by Daniel Hathaway
This article was originally published on Cleveland.com
CUYAHOGA FALLS, OHIO — Composer and lyricist Cole Porter left New Haven in 1913, taking with him his newly-earned Yale diploma and a portfolio of some 300 songs that already cemented his reputation for witty lyrics and memorable tunes.
Many of those — and many more — would end up between the covers of the Great American Songbook. And also in such endearing revues as Tony DeSare’s “Cole Porter: Let’s Misbehave,’ that played to a large and enthusiastic audience at Blossom on Sunday evening, August 23.
Far from creating a nostalgic excursion down memory lane, the evening’s program presented Porter’s music as a living, breathing organism that might have been written that very morning.
When you think of contributors to the Great American Songbook, one of the first composers that comes to mind is Cole Porter. With some 800 to 1,000 songs to his name, Porter’s music found success on Broadway as well as in Hollywood films.