Just the Barer necessities

An evening of “songs you’ve (probably) never heard” may not sound like the most entertaining event that comes to mind. But singer B.J. Ward’s Tuesday performance at the Cinegrill, using precisely that title, was indeed entertaining and more -- much more.

The songs “probably never heard” all included lyrics by Marshall Barer. To say that the gifted lyricist, who passed away in 1998 at the age of 75, was eccentric would be a major understatement. He was, in his own self-description, “the wafer-thin, rapier-keen, Anglo-sexual, psycho-Semitic, almost unbearably gifted ... Marshall Barer.” And the description, if anything, fails to encompass the full breadth of the talent and the individuality of a writer whose fans included Stephen Sondheim, Cole Porter, Jerry Herman and others.

Ward, in fact, was encouraged to do a Barer evening by Sondheim, who provided her with a tape of many obscure songs, as well as by Michael Feinstein, who joined her for a duet version of Rodgers & Hart’s “Isn’t It Romantic?” and Barer and Hugh Martin’s “Wasn’t It Romantic?”

Ward’s diverse background -- from her witty “Stand-up Opera” show to her work with the Groundlings to dozens of cartoon voices (including Velma in “Scooby-Doo” and Betty Rubble in “The Flintstones”) -- is supported by a well-trained, facile voice and persuasive musical intelligence. Add to those qualities a wry sense of humor and an obvious affection for the material -- precisely what was needed to bring to life the extraordinary Barer songs, with their layered qualities of poignancy, verbal wit and utter political incorrectness.

The program, accompanied in superbly seamless fashion by Michele Brourman, ranged across the broad spectrum of Barer material: his collaboration with Mary Rodgers in the songs from his most successful musical, “Once Upon a Mattress”; songs written with Duke Ellington (“C’est Comme Ca”) and David Raksin (“You Can’t Go Home Again”); outrageously sardonic numbers such as “Shall We Join the Ladies (and Make One Great Big Lady)?” and “There’s a Ju in Every Jury.”

By the close of this entrancing performance, one could only hope that Ward will continue to illuminate Barer’s marvelous words for much more than a two-night run at the Cinegrill.