The New York Times

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"A Grand Night for Singing: The Rodgers & Hammerstein Revue:"   This year marks the fiftieth anniversary of the collaboration between the two musical greats - it all began with the Broadway premiere of Oklahoma!, on March 31, 1943. Right now, their music is being celebrated at Rainbow & Stars by a cast of pros through April 10. 

By Richard Davis Story

The Rodgers and Hammerstein Revue, the sixth tribute to composers in the cabaret series at Rainbow and Stars, mercifully spares us "Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin'" and "Some Enchanted Evening," focusing instead on lesser-known works like the haunting "So Far" (from Allegro) and a series of delightful but seldom-heard gems from the TV version of Cinderella. It's a patchwork quilt affair, with a brassy bit from State Fair to a brightly refurbished "Gonna Wash That Man Right Out of My Hair," arranged for a trio as a rhythmic blues with torchy overtones. Fred Wells, who did all the original vocal arrangements and played piano for the Wiseguys, is a witty and accomplished musical director, and I like the fact that this show features fewer excerpts and more full-length versions of songs. It's also bracing to see Jason Graae, a staple cast member at these events, in a new light. He has developed a sturdy and reliable reputation as a clown with a big voice, but when he sings the gorgeous ballad "Love, Look Away" (from Flower Drum Song), he reveals new depths of insight and romantic lyrical intensity.

TUESDAY, MARCH 16, 1993

BY CLIVE BARNES

There is something terrific and unexpected at Rainbow & Stars - the Rodgers and Hammerstein revue, which they are calling "A Grand Night for Singing." And it is.

What is terrific is the choice of cast (five of the most talented. actor/singers in New York and all places to the East, West, North and South), and what is unexpected is the choice of material, presumably by musical director Fred Wells and director Walter Bobbie.

Now let me confess I have always regarded Rodgers and Hammerstein as Rodgers and Heart, with rather too much soppy heart and too little sharp Rodgers.

Thus I found "The Sound of Music" the sound of syrup; "The King and I" was not (loved Brynner) altogether for me; "Flower Drum Song" (Ken Tynan dubbed it "The World of Woozy Song") also left me with a different drummer, and I'm not sure that I couldn't even wash "South Pacific" right outta my hair if occasion demanded.

Fighting words, of course, and like most fighting words far from being entirely true. Not only was "Oklahoma!" the first musical I really fell in love with (and to), I adore inordinately bits of all those revered musicals, and Rodgers remains one of my all-time melodic heroes.

Still I am not among the first to roll out the red carpet for what is currently being boosted as the 50th anniversary of the Rodgers and Hammerstein partnership. It was OK, but I wouldn't let off fireworks.

But Rainbow & Stars disarmed me, surprised me and, for one evening at least, enchanted me. Perhaps just perhaps Messrs. Wells and Bobbie feel as I do about this material, that a little sugar (especially any saccharine-like substitute) goes a long way. Although the program does reveal some of Rodgers & Hammerstein's soft underbelly of romance, for the most time the show takes a brighter more acerbic view, showing Rodgers and Hammerstein in almost a Rodgers and Hart mood.

The cast is an enormous help with all of them there is a certain urban urbanity that eschews any possible sentimentality, and even distances itself from sentiment. A way to go.

They are helped by the choice of songs being often less than familiar (no beautiful mornings or enchanted evenings) including no fewer than five numbers from "Cinderella" (worth staging in New York one day, perhaps?) and even one from "Me and Juliet" and two from "Allegro."

And as for these performers who all, with Bobbie's inspired staging, act their hearts out to super effect - they are delightful.

Victoria Clark provides comedic flair and a wondrous way with a song, Lynne Wintersteller (she'd be a star in summer, too) seems grace personified, and Karen Ziemba, with her pixie face and piquant style would be a show in herself.

As for the men, Martin Vidnovic is one of those so rare leading men who demonstrates how you can stuff a shirt with passion, while the irrepressible Jason Graae once again shows himself to be in the royal line of Broadway comics.

So... a grand night for singing, and, at least for me, a surprisingly grand night for Rodgers & Hammerstein. But - just between us - don't you agree that, despite "Ol' Man River," Oscar Hammerstein II was one of the luckiest men in the history of the Broadway musical? Don't worry if you don't  it's very much a minority view.

Rainbow & Stars, 30 Rockefeller Plaza, 65th floor, (212) 632-5000; Tuesdays-Saturdays, through April 10.

TUESDAY 22, 1993

"...A Grand Night for Singing!, at Rainbow & Stars, is the best thing of its kind in a long time..."

A Grand Night for Singing!, the Rodgers and Hammerstein revue at Rainbow & Stars, is the best thing of its kind I've seen there or elsewhere in a long time. The songs are mostly well chosen, though there are too many from the TV Cinderella and none from the fine Pipe Dream, which deserves at least two. Previously, there have been awkwardnesses in fitting such a revue into the stunning but cramped space; Walter Bobbie, the new director, has neatly solved the problem by deploying the cast not in a straight line but in a semicircle, and having them change positions. A small thing, but someone had to think of it.

Furthermore, the excellent Bobbie (you can see him in Guys and Dolls) has pared down the band to the nifty piano of Fred Wells and the vibrant cello of Roberta Cooper, thus clearing a bit of space for dancing. Especially wise was the elimination of a drummer and bass player with their exorbitant territorial imperatives, though I would have added an unassuming reed player to flesh out the sound.

America must be doing something right to have produced at one time two such singers, artists, women as Karen Ziemba and Lynne Wintersteller. Miss Ziemba, a dancer, can only adumbrate this in the still limited space, but she choreographs, sings, acts, lives her numbers to send heat waves as well as chills up and down your spine. She is the ultimate pert soubrette, the girl-woman at her mischievously sexy best. Note merely what she can do with her hands: Each finger engages you in a discourse of its own. But every part of her emotes. teases, vamps, or, in a number such as "The Gentleman Is a Dope," breaks your heart.

Miss Wintersteller is the long-stemmed American Beauty rose, a woman of subtle yet overpowering allure whose aristocratic sensuality lightly wraps itself around a song and you, and never lets go of either. Her singing, her loveliness are a limpid mountain pool to Miss Ziemba's lava: you can drown equally happily in either of them. The third female singer is a comedienne, Victoria Clark, and her robust voice is cogently displayed. But I wish she would put her face to droller use - think of Kaye Ballard or Faith Prince (whom she stands by for in Guys and Dolls); then she, too, will have it all.

The men? Martin Vidnovic - virile, sensitive, yet not oversmooth à la Robert Goulet - has a commanding personality and goes from an opulent, velvety baritone to a soul-wringing head voice, from throbbing full-throatedness to fragile pianissimos with every kind of skill, not excluding a nice sense of humor. But the undoubted master of humorous song is Jason Graae, who sings, moves, and mugs his way to definitive renditions, exuberant in support, not at the expense, of his material. And when he delivers a ballad such as "Love, Look Away," he can also be very moving. My only quarrel with the show is that it is too short; it leaves you begging for more.

As the 50th Anniversary of Rodgers & Hammerstein's musical theatre collaboration gathers steam this month, the only Rodgers & Hammerstein show actually in town is A GRAND NIGHT FOR SINGING: THE RODGERS & HAMMERSTEIN REVUE at Rainbow & Stars, the cabaret high above Rockefeller Center. In it, five singers in fine voice run through an eclectic selection of the team's catalogue.  There is no "Some Enchanted Evening," "People Will Say We're in Love," or "Climb Ev'ry Mountain," but there are such relative rarities as "So Far" and "The Gentleman is a Dope" from ALLEGRO, "It's Me" from ME AND JULIET, "Love Look Away" from FLOWER DRUM SONG and "When You're Driving Through the Moonlight" from CINDERELLA.

The choices are invigorating, and so often is their presentation, which tries to separate the songs from the characters in the musicals, even to the point of switching the gender of the singer, as when Martin Vidnovic sings "Honeybun" or turning "I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair" into a feminist trio. Presumably these smart ideas come from the director, Walter Bobbie, who, until now, has been best known for playing Nicely- Nicely Johnson in the current GUYS AND DOLLS. Mr. Bobbie has not always succeeded in curtailing the cloying, winsome, black-tie bon homie that, for me, is the bane of cabaret entertainments. But this is a small drawback next to the wit and vocal prowess of Mr. Vidnovic, Jason Graae, Victoria Clark, Lynn Wintersteller and that dazzling all-around musical comedy performer, Karen Ziemba.

A GRAND NIGHT FOR SINGING is popping up in bits and pieces all over television as the Rodgers & Hammerstein 50th is being toasted. It can be seen in the flesh at Rainbow & Stars through April 10th.

This is Frank Rich of The New York Times.

Cast is accomplished, but show lacks romance

By HOWARD KISSEL Daily News Drama Critic

NOTHING COULD BE more auspicious for a revue of Rodgers and Hammerstein songs than the fact that the accompaniment consists of just a piano and a cello, that most rhapsodic of stringed instruments. What better way to back up the full-throated sentiment of Hammerstein's lyrics and Rodgers' surging melodies?

This astute thinking is balanced, however, by the tendency of all the revues of Broadway composers that have appeared at Rainbow & Stars over the last few years to undercut romance. to opt for comedy rather than simple, direct emotion.

This tendency is apparent even in the selection of material.  With all the treasures of R & H to choose from, why include the not very funny "Don't Marry Me?" from "Flower Drum Song?" Or the equally leaden "Maria" from "Sound of Music" (even if the arrangement, by Fred Wells. does have a witty cello lick)?

And why, if you're doing "Shall We Dance?" from "The King and I," use it as a pretext for clowning?

On the plus side. there are five songs from "Cinderella" (two sung with particular eloquence by Victoria Clark), a solid comic song from "Me and Juliet" (superbly done by Karen Ziemba) and several numbers from the underrated "Allegro." (Why not at least one of the two good songs in "Pipe Dream"?

There are, of course, plenty of standards, sometimes done with great freshness like "I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair" in splendid three-part harmony or deep conviction, like Martin Vidnovic's moving version of "I Have Dreamed" or Lynne Wintersteller's haunting "Something Wonderful." Jason Graae sings one of their most beautiful ballads, "Love, Look Away," with great power.

With so many great songs and such skillful performers, the evening is, of course, winning. And now that musical theater itself is dead, it's nice to have a place where performers can practice its lost arts. But R & H were also masters of intimate communication, which is why people go to nightclubs in the first place, and this part of their art gets short shrift.