On August 13, the Arts Project of Cherry Grove (APCG) treated us to an evening “Over the Piano,” at the Community House, with fine musicians—singers Kyle Torrence and Gillian Hassert and, as Music Director, pianist Matthew Stephens—performing songs familiar and rare, in a sort of piano-bar style, where the voices were consistently excellent.
They started with music from “Hello, Dolly!”—Kyle’s “Put on Your Sunday Clothes,” to and with Gillian, its words updated and adapted (“And we won’t come home until we’ve kissed a boy”); Kyle and Gillian’s tender “It Only Takes a Moment” (“I held him for an instant”); and Gillian’s rousing “Before the Parade Passes By,” with Kyle joining in, and a bright high note at the end.
The singers paired, and blended, Kyle’s rapturous “Almost Like Being in Love,” from “Brigadoon,” with long-suffering Gillian’s “Ooh My Feet,” from “Most Happy Fella,” which was followed by Gillian’s own blending of a rueful “Ten Cents a Dance,” by Rodgers and Hart, and dreamy “Ten Minutes Ago,” from Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Cinderella.” “There must be a sort of decent guy out there,” Kyle sang, wistfully, which Gillian followed with a rather bitter “Down with Love.”
Kyle recalled all “his gay daddies” at Brandy’s, the piano bar, with a romantic “(She’s lucky,) She’s a Woman,” from “Kiss of the Spider Woman,” and Gillian sang William Bolcom’s “Toothbrush Time,” a morning-after qvetch, rife with ambivalence. In a piano bar scene, the singers serenaded Stephens with “Piano Man”—and “Oklahoma!,” “Sweet Caroline” and, from “Rent,” “Seasons of Love,” with audience sing-along and a perfect high note from Gillian. They capped the scene by collaborating on a lyrical “Suddenly Seymour,” from “Little Shop of Horrors.”
The singers gave us their very different takes on “Lover, Come Back to Me,” from “New Moon,” his a bel canto operetta aria and hers a swinging account.
They shared audition stories and songs—her sweet “Bill,” from “Show Boat,” and his, conquering the considerable demands of “Anthem” (“No man, no madness”), from “Chess.” He wound up being cast as Mary Sunshine, in “Chicago,” and showed off his head voice in “A Little Bit of Good,” while she became Ursula, the Sea Witch, in “Little Mermaid,” where she was the cast member not asked to hawk the show as Ariel, and rewrote the lyrics of “Poor Unfortunate Souls” to express her protest against the dinner theater’s rejection of “fat mermaids.”
At the height of the pandemic, Gillian and Kyle participated in a concert featuring out-of-work performers, organized by their friend Maria, who joined them on stage for a haunting “No One Is Alone,” from “Into the Woods.” Resourceful Gillian found out “What Baking Can Do” (“sugar, butter, flour, don’t let me down”), from “Waitress.” Kyle told us about the Cherry Grove partner, Joe, whom he found on Grindr and, obliged to hire a special ferry, identified with Barbra Streisand commanding “Don’t Rain on My Parade,” in “Funny Girl.”
Kyle and Gillian joined voices again in “You’re Just in Love,” from “Call Me Madam,” and, paying homage to Barbra and Judy, paired “Happy Days Are Here Again” and “Get Happy.”
Watch for future performance by these wonderful artists.