By Martin F. Kohn
Brent Stansfield, Laura Sagolla, Matt Cameron and Roy Sexton in "Tomfoolery." Photo: Victoria Gilbert
So, how is Tom Lehrer holding up these days? Not the man himself, he's 86 and living in California, but his songs, those hilarious exemplars of subversive wit that without benefit of radio airplay or the support of a major label went viral in the 1950s and '60s, or whatever the equivalent of going viral was back then.
For answers we turn to Ann Arbor's Penny Seats Theatre Company, which has dusted off and freshened up "Tomfoolery," the 1980 revue of Lehrer songs, and is presenting it cabaret-style at a downtown restaurant/pub, Conor O'Neill's, on Thursday nights.
Put together by Cameron Mackintosh (yes, that Cameron Mackintosh) and Robin Ray, "Tomfoolery" offers more than two dozen Lehrer compositions covering topics that range from the way one letter can change the sound and meaning of a word (written for a children's TV show) to sexually transmitted diseases (not written for a children's TV show).
A spirited four-person cast and piano accompanist have a ball with such Lehrer favorites as "Be Prepared" ("Don't solicit for your sister, that's not nice/ Unless you get a good percentage of the price"), "The Masochism Tango" ("You can raise welts/ Like nobody else"), "The Vatican Rag" ("Ave Maria/ Gee it's good to see ya") and "The Irish Ballad" ("She weighted her brother down with stones/ Rickety-tickety-tin…/And sent him off to Davy Jones").
Lehrer didn't just write wickedly funny lyrics. Each of those songs is musically accurate. "Be Prepared," ("the Boy Scouts marching song"), is a sprightly march; melodically, "The Masochism Tango" could pass for the real thing in Buenos Aires; without lyrics "The Vatican Rag" sounds like a ragtime tune circa 1900, and if "The Irish Ballad" were played on fiddle, flute and bodhran it could easily become a standard on St. Patrick's Day.
Other Lehrer efforts now seem like museum pieces. Songs about the Cold War, nuclear annihilation and pollution appear quaint at a time when our bigger worries are terrorism, mysterious diseases and climate change. Overall, though, Lehrer's oeuvre remains highly entertaining.
Matt Cameron, Laura Sagolla, Roy Sexton and Brent Stansfield are lusty singers whose appreciation for the material is fully evident. Pianist Rebecca Biber's accompaniment does the job, but it's a bit restrained, the better to hear the (unmiked) singers, I suppose, but one misses the hearty attack of Lehrer (a fine pianist) in his prime.
Director Lauren London has added inspired props and bits of business to many of the numbers. Especially clever are the posters on sticks – protest signs on one side, guitars on the other – and the way the folks killed off in "The Irish Ballad" eventually rise as zombies.
One practical note: You can enjoy "Tomfoolery" as a stand-alone performance or as a performance with dinner. You'll sit closer if you opt for the dinner and have a better chance at seeing everything.
REVIEW:
'Tomfoolery'
The Penny Seats Theatre Company
at Conor O'Neill's Irish Pub and Restaurant
318 S. Main St., Ann Arbor
6:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 9, 16, 23 (with dinner; 8 p.m. curtain)
1 hour, 20 minutes
$20 with dinner; $10 show only
734-926-5346
http://www.pennyseats.org
