by Kevin McLaughlin
Many things about George and Ira Gershwin’s 1930 show Girl Crazy set it apart — the cast of future superstars (Ginger Rogers and Ethel Merman), the creativity of the Gershwin brothers, the artistry of orchestrator Robert Russell Bennett — all distinguishing it as a landmark musical. But in the Cleveland Jazz Orchestra and The Musical Theater Project’s ninth annual collaboration on Saturday, January 25 at the Maltz, the songs were the stars.
Though the weather outside was frightful, your heart would have to have been frozen solid not to be affected by songs like “I Got Rhythm,” “Embraceable You,” “Bidin’ My Time,” “But Not For Me,” and “Boy! What Love Has Done to Me” — songs memorable, charming, and tender, that set Girl Crazy apart as one of Broadway’s most endearing scores.
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On a sun-drenched fall afternoon, Sunday, October 20, a lucky few got to hear five new organ pieces masterfully brought to life by five remarkable organists at Lake Erie College. If the music wasn’t conceived for this particular organ — the Skinner opus 647 — it surely benefited from it, not to mention from the architecturally splendid setting of Helen Rockwell Morley Hall.