Marin Mazzie & Jason Danieley: Opposite You

Any show that starts with a seventeen-song medley is playing for big stakes. Most of the time that kind of opening is either going to win the audience over or leave them dazed and confused. Marin Mazzie and Jason Danieley somehow managed to do both in Opposite You at Feinstein’s at the Loews Regency. The exhausting medley never fully landed as a comedy bit nor impressed with its brilliance, but the two stars were so committed and sounded so swell that one couldn’t help but wonder where they would go from there.

Although still prone to dip into the medley quicksand during the course of their show, the long-married stars steadied their ship with some sharp duets and stunning solo turns, before ending with the dynamic “Sondheim Suite” — five full songs from the master’s shows which tell its own story with a romantic start, heartbreaking middle, and hopeful end.

They also get a lot of mileage out of standards like Cole Porter’s “Let’s Do It” and Kander & Ebb’s “Ring Them Bells,” which are nicely balanced against newer, less-well-known songs such as “Sorta Love Song” by Scott Burkell & Paul Loesel and “Nellie the Nudist Queen” by Stuart Ross and Joe Sargeant. This last song, besides being a clever piece of whimsy, also featured some exciting tight harmonies by Mazzie and Danieley.

Danieley’s charm and Mazzie’s extraordinary voice remain the tentpoles of this act, which was first developed some years back. And while it has lost a bit of its spontaneity and freshness over the years, it has gained some needed polish, and even the occasional sheen of perfection.