Pop Music Reviews : Sam Harris: From Quiet to Excess

Sam Harris has come a long way since “Star Search.” One of the big winners in the early years of Ed McMahon’s TV meat market, he sleepwalked through several Motown recordings, then briefly surfaced as a television sitcom writer.

In the last year or so, Harris finally seems to have found the right vehicle for his cherubic good looks and rubbery tenor voice: a well-planned and potentially impressive cabaret act that has drawn favorable notices in New York and San Francisco. He brought it to the Cinegrill on Tuesday for a run that continues through July 6.

Harris’ best moments, almost without exception, were the quiet ones: a lovely, opening a cappella reading of “I’m Always Chasing Rainbows,” a carefully understated rendering of Craig Carnelia’s multileveled “You Can Have the TV,” and a heartfelt interpretation of Stephen Hoffman’s pointed new ballad “I’ll Be There for You.”

Far less appealing were the too-frequent times when he fell back into “Star Search” excess and wrenched the living daylights out of “Cry Me a River,” “Ain’t We Got Fun” and “Over the Rainbow.” His sinus-searing high notes are obviously what Harris’ audiences want to hear, but he is clearly capable of far more temperate and subtle forms of expression.