from THE BEVERLY HILLS OUTLOOK - June, 2008

Something Wonderful

An evening of "Something Wonderful," along with other Richard Rodgers' music, spotlighting his several collaborations with Lorenz Hart, Oscar Hammerstein, and a few others was hugely enjoyed by an over-capacity audience at Steinway Hall on May 8. Presented by the close-to-legendary Alan Chapman and his much prettier wife, Karen Benjamin, the charismatic duo literally sang their hearts out.

Their articulate (sometimes funny) patter between the musical interludes gave us a Rodgers history: His early and long collaboration with Hart produced a glittering array of music that endures today: "Manhattan," "My Heart Stood Still," "Isn't it Romantic?," "Blue Moon," "My Funny Valentine," "Falling in Love with Love," "My Heart Stood Still," to name but a thimbleful.

His shorter but lyrically more intense collaboration with Hammerstein birthed Carousel, South Pacific, The King And I, and The Sound Of Music, and produced the most memorable music: "Oklahoma!," "People Will Say We're In Love," "If I Loved You," "You'll Never Walk Alone," "Some Enchanted Evening," "The Sound of Music," "Something Wonderful," "I Enjoy Being A Girl," to name but a half percent of all they composed that live on, probably forever.

Rodgers composed the music and lyrics to the "The Sweetest Sounds" from No Strings with Karen indeed supplying the sweetest sounds to this heartbreakingly beautiful song, expressing love and anguish in equal amounts.

The marvelous presentation, half singing and playing, half historical nuggets of Rodgers' biography and astonishing output of music (some bad, most great) is a hallmark of the Chapman-Benjamin oeuvre of contemporary composers, and is never to be missed. You ain't never heard nuthin' until you've heard Karen belt a crystal-shattering note that alters the organs in your body to make room for such divine sounds.

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