3 commentsFort Worth — Ready for another good news/bad news scenario? Here goes:
GN: There's a terrific musical revue playing currently at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth.
BN: There are only two more performances remaining.
The ideal plan would be to extend the run of Story Songs, or better yet, take this sublimely entertaining show on tour. Oh, wait. That won't work. Too many of the gifted singers have day jobs. Jeanne Jones is a triathalon coach. Molly Moon is an interior designer. Brandon Bolin is a businessman. Tiffany Morgan is a nurse practitioner.
How did these and other diverse talents wind up on a stage singing Broadway show tunes? The catalyst is their mentor, Betty Buckley, the Tony-winner who returned to her Fort Worth hometown several years ago and began sharing her talent and experience with aspiring entertainers. The show at the Modern grew out of Buckley's song interpretation workshops, conducted at the museum
Buckley, who directed "Story Songs," framed it in five sections of three to six songs each. What she achieves is an appreciation of familiar creators such as Stephen Sondheim, Kurt Weill and Cy Coleman, as well as an introduction to a new generation of composers and lyricists.
Angela Davis, a blonde belter with actorly nuance, begins the evening with the aptly titled "The Spark of Creation," from Stephen (Godspell) Schwartz's Children of Eden. Marjorie Hayes, an established performance artist featured in the recent Out of the Loop Fringe Festival in Addison, follows with a portrait of a school teacher near the end of a career marked by the search for "Only One" student whose passion for learning equals her passion for teaching. (Members of the Dallas School Board should be required to listen to this song daily.) Hayes contributes another winner with "Millwork" by James Taylor (from Working).
Hayes probably is the senior member of this ensemble, and Nikki Acosta clearly is the ingenue. This high school senior wrings laughter and applause from "There's a Fine, Fine Line," a saucy love complaint from Avenue Q.
Molly Moon delivers a classy rendition of "My Ship" from the Gershwin/Weill Lady in the Dark, then later skips ahead in time to Sondheim's Into the Woods with an earthy view of the Baker's Wife savoring "Moments in the Woods."
Jeanne Jones wears a red boa—the better to punch across the vampy/campy "You Can Always Count on Me" from City of Angels. Brandon Bolin salutes the Gen-X songsmith duo of Kait Kerrigan and Brian Lowdermilk with "Run Away With Me," then teams with veteran Dave Cave for a delightful dose of "Agony" from Into the Woods.
Tiffany Morgan contributes a poised and poignant "Easy As Life," from the Elton John/Tim Rice Aida. (Pianist Hans Grim is showcased brilliantly here.) Jennifer Taylor struggles with the soaring and challenging "I Dreamed A Dream," but ultimately pulls off this anguished anthem from Les Miserables.
Buckley introduces each section, adding personal insight and memory. She is fiercely committed to the song as an art form, as much so as painting or sculpture. And she pays appropriate homage to her own early teachers: Ed Holloman, Larry Howard and her aunt, Mary Ruth Diltz, a dancer in the 1930s Casa Mañana.
There are other, unspoken connections to previous generations in "Story Songs." Molly Moon is the daughter of Toby Guynn, a respected Fort Worth musician and inventor of the Toby Speaker. And applauding Moon opening night was the singer's pre-teen daughter, Emily Moon, a member of the Kids Who Care performing troupe at the nearby Scott Theatre.
Sunrise, sunset... 
