Pop Music Reviews : Keel’s Patchwork Quilt: Broadway to ‘Beaches’

Howard Keel is a sweetheart. His program at the Greek Theatre on Saturday was the kind of ever-lovin’, all-purpose musical patchwork quilt that was warm and colorful enough to please just about anyone. Keel may be best known these days as the oil tycoon Clayton Farlow on “Dallas,” but the 70-year-old actor-singer spent the early years of his career as one of the most durable stars of Hollywood musicals. Remarkably, neither his voice nor his powerful stage presence revealed any signs of deterioration.

Keel’s rich bass-baritone cruised easily through medleys from “Oklahoma!,” “Show Boat,” “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers” and “South Pacific.” More contemporary Broadway songs-- “Memory” (from ‘Cats”) and “Music of the Night” (from “Phantom of the Opera”)--were sung with style and understanding.

But his finest moments came during his interpretations of smaller tunes--notably “Wind Beneath My Wings” (from the film “Beaches”) and Jacques Brel’s “We Never Learn.” His empathy for the more interior emotions of songs like these suggested that maturity may have endowed Keel with a creative sensitivity to match the sunny glow of his voice.