'Til the Night is Gone

The Age

Thursday November 12, 2009

JIM MURPHY

'Til the Night is GoneDavid Harris, vocal, Bev Kennedy, musical director (Middle Eight)Rating: 4/5DAVID Harris, who excited music theatre fans in Miss Saigon, The Full Monty and a clutch of Production Company shows, makes an equally impressive CD debut, beginning brilliantly with Save the Last Dance for Me. Harris treats it slowly and sensuously, turning potboiler pop into something meaningful. So it goes with the rest of the album. His liquid-light tenor voice, with its beguiling falsetto, clear and devoid of artifice, compels attention to the words. Peter Allen (I Honestly Love You), Dorothy Fields (The Way You Look Tonight) and Maxwell Anderson (Lost in the Stars) are among the lyricists who benefit from his intelligent interpretations. So does Lorenz Hart, even though his Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered was written to be sung by a woman. The program includes You Walk with Me from The Full Monty and reunites Harris with Miss Saigon's Laurie Cadevida for Last Night of the World. Bev Kennedy's reflective piano accompaniments are right on the button but this voice deserves to be heard with an orchestra. Perhaps next time. Harris will perform material from his album in cabaret at the Sofitel on Sunday, November 22.