Having been successful last year with their show devoted to singing works of Stephen Sondheim, KT Sullivan and Jeff Harnar created a second act with more of Sondheim, and the result is that their current show, titled “Another Hundred People,” affords a delightful evening of cabaret with each performer charmingly displaying respective skills. There is one more performance that you can catch in the current series, October 12, 7 p.m. at the Laurie Beechman Theatre.
Wisely, there is no distracting patter, just the sophisticated music and clever Sondheim lyrics, at times sung solo, at times in duet, with various clever couplings of numbers. Under Sondra Lee’s smart direction, the show unfolds with super smoothness and sensible positioning that adds a visual mix instead of having just two stars at a microphone.
The Sullivan-Harnar offering is under the musical direction of Jon Weber, who in addition to being a whiz with his piano accompaniment, obviously takes pleasure in getting into the act on occasion. The program beings with rousing piano solo of “Comedy Tonight,” from “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.”
Sullivan, as those who have followed her career know, has a gifted voice and can put her distinctive personality into a number, as well as be restrained and knowing when a song calls for it. She excels especially with a “Follies” gambit and “There Won’t Be Trumpets” from “Anyone Can Whistle.” Harnar also has a strong voice and can inject humor into a number when called for, as when he sings “Live Alone and Like It,” or menace with “The Ballad of Sweeney Todd.”
Some of the song couplings are fascinating, as when Sullivan sings “The Girls of Summer” from the 1956 show of that title, while Harnar handles the catchy “Sand” from the unproduced “Singing Out Loud.”
Sullivan sparkles with “Like It Was” from “Merrily We Roll Along,” and also from that show, Harnar puts intense feeling into “Not a Day Goes By,” with the duo joining in “Every Day a Little Death” from “A Little Night Music.”
The Sondheim tour also includes numbers from “Into the Woods,” “Bounce,” “Company,” “Saturday Night,” “Passion,” “Sunday in the Park with George” “Sweeney Todd” and “Dick Tracy.”
Sondheim’s works offer a treasure trove of choices, and Sullivan and Harnar provide a treasure trove of highlights in what is clearly geared as an audience-pleasing entertainment. At the Laurie Beechman Theater, 42nd Street and 9th Avenue. Phone: 212-352-3101. Reviewed September 23, 2015.