8Q4 Hilary Gardner: Singing with Sinatra in Twyla’s Dancical

The New York Times raved about Come Fly Away, and the New York Times ranted. But neither the theater or dance critic at the paper of record named the songstress who sometimes sings along with Sinatra recordings and sometimes solos on the stage of Broadway’s Marquis Theater.

USA Today was ready to name names: “The tangy-voiced Hilary Gardner performed elegantly at a recent preview.”

A classically-trained vocalist, Gardner came to New York in 2003 and swept onto the scene. She performed in top venues that include the Allen Room at Lincoln Center, Birdland, Iridium, the Jazz Standard, and Sweet Rhythm. Two years later, she was on the stage of Moscow Philharmonic’s Tchaikovsky Hall and touring throughout Germany.

Gardner is featured on albums by the Kurt Weill Project, the New York State of the Art Jazz Ensemble, and platinum recording artist Moby, among others, and she has a solo album out.    And I’ll come clean here: my son is doing the arrangements and playing guitar on the new recording she has in the works.

I haven’t seen the show yet, but Alison Rogers, a poet who teaches at Hunter College, told me “it’s just pure enjoyment, every scene.”

Rogers wanted to talk to Gardner about her experiences singing with Sinatra. I asked her to ask any questions she had and share Gardner’s answers with us.

AR: What are the technical challenges of singing duets with someone who’s not in the room?   

HG: Actually, my earliest singing memories are of singing “duets” with singers like Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, and, yes, Frank Sinatra. As a kid, I’d sing along to their records for hours in my room.  As a young singer, working with recordings of jazz greats enabled me to really appreciate the nuances of time, phrasing, and lyrical interpretation.  So in a sense, singing duets onstage with Frank Sinatra’s recorded voice is like going back in time to my childhood, when singing along with records was just the purest form of joy I knew.

I now have the great thrill and responsibility of being Sinatra’s duet partner on a Broadway stage every night, backed by a live big band full of unbelievably accomplished musicians.  Before every performance, I make sure I’m vocally warmed up, but even more importantly, I make sure that rhythmically I’m ready to go.  My mentor, Mike Longo, a great jazz artist who performed with Dizzy Gillespie for years, has given me some wonderful exercises involving rhythmic patterns and improvisation.  I do those exercises before every show so that my phrasing is swinging, fresh, and in the pocket.  My number one priority is swinging.

AR: What’s it like being the only live singer in a dance-centered show?

Gardner & Farmer

HG: I sing two songs danced by John Selya and Holley Farmer, I’ve Got a Crush on You and Teach Me Tonight. In both instances, I watch their choreography and try to phrase in a way that is not only musically and stylistically appropriate but that also mirrors the emotions they’re illustrating through their dancing.

Being the only living singer in a Twyla Tharp dance show is also a great honor.  Twyla could easily have opted to just use Frank Sinatra recordings, but she chose to include a live female singer as well, to impart a female perspective.  And having the band onstage with the dancers, rather than hidden in an orchestra pit, indicates a deep respect for the musicians and connects the dance to the music in a fundamental, almost primal, way.

AR: How do the songs relate to the story of the show? Do they tell the story or do they just set a mood?

HG: The songs and the dancing combine to create beautifully complex portraits of different types of romantic relationships.  The intrinsically abstract quality of song lyrics, for me, invites the audience to revisit their own memories of love, loss, reconciliation, and friendship.

AR: What is it like working with an artist like Twyla Tharp?

HG: I adore Twyla Tharp, both as an artist and as a human being.  I believe that her genius goes beyond dance, beyond any specific medium.  This is a woman who is well read and fiercely intelligent.  She has remarkable clarity of vision and she makes zero apologies for her relentless work ethic and ambition. Everything she does is in service to the work.  Along with all her toughness and moxie, Twyla Tharp also embodies deep generosity, razor-sharp humor, curiosity, and receptivity.

Twyla was gracious and welcoming from the beginning.  I trust her completely, because I know she’ll be honest.  And she cares so deeply for her cast; her top priority is making sure we’re all safe and healthy.  I’d admired Twyla for years, having read her books. As a non-dancer, I never dreamed I’d have the chance to work with her, so I pretty much feel like I won the artistic lottery with Come Fly Away.

AR: For someone coming from a jazz and cabaret singing background, what is it like singing a show on Broadway?

HG: Well, this show is a little atypical for Broadway, because it’s pretty straight-ahead big band music. No show tunes!  But I had to find a balance between the freshness and spontaneity of jazz and the considerably more structured, orchestrated world of Broadway.  I’ve been fortunate in that Twyla, very early on, told me that she trusted my musical judgment, so I have been pretty free to find my own way of interpreting the music.

AR: From your perspective, what’s the story being told in Come Fly Away?

HG: Come Fly Away does tell a story. The four principal couples each have their own arc.  One young, naive couple is aglow with their first real love affair.  Another ….the man and woman are as infatuated with themselves as they are with one another; they’re both seeking the spotlight.  A jilted lover finds solace in the arms of a rebound good-time gal. And a fourth couple are on-again, off-again lovers who finally become friends and learn to accept one another.

I also experience Come Fly Away in a more abstract way. The four couples represent, for me, different aspects of romantic entanglements.  We’ve all experienced the heady infatuation of young love. We’ve all felt the heartbreak of loving someone who simply isn’t right for us. And who better than Sinatra to provide the musical foundation?  He could be a jaunty, devil-may-care cad, he could be rueful, he could be buoyant…for me, this show is really about relationships in a universal sense, rather than a character-driven, linear story.

AR: What is it like being integrated into a company that’s worked together before?

HG: The dancers…were really excited, from the beginning, to have the band onstage with them, so they’ve been welcoming and friendly.  And I knew a lot of the guys on the band prior to doing this show, since I’ve sung with so many big bands here in New York.  We’re all having a great time working together.

AR: Do you have anything you would tell potential audience members about seeing the show that you think would enhance their enjoyment?

HG: I would invite audience members to come with an open heart and open mind.  True, an all-dance, no-dialogue Broadway musical is a bit unconventional.  But if you are willing to let go of your expectations of what a Broadway show should be, you’ll experience all the exuberance, joy, and poignancy of Sinatra’s music and Twyla Tharp’s choreography.

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More comments from Hilary Gardner and dancers in the show when a Broadway.com video team went to the opening night party. Video one. Video two.

Also in TFT: Jonathan Mandell offers an interesting discussion of the battle of the critics and a battle involving unions, and he urges readers to “be open to being entertained.”

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Coming soon: I’ll talk to the folks at the Alliance Theater in Atlanta, where Tharp took the first steps toward realizing this production. Also sizzling on the burner: American Idiot, from Berkeley to Broadway and stories about the Trinity Rep Conservatory and playwriting: Can it be taught?