Setting Off a Spark for the Hamptons Summer Songbook

By Katlean de Monchy

While “Schmigadoon” smashes records on Broadway (13 Tony nominations) drawing musical-theater fans, a “friendraiser” I went to at the Triad theater in Manhattan this month predicted a happy summer for like-minded audiences in the Hamptons. The event was thrown by Josh Gladstone and Donna Rubin to herald LTV television’s third annual “Hamptons Summer Songbook by the Sea” series. The eight evenings, from June 28 through August 29, will be at LTV’s studio in Wainscott. Seating will be café style, and VIP tickets will include  signature cocktails and light bites after the performances.

Barbara Fasano perfoming at the Triad Theater on West 72nd Street. (photo credit: Santiago Felipe/Shutterstock)

Some folks think weekends mean $300 cheese platters, hustling party invitations or currying favor with finance bros and c-suite bosses. A more rarified Hamptonite might prefer relaxed jazz stylings, the American songbook, Broadway tunes and Cole Porter, which is to say, cabaret.

I’ve seen Josh Gladstone evolve from his years at Guild Hall to his current role as executive and creative director of LTV studios. He brings his Off-Broadway intelligence and literary sophistication to the East End. He and Donna Rubin, with her background in theater and dance, do programming at LTV, but they are more like a creative juggernaut. A once modest TV station is becoming an incubator for theater, music and artistic conversations that blend New York smarts and an East End enthusiasm.

Josh Gladstone and Donna Rubin produced the “Friendraising” event in New York (photo credit: Santiago Felipe/Shutterstock)

Their “friendraiser” was an intimate gathering, maybe a hundred people. The evening was playful, glamorous, mischievous – which is very cabaret. I especially loved seeing Pamela Morgan bring her culinary sensibility to “I Can Cook Too,” from Leonard Bernstein’s 1944 “On the Town” with lyrics by Comden & Green.

FPO Barbara Morgan was triumphant with “I Can Cook Too” (photo credit: Santiago Felipe/Shutterstock)

Morgan wrung every possible double entendre out of the song, which supplied plenty, from “I’m a pot of joy for a hungry boy,” to “My oven’s the hottest you’ll find… My gravy will lose you your mind.” It felt rogue, like downtown performance art.

Barbara Fasano offered polished sophistication, while Laurence Maslon kept the Broadway spirit alive with his storytelling. David Alpern, deeply involved in the cabaret world, introduced the baritone singer and pianist Eric Yves Garcia, who gave a tribute to Rodgers & Hart. He’s a star.

Then came the finale: KT Sullivan joined Mark Nadler and Broadway favorite Stephanie Pope for a celebration of the American songbook: Sondheim, Kander & Ebb, Lerner & Loewe. It was fantastic.

Eric Yves Garcia is a triple threat: looks, voice, and he’s a piano man. (photo credit: Santiago Felipe/Shutterstock)

After the show, guests, who included Jean Shafiroff in a fairy-tale dress, Julie Budd, Leesa Rowland, Maja Wampuszyc, Alan Ceppos, Ruth Miller and Carmen D’Alessio, went downstairs for cocktails. There was the distinctive, bubbling laughter that happens when theater people are having a great time. They were full on excited about the eight summer performances. We should be too.

Cabaret artists are modern day griots, story-tellers. They know some things. If they’ve got a few years, and don’t hit every note, it doesn’t matter. They are speaking from experience. These performers put on their swanky clothes and create worlds for us, the way Greeks chanted heroic poems, and bards sang about Grendle and Mordor. We need our story tellers, and a few laughs.

Tickets are $80 in advance; $120 for VIP front-row café seats with those cocktails. Information, (631) 315-8818