UNSUNG COLE
Unsung Cole follows in a growing tradition. In the 70s, Ben Bagley’s revues and recordings reviving Porter proved you can treasure the musicals’ songs without keeping their books. Indeed, only Anything Goes and Kiss Me Kate are regularly revived, and Silk Stockings and Can-Can are better known as films than shows. The world has forgotten Hitchy-Koo, See America First, Leave It to Me, You Never Know, and Red Hot and Blue–at least until show-biz resuscitator John McGlinn decides to revive them.
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Originally produced in 1980 off-Broadway, Unsung Cole is set in a 1940s nightclub (the small stage at Kiku’s makes for an intimate setting indeed). Arranger Norman L. Berman assembled unpublished and little-known Porter songs, including rarities that were dropped during a run. Though it’s true that some unsung Cole beats a lot of the stuff that is sung, happily the revue also includes–and harmonically reexplores–classics like “From This Moment On” and “I’ve Got You Under My Skin.”
Gethman is one of six skilled troupers backed up by Susanna Kist’s nicely textured piano. Uninterrupted by narration or self-conscious, cute stage business, the 27 songs flow seamlessly from each other, with enough choreography added to occasionally let the rhythms take over from the voice. In “Still of the Night,” James Rank and Sharon Daw perform a careful but charming homage to Astaire and Rogers.
