TV Review : An Uneven ‘Evening With Alan Jay Lerner’

A first-class television revival of an Alan Jay Lerner show would be preferable to 10 star-studded black-tie collections of excerpts from his shows. Nevertheless, “An Evening With Alan Jay Lerner” (at 9 tonight on Channels 28, 15 and 24) has a few moments to remember.

Rudolf Nureyev, of all people, teaches correct English diction in “The Rain in Spain” (and dances more gracefully than most Henry Higginses). A formally dressed Leonard Bernstein, of all people, plays the part of a teen-aged black servant in an excerpt from the Bernstein/Lerner flop, “1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.”

Jane Powell and Lee Roy Reams remind us that Lerner, always billed as a great romantic, also asked the musical question, “How Could You Believe Me When I Said I Loved You, When You Know I’ve Been a Liar All My Life?” (for the 1951 film “Royal Wedding,” also starring Powell with Fred Astaire).

John Cullum sings “On a Clear Day You Can See Forever,” which in 1989 sounds like the perfect precis of ‘80s New Age philosophy. Robert Goulet recalls Lerner’s observation that his partner Frederick Loewe’s elevator shoes were “so high that when he took them off, his ears popped.”

Most of the evening consists of solos, sung straightforwardly but well. Sally Ann Howes and Julie Andrews are in particularly fine form, but Len Cariou sounds a bit hoarse. The one big group number is a brief rendition of the ever-witty “Ascot Gavotte.”

Video director Kirk Browning erred only in a clunky shooting of the trio (Cariou, Cullum and Hal Linden) that sings “One More Walk Around the Garden” from “Carmelina.” But then how often do we get to hear anything from “Carmelina,” an unsuccessful 1979 show?

Of more interest is the second number from the same show, Georgia Brown singing “Why Him,” followed by a grandiose announcement of “Miss Brown’s escort, Sting” (they’re in “Threepenny Opera” together). Sting then does nothing but enter to applause and usher Brown off the stage. It’s an irrelevant bit of grandstanding in an evening that’s supposed to belong to Lerner.

The show was taped Oct. 23 at Lincoln Center.