A de-lovely Cole Porter party

A 116th anniversary isn’t the kind of round number that easily lends itself to celebration. But any day’s a good day to recall the extraordinary accomplishments of Cole Porter. The great songwriter’s actual birth date is June 9, 1891, but nobody complained about the earliness of a bash in his honor Tuesday at the Cinegrill, “A Swell Party! -- RSVP Cole Porter.”

Headlining vocalists KT Sullivan and Mark Nadler brought different, but complementary, skills to a show that happily encompassed the familiar (“I’ve Got You Under My Skin”) as well as the lesser known (“Most Gentlemen Don’t Like Love”) from Porter’s catalog. Sullivan, whose Broadway credits include “The Threepenny Opera” and “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes,” was remarkable. Blessed with an extraordinary voice, flawless pitch, splendid interpretive abilities and a droll sense of humor, she was in sync with the rich subtleties of the Porter songs.

Sullivan found the whimsy, the innuendo and the slapstick humor in “Kate the Great” and “The Tale of the Oyster.” A medley of “So in Love” and “Get Out of Town” slyly combined the romantic masochism of the former with the urgent escapism of the latter. And her lush rendering of “Down in the Depths (On the Ninetieth Floor)” was a masterful display of torch singing.

Nadler’s approach was far broader. He was at his best -- playing piano and interacting vocally with Sullivan -- in duet numbers such as “Let’s Do It” (which must have included every variation ever imagined by Porter) and a medley centered around the evocative “I Love Paris.” But Nadler’s solo numbers -- especially the over-the-top take on “Too Darn Hot” -- too often emerged via a narrowly focused intensity that didn’t quite engage the layered emotional density that is always at the heart of Porter’s songs.

It was “A Swell Party,” especially since it took place a day after Porter was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. But why did it have to wait until he was almost 116 years old?

*

‘A Swell Party! -- RSVP Cole Porter’

Where: Cinegrill, Roosevelt Hotel, 7000 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood

When: 7 tonight, 7 and 9:30 p.m. Saturday.

Price: $35

Contact: (323) 466-7000