Nice Work If You Can Get It, a screw-ball musical “inspired by P. G. Wodehouse and Guy Bolton” set in the Prohibition Era, blends romantic entanglements and great Gershwin music.
Renee Landrigan, a local actor who will remind you of Carole Lombard, plays bootlegger Billie Bendix. Marc Sacco plays a Bertie Wooster clone, Jimmy Winter, who is about to get married for the fourth time. Meanwhile, the local police and the Feds are surrounding the Long Island beach house where all the shenanigans take place, looking for 400 cases of illegal gin.
The silly plot serves to provide two dozen musical numbers, comedic riffs, and plenty of tap dancing around the stage. The sold out theater audience enjoyed the laughs, music, and frivolity Nice Work If You Can Get It served up with zest and fun! Are you a Gershwin fan? How many of these Gershwin songs do you remember. GRADE: B+
I like Gershwin (who doesn’t?). One of my favorite albums is Ella Fitzgerald singing all Gershwin songs (part of the Great American Songbook series, iirc). I also love his orchestral works like “Rhapsody in Blue” and “American in Paris”.
Deb, same here. Love Gershwin and NICE WORK IF YOU CAN GET IT celebrates this style of music with a screwball musical filled with fun and great songs!
Sounds like fun! It’s the kind of show we’d have seen in London.
Yes, I am a big Gershwin fan. We have THE GLORY OF GERSHWIN, featuring the great Larry Adler and with these fascinating (unexpected) performances:
Peter Gabriel, Summertime
Sting, Nice Work If You Can Get It
Lisa Stansfield, They Can’t Take That Away From Me
Elton John, Someone to Watch Over Me and Our Love is Here to Stay
Carly Simon, I’ve Got a Crush on You
Elvis Costello, But Not For Me
Cher, It Ain’t Necessarily So (worth the cost just to hear Cher sing about “that whale’s abdomen”)
Kate Bush, The Man I Love
Jon Bon Jovi, How Long Has This Been Going On
Oleta Adams, Embraceable You
Sinead O’Connor, My Man’s Gone Now (could do without this)
Robert Palmer, I Got Rhythm
Meat Loaf, Somebody Loves Me
Issy Van Randwyck, I’ll Build a Staircase to Paradise
Courtney Pine, Summertime
Larry Adler & George Martin, Rhapsody in Blue
This came out in 1994, to mark Adler’s 80th birthday. He died at 87 in 2001.
Jeff, I think I have THE GLORY OF GERSHWIN around here somewhere. I’ll have to dig it out and give it another listen! And…the Giants are on fire! Aaron Rodgers was pouting after that London game!
Getting Brian Daboll from Buffalo has made a tremendous difference! The Giants are mostly a no-name team whose coaching has made them winners.
Jeff, you’ll see a Big Difference in the Giants NFL Draft with Joe Schoen running things. Better talent, more character guys!
Patti, I’m a fan of “Someone to Watch Over Me.”
I always forget to mention my favorite off-beat Gershwin cover: it’s Bronski Beat doing “It Ain’t Necessarily So”:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BQpYLhiJB-4
Probably my favorite composer of popular music-as Deb said doesn’t everyone like his music. “But Not For Me” is my favorite.