By Robert Burke Warren Not many musicians can unseat a diva, much less an entire evening of divas, but TriArts Sharon Playhouse artistic director John Simpkins says composer George Gershwin is the man for the job. The venerable Sharon, Connecticut theater usually opens its summer season with an all-female revue — Divas Do Broadway!, Divas Do The 60s!, Divas Do Hollywood! — but, on June 7-9, Simpkins, musical director Eric Kang, an eight-piece band, and a sizable company culled from area talent — men, women, and youngsters — will present The Way You Wear Your Hat: The Music of George Gershwin.
“We’re redefining the idea of the ‘Divas’ show," says Off-Broadway vet Simpkins, “but it’s still a delivery mechanism for all of the talented folks in our area. We’re looking for a different frame than ‘come look at all these awesome ladies!’ In The Way You Wear Your Hat, the cast, which ranges from a 7-year-old boy to an 82-year-old man, can wrap their talents around something larger. When we investigated composers, I put Gershwin on the table because he’s the best. Having only Gershwin makes it less of a variety show and more of a classy revue. And Gershwin is timeless and accessible." Indeed, just last year, The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess lit up Broadway, garnering two 2012 Tony Awards — Best Revival, and Best Actress for Audra McDonald — leaving critics and audiences breathless, stirring up controversy, and making McDonald a superstar. (It closed in September.) “George Gershwin’s songs helped define what it means to be an American," Simpkins says of the man born Jacob Gershvin to Russian-Jewish immigrants in Brooklyn in 1898. “Better than any of those wonderful Tin Pan Alley folks, he captured a unique musical sensibility. And when other composers were scared of African-American music, he embraced it, and helped that along."
In addition to “Summertime" from Porgy and Bess, Gershwin, with the help of equally brilliant lyricists (most often his brother, Ira) gave the world “Embraceable You," “Someone To Watch Over Me," “Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off," “They Can’t Take That Away From Me," “I’ve Got Rhythm," and “’S Wonderful," to name but a few. The Way You Wear Your Hat features these, as well as selections from Gershwin’s highly original orchestral work, i.e. Rhapsody in Blue and An American In Paris, all of which musical director Eric Kang is scoring from scratch.
Amazingly, Gershwin, immortalized by Alan Alda’s father Robert in the 1945 biopic Rhapsody In Blue (left), only lived to the age of thirty-eight, felled by a brain tumor in 1937 just as he was moving away from songwriting, scoring, and musical theater — his métiers — to concentrate on classical composition. “What he could have done," says Simpkins wistfully. “We think of him as Tin Pan Alley, musical theater, a little opera, and a little classical. I think he would’ve become a classical guy, and influenced classical music in a way no American has been able to do." On a positive note, Simpkins, who works with new musicals in Manhattan, says that, despite (or perhaps because of) dire economic futures for musical theater, a new golden age of song is upon us. “It’s fascinating to see what’s coming back around the horn," he says. “I think we’re in a Tin Pan Alley part two. It’s partly based on economics, because no one can get their shows produced. So while composers are working on their shows, they’re writing a bunch of songs and playing cabaret rooms like Gershwin did, as a way of getting producers to recognize them. (The bad economy) forces newcomers to write song after song after song, so a lot of them even have a catalog at a very young age, and that reminds me of Tin Pan Alley." Who knows? Perhaps a budding composer will attend The Way You Wear Your Hat at TriArts Sharon Playhouse, and be inspired to “go Gershwin," blending African-American, European, classical, jazz, and folk idioms into a potent style of distinctly American art. Perhaps he or she will sit beside you, humming along. The Way You Wear Your Hat: The Music of George GershwinTriArts Sharon Playhouse49 Amenia Road, Sharon, Ct. Friday, June 7, & Saturday, June 8, at 8 p.m. Sunday, June 9, at 5 p.m.
