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Broadway ballads sung with focused intensity in an intimate
cabaret can be overpowering, especially when the songs haven't
been heard a million times before. These are some of the
several pleasures to be found in Next Time Now!, a
revue of 16 songs by David Shire and Richard Maltby Jr., who
are -- next to Stephen Sondheim and William Finn -- the
best-known practitioners of smart, hyper-verbal theatrical
songwriting. Six of these tunes were cut from the short-lived
cult favorite Baby, four were written for Manhattan
Theatre Club's Urban Blight, the rest come from the
trunk. That they are literate and well-crafted is to be
expected; musical director Patrick Brady exercises
unexpectedly good taste by clothing them in gorgeous, simple
(one-piano) arrangements that bring out the sheer beauty of
(among other things) Maltby and Shire's fondness for nimble
vocal counterpoint. And director Steven Scott Smith has wisely
exacted performances from Brent Barrett, Michael Brian, and
Lynne Wintersteller that refrain from indulging in grotesque
dramatics inappropriate for a tiny room. Of the three, Brian
has the most impressive belting voice -- move over, Mandy
Patinkin! -- and Wintersteller is best at bringing a maturity
of experience to Maltby's lyrics, most notably in the
dazzlingly compact "Life Story." In its modest way, Next
Time Now! is the most satisfying trunk-song revue since
Craig Lucas and Norman Rene's Sondheim fest, Marry Me a
Little.
7 Days, February 8, 1989
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