BOBBY SHORT AT BEVERLY THEATRE

Looking a good decade or two younger than his 59 years, Bobby Short--a New York City institution--bounced on stage at the Beverly Theatre on Saturday night, fully prepared to prove that there really is something special about Gotham energy.

In fact, his rare local appearance gave Angelenos an opportunity to share the real secret of what has kept him young--his nonstop, passionate love affair with the classic songs of Tin Pan Alley.

Backed by a 10-piece band, Short was a bit more vigorous, and a bit less esoteric, than he sometimes is with his duo in his continuing run at Manhattan’s Cafe Carlyle.

Sticking with solid evergreens rather than a more typical cafe program of offbeat show tunes, Short chose to showcase both his pixie-like humor and his great ability to perform advanced CPR on the most heart-weary of musical material.

“I Can’t Get Started” took off with a bang when Short added some brilliantly rhymed alternative lyrics that he learned, in his own words, “at Ira Gershwin’s knees.”

His familiar trick of starting with a song’s verse--the brief opening section that so often includes a lyricist’s wittiest rhymes--worked exceptionally well with the rarely heard lead-ins to “Body and Soul,” “Georgia on My Mind” and “But Not for Me.”

If the evening had a problem, it was simply that it was, yes, too short.