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Music Review | Lari White: A Little Bit Of Country, A Little Bit Of Dark DespairWhat can a Broadway country gospel singer bring to the lyrics of Billy Strayhorn, Stephen Sondheim and Lorenz Hart? Those are three of the super-urbane songwriters covered by Lari White in her new show, “Love Letters,” at the Oak Room of the Algonquin Hotel. The answer is a light touch. But that brings up another question: How light can it be before you don’t feel it at all? Ms. White, who appeared in the short-lived Broadway musical “Ring of Fire” and produced the Toby Keith album “White Trash With Money,” is a likable performer who despite her best efforts to do otherwise conveys a solid commitment to the sunny side of life. When she performed “Lush Life,” with appropriately distracted body language at Tuesday’s opening night show, her innate vocal buoyancy sabotaged the self-loathing and misery in the narration of a despairing alcoholic deep in her cups. The same goes for Mr. Sondheim. Tormented ambivalence, the theme of “Sorry/Grateful,” is not Ms. White’s thing. When she develops the same concept in a medley of “I Wish I Were in Love Again” wound tightly around “I’ll Never Fall in Love Again,” the intensifying conflict between two warring impulses is expressed in the lyrics but not in the voice. The same goes for another potentially nifty pairing: “Hooray for Love,” and “Down With Love,” which at least allows Ms. White’s pianist Don Rebic a moment to shine. Before the section devoted to ambivalence, the show is a Valentine’s Day special that interweaves epistolary songs like “Dear Friend” (from “She Loves Me”) with readings from flowery love letters penned by the likes of Dylan Thomas, George Bernard Shaw and Robert Browning. Because Ms. White doesn’t bear down heavily on the sentimentality, here the light touch serves her. The show’s best moment is its purest country song, “Box of Love Letters From Old Mexico,” in which a married man’s secret mistress muses sadly about the wife her lover has betrayed. Its worst moment is a carefree rendition of “Is That All There Is?” so devoid of subtext it leaves you wondering whether “Love Letters” is a show written for someone else and handed to Ms. White at the last minute. Lari White appears through March 1 at the Oak Room at the Algonquin Hotel, 59 West 44th Street, Manhattan; (212) 419-9331, algonquinhotel.com. Tag CloudExternal InformationAdditional InformationReligious Metal: Same Evil, Different Result...Music: Settling Old Scores by Beethoven... A Daunting Composition, Approached With Daring... Music: The Power of a Russian Birthright... Where Am I?News Main Page - Business - Music Review | Lari White: A Little Bit Of Country, A Little Bit Of Dark Despair |
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