Bill Buell’s “Pure Imagintion” (arranged by Drew McVety) fell somewhere between yawning and sneering. Somehow, it was no longer hard to imagine what Buell’s Uncle Ernie must have been like. He was singing for us--with his tongue firmly set in cheek.
Even more creepy was the fact that this performance set the mood for the entire evening. It was going to be one of those nights--and it was.
“Floating City” was the idea of Sean McCourt and Drew McVety, who were both featured prominently in the evening. They finagled fellow songwriters Matthew Bennett and Brian d’Arcy James into lending some songs and assembled cast members (Clarke Thorell, Melissa Bell, and William Youmans) as well as Broadway vets (Cass Morgan) to perform their pieces.
The result was wholly satisfying--a mixture of comic and tragic pieces, spliced with bits of classical musing from McVety performed by the string quartet and band.
The highlights of the evening, interestingly, came one for each from the most represented songwriters--”What I Want Now” from McVety, “Four in the Morning” from McCourt, and “Firetruck” from Bennett.
McVety’s dark style of composing is somewhat Adam Guettel-esque as evidenced in the passionate, raw demand, “What I Want Now”, also performed by McVety. If this is from a musical, what I want now is to hear that show--if not, I want to hear more songs like this one. ASAP.
McCourt gave two quiet ballads, but the best was “Four in the Morning”, a poignant intimate moment, the kind of number that made you forget there were other people in the audience with you.
His “Red Wine And Nostalgia” was also nice--and revealed one of those things we never knew--not only does Clarke Thorell sound great on a full song, but he can also play the banjo.
Bennett’s sound was fun and with less sadness--both “Watz With Me” and “Desperate Love” were amusing and meant to let the audience laugh--first at Bennett’s attempt to get Julia to dance with him and next, at obsession--and a dark-glassed harmonica solo.
“Firetruck”, performed by Cass Morgan, was actually a deviation from this style--still hilarious as a woman imagines a firetruck driving through her living room, it was also instilled with the pain of lonely insanity.
James’ song, “Midland Dye”, chronicled the pollution of nature, body, and soul. Ernest political writing, it was one of the less interesting pieces (not an insult in this company)--one of the most handsomely sung, though, and featuring one of my favorite words in the line “the victims of sophistry”.
At the end of the evening, two songs had to be redone, including ”What I Want Now”. Let’s just say “the perfect cap off to the evening”.
Now we just have to sit back and await the CD.
“Floating City” was performed twice on June 28, 1998 at CB’s Gallery, New York City. The “Floating City” quartet included Melissa Bell, Brian d’Arcy James, Margueritte Shannon, and Tom Tucker. The band included Shannon Ford (drums), Dan Lipton(keyboards), and Marcie McGuigan (percussion). The string quartet included Anita Ayerbe (violin), Leenya Rideout (violin), James Jacobs (cello), and William Youmans (viola).