Theater News

A Girl Named Maria…and a Guy Named Ronan

From England to Ireland: The Siegels take in Maria Friedman at the Café Carlyle and Ronan Tynan at Feinstein’s.

Maria Friedman(Photo © Michael Portantiere)
Maria Friedman
(Photo © Michael Portantiere)

The West End’s Maria Friedman, winner of two Olivier Awards, made her New York City debut at the Café Carlyle this week in her one woman show, From London to New York. To give you an idea of how big a deal this is, both Stephen Sondheim and Barbara Cook hosted her opening night performance. If that doesn’t raise the expectation bar, what does?

Friedman is an accomplished musical theater actress. When she sings, it’s clear that she has considered the lyrics and she makes intelligent interpretive choices. The surprise is that her voice is not particularly dynamic; it’s a perfectly good voice but not exceptional. This would be less apparent if some of the key songs in her act weren’t so strongly associated with great(er) performances by American musical theater stars. For instance, Friedman does a bang-up job with her opening number, “I Happen to Like New York,” but Donna Murphy’s version is a real stunner. Friedman also offers a cute rendition of “Broadway Baby,” but it’s child’s play next to Bernadette Peters’s show-stopping take on the tune. (Another tribute to Sondheim comes in Friedman’s Follies medley, which she pulls off admirably.)

Friedman makes her best impression when she doesn’t leave herself open to comparison. For instance, she poignantly described a 1942 musical competition in the Vilna Ghetto that was won by a 12-year-old boy. His song, as translated from the Yiddish by Jeremy Sams, is called “In the Sky,” and Friedman gave it a heartbreaking a cappella rendition. She followed that with the simple statement “This is for the lucky ones” and then launched into “There’s a Boat That’s Leavin’ Soon for New York” from Porgy & Bess, a song about coming to New York with high hopes. The combination of tunes was inspired, and the performance was second to none.

Maria Friedman has the distinction of having two musical directors, Chris Walker and Michael Haslam, both of whom contribute much to her one-woman show. She continues at the Café Carlyle through October 11th.

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Ronan Tynan
Ronan Tynan

It’s one of music’s great mysteries: What does Irish heritage have to do with being a glorious tenor? The Irish may not exactly have cornered the market on tenors, but they at least have the trademark. These thoughts come to mind with the brief but triumphant return of Ronan Tynan to Feinstein’s at the Regency.

Tynan made his cabaret debut at Feinstein’s four years ago. His return engagement is notable for its musical variety, generosity (the show is almost 90 minutes long), and considerable charm. This fellow offers the whole package, complete with that ineffable Irish winning way. His inspirational back-story is that he has survived and flourished despite having lost his legs to illness as a young man; he walks on prosthetic limbs yet has gone on to become an award winning athlete, a doctor, an author, and a singer of some note. He has been profiled on any number of television shows.

There is no doubt that Tynan is a natural born entertainer. His operatic voice is rich in timbre but limited in reach and somewhat lacking in lung-power; still, he sounds wonderful overall, and his arrangements are designed to camouflage his vocal shortcomings. Besides, he only sings two short arias during the course of his act and they are accompanied by some of the funniest, most unusual stories you will ever hear about opera, including a self-deprecating tale about one of his prosthetic legs falling off and landing in the orchestra pit during a performance.

Tynan knows who he is and why people come to see him. His program is stocked with inspirational numbers like “One Voice” and “Man of La Mancha,” and he performs them with fire and feeling. When he turns to Irish music, he’s a six-foot-four leprechaun, putting over the roguish “Red Haired Mary” and a touching song called “The Old Man.”

As far as the audience at the performance we attended was concerned, Tynan could do no wrong. His patter is delightful and his musical selections are performed with a straightforward gusto. The show’s only flaw comes when he periodically turns the stage over to William Lewis, his musical director. Lewis has a lovely voice but he butchers songs like “Meadowlark” and “My Funny Valentine” by changing the lyrics. As the latter song says, “Don’t change a hair for me, not if you care for me.”

The most memorable aspect of the show is Tynan’s exuberant personality. A big, barrel-chested man with big ears, he jokes that he looks like the title character of Shrek and says that he considers himself perfect for the part if ever there’s a Broadway musical based on that animated movie. We say, give him the role! Tynan continues at Feinstein’s at the Regency through September 27.