Harry Connick Jr. — A Celebration of Cole Porter
Opening Night: December 12, 2019
Closing: December 29, 2019
Theater: Nederlander Theatre
Featuring a vibrant, 25-piece orchestra and a modern, multi-media presentation, this entirely new production brings back to Broadway both the magic of Cole Porter’s compositions and one of the world’s most celebrated live performers. Connick will delight audiences with a signature style that has been called by The New York Times “blatantly seductive” while celebrating Porter’s peerless contribution to the Great American Songbook.
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December 15, 2019
Harry Connick Jr. has got Cole Porter under his skin. And he wants the world to know it. Not only did he recently release an album of Porter songs called “True Love,” but he’s also written and directed a show dedicated to the iconic composer. Titled “Harry Connick, Jr.: A Celebration of Cole Porter,” the show, running at the Nederlander Theater, delivers on the promise Connick wrote in the program notes, “fasten your seat belts; it’s going to be a wild ride.” Alluding to Bette Davis’s famous line from “All About Eve” is appropriate, given the show is a combination of cocktail hour chitchat, swoon-worthy music, over the top theatrical displays, and delicious camp.
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December 12, 2019
It’s the right weather for this sort of show — we need an entertainment, a cozy throw, a weighted blanket, a warm dessert. It’s also the easiest decision you’ll ever need to make about where you put your leisure budget. Go have a listen to Connick on YouTube, singing Porter’s “True Love” from High Society, something he does just this way in the show. Does the big-band arrangement, those trumpets punching right into your breastbone, do anything for you? Does Connick’s Louisiana rasp slow your heartbeat? Are you listening with your eyes closed? If so, snap decision. The rest of y’all (yes, I will be drawling for the next 24 hours; thank you for your patience at this time) might think it sounds cheesy, and you’ll pass. Absolutely fine, absolutely your right. This show is unabashedly for an older, more conservative audience that will applaud when Connick talks about how “young songwriters” are too explicit these days. Porter lyrics were more sensual because he just kind of hinted around, Connick says, and the crowd nods in shared pity for those benighted, unsexy youth. Feed this content to me with a spoon.
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December 12, 2019
Returning to Broadway, Harry Connick Jr. chooses his muse wisely and well, taking the stage in an attractively modern, multi-media setting to celebrate that most sophisticated of the American songbook’s founders, Cole Porter. At its frequent best, Harry Connick Jr.: A Celebration of Cole Porter, opening tonight at the Nederlander Theatre, pairs Porter’s songwriting genius with Connick’s superb musicianship, supple, ear-pleasing vocals and a brash confidence that pushes the music from the comfort of classic pop into bolder, jazzier terrain. Connick, with his years on American Idol, movie screens and concert stages, is certainly the most popular interpreter of American standards, and he takes fine advantage of that good will, unafraid to slip in an occasional dissonance or to slow down a vocal like a train creeping to its halt. Where Connick leads, his audience knows to follow.
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