The New York Times gives the Holiday Show a very thoughtful review. Love that pic, too!
David Hyde Pierce exemplifies the Buster Keaton principle of comedy: If you begin with a poker face, a rigid posture and an attitude of wary passive aggression, all subsequent body language becomes explosively expressive. Add polished singing, and you have something more complex.
At Feinstein’s at Loews Regency, where he is appearing with Michael Feinstein as the latest of Mr Feinstein’s duet partners — following Christine Ebersole and Cheyenne Jackson — Mr Pierce’s transitions from blankness into action are so arresting that you hardly take your eyes off him. The two suggest a Penn & Teller-like pair of refined musical clowns. Mr Feinstein, of course, is not a rampaging bear with his claws out like Penn Jillette, but a swinging crooner with his heart in his hand. But the blend of extrovert (Mr Feinstein) and introvert (Mr Pierce) has similar comic chemistry.
This is Mr Feinstein’s first annual Christmas show not heaped with holiday finery; there are no backup singers in Santa hats and only one Yuletide song in the program. On and off through Tuesday’s opening-night performance, Mr Feinstein and Mr Pierce amusingly played off their Jewish and Gentile backgrounds and their classical (Mr Pierce) and pop (Mr Feinstein) tastes.
Mr Pierce’s animated rendition of the patter song ‘You Won’t Succeed on Broadway,’ from Spamalot which he sang in the show, revealed him to be a natural performer in the Gilbert and Sullivan tradition; his mellow baritone, precise enunciation and innate hauteur evoked an amusing caricature of aristocratic propriety, conjuring not only Buster Keaton but also a pencil-thin, refined hybrid of Victor Borge and Tony Randall.
In a duet with Mr Feinstein of ‘You’re the Top,’ Mr Pierce slipped effortlessly into the skin of a Porter socialite punishing the parquet. His tender side showed itself in ‘Your Face,’ a spare, simple ballad by John Kander about waking up in the morning to gaze into the eyes of a loved one on the pillow beside you.
It remained for Mr Feinstein to sock it to us with passionately belted readings of ‘So in Love,’ ‘What Kind of Fool Am I?’ and ‘A Lot of Livin’ to Do.’ The arrangements for a pop-jazz quintet led by John Oddo, with solos by Mark Vinci (reeds) and George Rabbai (trumpet and flugelhorn), kept the evening’s pulse racing.
View the original article – Extrovert and introvert: refined musical clowns
My goodness the reviews are wonderful. They must be delighted.
This is a very thoughtful piece in the New York times on what makes David so compelling. And, ‘Refined hybrid of Victor Borge and Tony Randall.’ That is praise of the very highest.
And they’ve become a new great double act. I’m very hopeful of a cd. Wish there could be a dvd because I think this deserves a wider audience.
Love the photo!
I really need to hear ‘Your Face’.
I’m so happy the show is going well!!!!!!
I hope too there’s a CD or/and a DVD. I’d give anything to watch him perform “Your face”
Great photo!
I notice that like Niles in the men’s room DHP.org has politely corrected the New York Times, no less, by changing every instance of ‘Mr Hyde Pierce’ in the article to ‘Mr Pierce’.
Why yes. We are very considerate and would rather not be saying ‘sic’ the whole time.