman to California, and eventually to The Little Mermaid which began his successful run of Disney hits.
Sankoh nailed “Part of Your World” from The Little Mermaid like a young girl, singing on the stage floor. She nailed this big number, one which Ashman had to fight to keep in the film. The song, we were informed, set the new standard for Disney songs going forward. Ashman was diagnosed with AIDS just before receiving his Oscar for the film.
Narayan performed a poignant “Proud of Your Boy,” a song cut from the Aladdin film but later added to the Broadway show. Sitting on the edge of the stage, he sang, “I will try hard to make you proud of your boy.”
A marvelous surprise was showing “Wonderful Ways to Say No” from the 1990 animated “Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue.” The song featured many beloved cartoon characters from multiple studios making surreal cameos in this anti-drug short.
The cast became a vaudeville team with “Good of the Game” from Babe, featuring Cariani and Sankoh. This funny, song-and-dance number utilized fun props and even a baseball pitch signal.
Ashman, very aware of his decline from AIDS, wrote the tremendously moving “Sheridan Square” as a love letter to those losing friends and family to the insidious disease at a time when the diagnosis was a death sentence: “You’re the reason I wrote this song.”
The program concluded with the ensemble singing the title song from “Beauty and the Beast,” along with a beautiful, spoken tribute to Ashman, who died before the film was released. A brief snippet of Ashman singing was the capper to a most entertaining evening.
The show was co-written by producer Matt Kunkel and Zinzer Jay. The band consisted of Garret Healey on piano, Julie Pacheco on reeds, Matt Brown on guitar, Sarah Hewitt-Roth on cello, Alex Eckhardt on bass, and Eric Poland on percussion, under the music direction of Nate Patten.
Tale as Old as Time: The Songs of Howard Ashman was presented on October 28, 29 and 30 at the 92nd Street Y (1395 Lexington Avenue between 91st and 92nd Streets) www.92ny.org
Photos: Richard Termine
