Edward Chester Babcock was raised in a strictly religious household so when he realized that he wanted to pursue a career in show business he felt compelled to change his name. Thanks to a catchy ad for men’s shirts he became Jimmy Van Heusen, ultimately becoming one of the shining stars of the Great American Songbook as well as a friend and favored songwriter for Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby. His songs are always cause for celebration and that’s just what Deborah Grace Winer provided in her latest Songbook Sundays at Dizzy’s Club with Come Fly with Jimmy Van Heusen.
The cast included Christine Andreas, Gabrielle Stravelli, David Marino, and music director Billy Stritch, who took a few turns at the microphone as well, including a bright and bouncy “Walking Happy” (w/ Sammy Cahn) which opened the festivities. Interwoven with Winer’s adroit narration, each singer had a chance to shine. Marino made an accomplished entrance with a warmly insinuating “Imagination” (w/ Johnny Burke). He returned later with a childlike enthusiasm that filled the room on “Swinging on a Star” (w/ Johnny Burke), his youthful good looks making him seem more like the recipient than the supplier of this song’s sage advice. He literally stopped the show with his final song, creating a rafter-shaking explosion with an electrifying “Call Me Irresponsible” (w/ Sammy Cahn).
Gabrielle Stravelli, who has become one of New York’s “go-to” jazz vocalists, gave the audience a musically intriguing introduction with “I Thought About You” (w/ Johnny Mercer), and then a “But Beautiful” (w/ Johnny Burke) in which the musicality was indeed impressive but sometimes at the expense of the storytelling. While I am not sure that a tribute show is the place to reinvent a standard, the singer’s vocalese in “Like Someone in Love” (w/ Johnny Burke) was expertly done.
Christine Andreas melted hearts from the start with her gorgeously romantic “All My Tomorrows” (w/ Sammy Cahn). She had a lot of fun with the brassiness of “Come Blow Your Horn” (w/ Sammy Cahn) but some of our fun was diluted by an intrusive saxophone that seemed too often to be competing rather than conversing with the singer. A similar impediment arose in what should have been her shining moment (and it still did shine), “Here’s That Rainy Day” (w/ Johnny Burke) the beauty of which was muted by the accompaniment. Here was a moment that could have been a change from the overall sound of the evening—to allow voice and piano to explore the emotional intricacies of the classic song and be given the chance to explore story and melody freely rather than be tied to the confining bass and drums.
That one constant reservation I had took me back to the days when a singer (even a singer like Sarah Vaughan or Peggy Lee) would go into a studio to record an album with all the tracks already laid down without vocals and be forced to sing to the immovable arrangements. The music was well-played, and the vocals were well-sung, but there was often a spark missing—that ineffable spark that occurs when musicians and singers communicate, when musicians and singers create. With singers and players of this caliber that should have been a given.
But that’s what was missing. What was there in Come Fly with Jimmy Van Heusen was very entertaining, in keeping with the longstanding legacy of Songbook Sundays. I’ll be looking out for October’s offering—Leonard Bernstein.
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Presented at Dizzy’s Club, 10 Columbus Circle, NYC, on August 3, 2025.
Gerry Geddes, critic for BistroAwards.com, is an award-winning director, writer, teacher, performer, lyricist, and a contributor to the podcast Troubadours and Raconteurs. He conceived and directed the acclaimed musical revues Monday in the Dark with George (Bistro and MAC Award winner), Put on Your Saturday Suit—Words & Music by Jimmy Webb, and Gerry Geddes & Company (in its five-year residency at Pangea). He has directed singers André De Shields, Darius de Haas, Helen Baldassare, and Lisa Viggiano. He has been active in the cabaret world for over five decades and has produced numerous CDs; his lyrics have been performed and recorded here and in Europe. Gerry’s workshop, The Art of Vocal Performance, is regularly offered to singers of all levels. His memoir of life in NYC, Didn’t I Ever Tell You This?, was recently published and is available at barnesandnoble.com. He is currently at work on his first novel.
