Cleveland Pops Orchestra

Donald Rosenberg

Plain Dealer Music Critic

It was billed as "Cabaret Nights," a program of selections from Broadway and Hollywood musicals, with more than equal time given over to Kander and Ebb's "Cabaret." Still, the Cleveland Pops Orchestra's concert Friday at Severance Hall might more precisely have been called "The Susan and Sal Show." And no one would have quibbled.

The Pops' guests on this occasion were Susan Egan and Sal Viviano, between them veterans of 12 Broadway shows, and delightful no matter what they sang at Severance. They certainly couldn't have gone wrong in the repertoire department, not with this lineup of gems by the likes of Irving Berlin, George and Ira Gershwin, Cole Porter, Jule Styne, Stephen Sondheim, Jerry Herman, Harry Warren, Jeanine Tesori and the aforementioned John Kander and Fred Ebb.

Both Egan and Viviano possess the pipes to do tender or belt-'em honor to musical-theater fare. And they aren't shy when it comes to personality. Viviano, in particular, is a virtuoso schmoozer who can't seem to make enough contact with an audience. During "Wilkommen" (from "Cabaret"), he assumed an accent that was extremely "vague," as he accurately deemed it, gave updated Indians and Cavs scores, and told stories that kept the pianist and bass players vamping ad infinitum.

Viviano's tenor is quite a golden instrument when he applies it musically. He sent "I Won't Send Roses" ("Mack and Mabel") and "People" ("Funny Girl") into touching orbit, while his gift for ironic narcissism was evident in "All I Care About is Love" ("Cabaret") and his romantic suavity came to the fore in "Begin the Beguine" ("Jubilee").

Egan held the record for more performances as Sally Bowles in the recent Broadway revival of "Cabaret" than any other actress, and one can easily understand the allure. She used her clear soprano and sure dramatic instincts to vibrant effect in "Maybe This Time" (incorporated from the film version) and in the title tune, which she sang aptly with a slight British accent. And Egan was adorable in "Look What Happened to Mabel" ("Mack and Mabel") and "Gimme Gimme" (music by Tesori; lyrics by Dick Scanlan) from "Thoroughly Modern Millie," one of the shows in which she starred on Broadway.

Onstage together, Egan and Viviano generated plenty of ardent and amusing chemistry, whether in "Together" ("Gypsy"), "I Got Rhythm" ("Girl Crazy") or a deliriously competitive account of "Anything You Can Do" ("Annie Get Your Gun").

They didn't completely hog the spotlight, however. Conductor Carl Topilow opened the night playing his red clarinet from the audience in "Hello, Dolly!" as he came onstage to lead his ensemble in a program full of stellar performances, including two Herman overtures. A medley from "42nd Street" found Topilow taking up his regular, black clarinet and wailing with gleeful intensity, while Jason Seber ably kept the orchestra tapping away.

Topilow, Egan, Viviano and the Pops couldn't say farewell, of course, without an encore. The singers poured their still-fresh voices into Kander and Ebb's "New York, New York," yet another reason for them to return soon to "Cleveland, Cleveland."