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Lee Lessack and Joan Ryan

    Lee Lessack and Joan Ryan were in town for a big benefit concert and they tacked on a one night stand at San Francisco's Plush Room last night.
    Lessack opened the show with Dreamers, a Marvin Hamlisch song with which he also opens his new CD, I Know You by Heart. (See Mark Jennett's review.) Lessack, who is quite firmly established on the cabaret circuit, has a light tenor voice, a sweet and sincere delivery, and excellent articulation that carried him nicely through the long spun out line of this song. He followed with It Feels Like Home, a pleasant enough John Bucchino number, kind of a love song for the settled down.
    Lessack offered a novelty number next, new to us, The Best Thing that Happened to Me -  an "anti-Valentine" he called it, sung to a departing lover; he managed the humor, though romance, not comedy would appear to be his forte. Dreamscape, a Stephen Schwartz (Godspell, Pippin) song, seemed to fall more comfortably into Lessack's vocal range. He offered an outstanding rendition of Soon It's Gonna Rain, a Tom Jones/ Harvey Schmidt classic from The Fantasticks - charming, simple and perfectly suited for him.
    I Know You by Heart, title song from the CD is another kind of soft, schmaltzy piece; Lessack could have used a more varied choice of material in such a short set. He picked up the pace with a swingy Lover Come Back to Me, which also gave him a chance to open up the voice a bit. Perhaps in part due to the sound system, it wasn't especially convincing belting.
    Lessack's sincerity and professionalism make you want to like him, but overall this was not an impressive set. His skills of articulation don't overcome the real limitations of his instrument and the effective dramatic range seems narrow.
    Ryan, on the other hand, is a big talent. Her performance put Lessack's into perspective. Ryan has a BIG voice with an amazingly effective range. Where Lessack's sound feels like it comes from inside his head, Ryan's seems to come from somewhere way down deep inside of her, both physically and emotionally. Right from her opening, Trust the Wind (also the opening number of  her new album), the power and control were evident. She convinced me she could play Peter Pan with I'm Flying and her Rodgers & Hammerstein Shall We Dance was a refreshing nonwaltzy arrangement.
    A novelty song about the challenge of sharing in a new relationship, pleasing the new lover with excursions into his interests (opera, skiing, sushi) was great fun, Ryan displaying first rate comic instincts and timing. She fits right into the Fanny Brice/Streisand tradition. Ryan's extensive acting experience serves her well in the confidence and stage presence she brings to her performance.
    A mother's song to her baby daughter, Moon And The Stars, was a charmer; having three kids gives Ryan some authority here. A  number weaving Once There Was A Love with Bacchianas Brasileiras, also on her CD, allows Ryan to demonstrate not only the power and control of her instrument, but the genuinely beautiful and moving sound she can create with it.
    John Boswell's somewhat florid piano arrangements worked fine for Ryan, but seemed to compete with, rather than support, Lessack.
                                                                                    - Arthur Lazere