STAGE REVIEW : Feinstein’s Solo Show Delivers the Greats in Full-House Style

Michael Feinstein did an exquisite set of Gershwin songs at the “Broadway at the Bowl” benefit last summer, but did he have the stuff to carry a one-man show? That was the question as the lights went down on “Isn’t It Romantic: Michael Feinstein in Concert” Tuesday night at the Wilshire Theatre.

What made it an important question was that this was the first show of the Civic Light Opera season, a season that will include a two-person play, “Driving Miss Daisy.” Pretty slim pickings--if Feinstein didn’t deliver.

Two hours and 15 minutes later, it was clear to everybody that he had delivered. “Isn’t It Romantic” isn’t slim pickings at all, not if you care for the great songs from the ‘20s to the ‘50s, rendered by a fellow who knows how they were put together.

Feinstein may not have a big voice or a huge piano technique, but he’s got brains and taste, and he’s got the energy of a born performer. Shall we say, a born showoff? Probably. There’s an imp here, in the Eddie Cantor tradition. Watch him bounce on the bench as he plows into the second chorus of a number. We can believe it when he grins that “I was a nervous child.”

But Feinstein never shows off at the expense of the songs--at least the good ones. He does throw in a few dogs, for the fun of it. But since he has come to remind us how many beautiful songs did get written back then, the emphasis is on craft, not comedy.

If you like a Gershwin tune, or a Berlin tune, or even a Harry Warren tune (which begins to mark you as a specialist), this is your show. Feinstein is clearly a specialist, of the best sort--the kind who wants you to love his specialty as much as he does.

In terms of repertory, the instant comparison is with Bobby Short. For me, Short remains the king of the saloon pianists. Maybe he’s that for Feinstein, too. We don’t sense that Feinstein is trying to unseat the master, but simply to go at these songs from a slightly different point of view.

Short does a Rodgers and Hart tune with the authority of one who remembers it when it was new. Feinstein, who is still in his early 30s, can hardly remember Rodgers and Hammerstein. He turns this to his advantage. Wow, he seems to say--look at that workmanship.

Reverence isn’t the word for his attitude. That sounds stuffy. But Feinstein holds his breath when he takes some of these songs out of their cases. Not that the song would break--it’s too sturdily fashioned for that--but one doesn’t want to smudge it.

(A small smudge does occur in the introduction to “Isn’t It Romantic?” when Feinstein says “chew” where the word is you . We’re sure that will be polished up in future performances.)

Sometimes Feinstein seems positively forlorn to have been born after all the masters had departed. A forlorn tone suits his voice very well, especially the top notes--in Berlin’s “What’ll I Do?,” for instance.

As a collector, he also comes up with some Berlin songs that didn’t do so well--”I’d Love to Be Shot From a Cannon With You,” for instance. (As Jerome Kern noted, a composer has to plow through a lot of bad stuff to get to the good stuff.)

And--talk about arcane--the very funny last chorus of Schwartz and Dietz’s “Rhode Island Is Famous for You,” where the boys get absolutely giddy and start talking about pencils coming from Pencil-vania.

Act I ends with Feinstein singing a duet with himself on tape, a mixture of “Isn’t It Romantic?” and a Hugh Martin song, “Wasn’t It Romantic?” Act II starts with Feinstein and pianist-conductor Joel Silberman free-associating at breakneck speed: “The Music of the Night” from “Phantom of the Opera” leading to “Come to Me, Bend to Me” from “Brigadoon” leading to “School Days, School Days.”

It’s a witty show, a musical show and, yes, a romantic show. It’s too bad Feinstein isn’t performing the week before Christmas, but there’s always New Year’s Eve.

Plays Tuesdays-Saturdays at 8 p.m., with Wednesday and Saturdays matinees at 2 p.m. and Sunday matinees at 3 p.m. Tickets $18-$30. Closes Dec. 31. No performances Dec. 19-25. 8440 Wilshire Blvd. (213) 410-1062 and (714) 634-1300.

‘ISN’T IT ROMANTIC: MICHAEL FEINSTEIN IN CONCERT’

An evening of songs at the Wilshire Theatre. Presented by James N. Nederlander and the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera. Musical director Joel Silberman. Set Andrew Jackness. Lighting Beverly Emmons. Sound Daryl Bornstein. Orchestrations Ian Finkel. Special material Bruce Vilanch. Additional orchestrations Joseph Gianono, Larry Hochman, Pete Levin, Johnny Mandel and John Oddo. Staged and supervised by Christopher Chadman. With Michael Feinstein.