-- Back Stage

The following are reviews for
"Joan Ryan and a Few Good Men" at the Cinegrill

Joan Ryan More Than Gets By
The singer invites friends to perform with her at Cinegrill. They’re good. She’s better.

By Don Heckman
Special to The Times

Singer Joan Ryan brought some companions along for her Wednesday night opening at Feinstein’s at the Cinegrill. “A Few Good Men” is the way she billed her guest artists: Michael Orland, musical director for “American Idol,” composer David Friedman and musical theater star Sean McDermott.

Their contributions to the show ranged from McDermott’s dramatic rendering of “Piece of Sky” (from Yentl”) and Friedman’s hilarious “My Simple Christmas Wish” to Orland’s brief, supportive piano accompaniment on a single tune.

As good as the “Few Good Men” were, however, Ryan could easily have carried the show on her own. A musical-theater veteran with an impressive vocal instrument and far-reaching interpretive skills, she was a mesmerizing performer, moving smoothly from larger-than-life drama to small, captivating emotional moments.

Ryan’s program extended well beyond the Great American Songbook repertoire that continues to dominate many cabaret performances. Choosing from an eclectic array of more contemporary sources, she found inspiration in Lennon & McCartney (“In My Life”), Leonard Bernstein (“Somewhere”) and Andrew Lloyd Webber (“As If We Never Said Goodbye”), as well as such offbeat tunes as Christine Lavin’s whimsical “Good Thing He Can’t Read My Mind (Sushi).”

Each number was rendered with exquisite understanding of the music and the lyrics, bringing both elements together to penetrate into the heart of her material. In doing so, Ryan’s interpretive span was remarkable.

She sang “Alto’s Lament’ (by Zina Goldrich and Marcy Heisler) with a sardonic understanding of how it feels to be the singer who never gets to sing the melody.

Dramatically shifting gears, she was insightful in a very different fashion in darker tunes such as “It Will Never Be That Way Again” (from “Ruthless”) and “Bring Him Home” (from “Les Miserables”).

A compelling evening of musical excellence.

TICKETHOLDERS
Joan Ryan and a Few Good Men
Feinstein’s at the Cinegrill

By Travis Michael Holder
May 28, 2004

The rare opportunity to see Broadway Baby Joan Ryan in concert is a joy in itself, but when she gives it up to the unequalled directorial hand of David Galligan and brings along talented gentlemen such as David Friedman, Sean McDermott and Michael Orland, the effect is theatrical ambrosia.

Ryan is best known to LA audiences as the mother-turned-diva Ginger DelMarco (nee Judy Denmark) in the long-running hit musical Ruthless at the now-bulldozed Canon Theatre, but the four-octave-ranged Ryan’s resume includes everything from leading roles in New York and on tour to appearances on soap operas, all of which took a backseat to motherhood and a happy marriage (yes, Virginia, there are a few of those left) hiding out deep in the suburban depths of the San Fernando Valley. As Ryan relates jokingly from the Cinegrill stage, “Do you think I wouldn’t give up a couple of sold out nights at Feinstein’s to do a couple of loads of laundry?” Luckily for us, the dirty socks are still in the hamper and Ryan agreed to return to the cabaret scene to treat us with a spectacular evening out.

Beginning with a show-stopping “Tonight at Eight,” Ryan belts her way through the nearly forgotten ballad “As If We Never Said Goodbye” from Sunset Boulevard (now there’s a role she should leave Tarzana to play) and such melodious but obscure treats—I see Galligan’s mental library shuffling through the pages on these choices—as the hilarious “Alto’s Lament,” “Good Thing He Can’t Read My Mind (Sushi),” and a haunting “If I Sing,” which sent this hardened old reviewer into a bout of surreptitiously wiping away a few tears.

Then there are the guest appearances. Composer and self-proclaimed “Jew from the Bronx” Friedman (Disney’s animated Aladdin, among others) offers a wonderfully acerbic tongue-in-cheek wannabe holiday classic called “My Simple Christmas Wish;” Orland (musical director for American Idol) accompanies Ryan for his own composition, “The Moon and the Stars,” a sweet ballad inspired by the fierce love she has for her daughters; and Broadway leading man McDermott, who moved to LA literally the day before this opening night (“Change is growth,” he explains, then adds with a look of mock horror, “Oh god, I really am in LA!”) does an incredible turn with “Piece of the Sky” from Yentl and a memorable melding of West Side Story’s “Somewhere” and The Fantastick’s “I Can See It” in a quintessentially Merman-esque duet with Ryan.

There are two clever video presentations, first with Ryan accompanying figure skaters Jenni Meno and Todd Sand (as she did nightly on their Stars on Ice tour) with King & I’s “Shall We Dance” and a heartfelt “Bring Him Home” from Les Miz, juxtaposed with heartbreaking image after image of our world-weary fighting troops sitting dejected and alone in the Iraqi desert. It’s only a shame Ryan didn’t include a video clip or two of the anti-Christ, George Dubya Bush, leering his continual fat-cat smirk of superiority and looking like an evil kid playing a deadly real game of cops ‘n robbers while a few thousand of our young boys and a country-full of people not allowed a say in their future suffer and die as he falls off his bicycle at his Texas ranch, surrounded by Secret Service men and his own personal physician to administer to the scratch on his chin.

Ryan ends her glorious set with the Lennon-McCartney “In My Life,” a gorgeous “On a Clear Day” and a knockout “Anyplace I Hang My Heart is Home,” which is even better than the dinner fare at Feinstein’s catered by Wolfgang Puck—and that’s saying a lot. Now, if only LA audiences supported cabaret, the Cinegrill could keep an artist such as Joan Ryan testing her world-class pipes long enough for a weekly critic such as me to actually write about the experience before it closes. No wonder I long so often for the cajones to move back to New York City.

For a future schedule of Feinstein’s and a look for the hopeful return of Ryan to play for about as long as Bobby Short monopolized the Carlyle Hotel, call (323) 769-7269.

The following are reviews for
"Ruthless!  The Musical"

"Joan Ryan delivers a smash portrayal of Tina’s mom…a woman who transforms from mousy housewife to imperious star and back again without the assistance of a fairy godmother or a mutant pumpkin, but with lots of help from her own great timing and well-tuned voice."

-- LA Times – Critics Choice

"Joan Ryan is brilliant as the brat’s dazed mother who desperately tries to keep her child off the professional stage but then becomes psychotically trapped in her own theatrical ambitions!"

-- LA Weekly – PICK of the WEEK!

"The cast is brilliant! Joan Ryan as Judy Denmark demonstrates that she is one of the most gifted actors around."

-- DramaLogue

"The performance that got me was Joan Ryan as the tempestuous tyke’s mommy whom fate transforms from Stepford wife to Shannen Doherty in jig time."

-- LA Magazine

"Joan Ryan must go from happy homemaker to egomaniacal star. A range of characterization even Bugs Bunny would be hard-pressed to master. She pulls it off and still looks like she’s having lots of fun!

-- The Edge

"Joan Ryan executes the most difficult role with delightful aplomb…a showstopper!"

-- Daily Bruin

"Joan Ryan’s comic transformation is priceless."

-- Entertainment Today

"Joan Ryan is talented."

-- Hollywood Reporter

"A five-star, 24-karat performer!"

-- LA Reader

"Joan Ryan is flawless."

-- Planet H

The following are miscellaneous reviews
of Joan's various theatre and live performances:

Ah, the illusive exclusivity of stardom! Watching Joan Ryan at work is a mixed blessing.

On one hand, there's that feeling of immense gratitude to be among the crowd packing the tiny Gardenia Room on Santa Monica Blvd. To see her worldclass club act; on the other, it’s hard to imagine what forces of the universe have conspired to make Suzanne Somers a headliner in Vegas and Joan Ryan a Thursday night attraction at the Gardenia.

Joan Ryan should be right up there shoulder to shoulder with the big guys, pure and simple. She can sing a ballad with the forcefulness of Tori Amos, war sequins as brightly as Minnelli, keep’em laughing as uproariously as Joan Rivers, and express raw and honest emotion as profoundly as Piaf.

Perhaps the true irony here is that Ryan does work – she is a regular on a TV soap, although I couldn’t tell you which one. During her act, L.A. Master Musical Director Scott Harlan craftily weaves in the vaguely familiar strains as Ryan “expresses” for the audience the range of typically spoapy emotion (a journey from A to B) she must exude daily before the cameras – about as far afield from her singing talent as one could imagine – but except for midday channel surfing on the occasional sick day, all soaps do for me is bring back shudders of my own five years on one as a kid. I’ll stick to cabaret to appreciate Ryan, thank you.

And so should she, as long as she doesn’t neglect her work in L.A. theatre either, recently most notably as the syrupy mom turned watch-out-world Broadway diva in the delightfully outrageous musical comedy spoof Ruthless!, the long-running former resident at the Canon Theatre in Beverly Hills. But here under the direct glare of Tom McEwen’s lights at the Gardenia, from the moment Ryan steps before the audience – dressed as that Ruthless! Character and dusting our tables as she modifies “Tina’s Mother” to Joanie’s Mother” – the evening is a knockout.

Among my favorite numbers were two slow, contemplative renditions of popular showtunes: “I’m Flying” from Peter Pan and a fascinating arrangement of “Shall We Dance” from The King & I – roles which undoubtedly this theatre gypsy has played on occasion. She is at her Amosest expressing the true poetry of “Strangers Once Again” and is sure to make you mist over a tad with her loving tribute to her three-year-old daughter, “Callie’s Song” (which inventively incorporates a few random strains of the classic “Always”).

There’s a hint of Helen Morgan in “Somebody Loves Me,” only Ryan could add a near-Hebrew touch to “Once There was a Love,” gorgeously accompanied by Jeff Nudell on flute; and next to my friend Beverly d’Angelo, no one has ever brought a better version of Patsy Cline’s “Hurt” to a local stage.

But there is perhaps no moment in this dynamic evening more profoundly touching than the bittersweet ballad “My Brother Lived in San Francisco.” In the moving introduction of this sweetly sad but fiercely proud musical tribute to those lost from AIDS, Ryan mentions that the ever-touring AIDS Quilt is now so long it could spread out to cover 25 football fields.

During the song – surely not the only song about the disease that has ever brought a tear to my eye – I honestly could envision the faces of several desperately missed friends no longer here who so would have appreciated Ryan’s message: Spencer Henderson, Greg Connell, Peter Allen, George Geer, Jimmy Roddy, Michael Smith and so many, many more talented people who did not deserve to leave us yet.

As wonderful as it is to have Joan Ryan right here each Thursday night at the Gardenia, to say she deserves far more recognition would be a tremendous understatement.

But thankfully she has done her homework well, adding to her gifts by employing Harlan as musical director and accompanist, Nudell on flute and sax, and above all, turning over her talents to the best director of cabaret on the west coast – or perhaps anywhere, these days – the nearly legendary Mr. David Galligan.

Ryan closes the evening with two prophetically named tunes: “I’m Coming Home” and “Reach for the Moon.” We all should be thrilled that Los Angeles is home to this amazing performer and, on her way to the moon, don’t miss the opportunity to hitch a ride with a star.

Stage Review

Actress-singer Joan Ryan displayed a charismatic versatility that ranged from waif to woman in her recent stint at the Studio One Backlot Theatre. Ryan’s a performer of power and sensitivity whose act has polish, taste and a distinctive flavor.

In a novel selection of rarely heard songs astutely directed by Michael Chapman, Ryan ranged from a gravelly “I’m So Hurt” to a delicate “Life As a Child,” which had an aura of Brel and Piaf.

Ryan has a rich, beautifully trained voice and an inventive style. Her wide dark eyes and expressive face gave the ultimate advantage to her refreshingly unusual selections. One may not need to hear “Gilligan’s Island” again but its surprise visit was good for a laugh.

A highlight of the program was “A Logical Woman,” in which Ryan’s final notes were echoed by a solo flute. In arrangement and feeling, it echoed the smoky backrooms where bebop and progressive jazz were born. Ryan and her instrumentalist wove a seamless duet that expressed the meaning of the song with haunting sweetness.

A seven-piece ensemble directed by Arte Azenzer backed Ryan with dynamic and imaginative arrangements

-- Laura Hitchcock

"Charismatic... a performer of power and sensitivity..."

-- Laura Hitchcock. Hollywood Reporter

"Can send a chill down the spine.. the lady has loads of talent..."

-- Marty Schaeffer, Michael's Thing

"Mesmerizing..."

-- Michael Shepherd, N.Y. Native

Review from "Music of the Night: The Best of Andrew Lloyd Webber"

"Ryan belts to the rafters such showstoppers as "Don't Cry For Me Argentina" and "Memory" and delivers an exquisite "As If We Never Said Goodbye" from Sunset Boulevard."

The following are reviews for
Joan Ryan's Self-Titled CD

In the musical clutter of the 1990's, Joan Ryan has a voice that soars through the air like a crack of new sun. She's a trumpet, she's an angel, she's the music that makes me dance. I was first decimated by her talent when I heard her awesome voice sailing from the stage in Los Angeles. I stopped in my tracks. I have been a fan ever since. It's a silvery, passionate voice, informed by resonance, control and intelligence. She can explore the nuances of a piercing ballad with the vestigative talents of forensic expert, then ignite a showstopping Broadway melody with the combustion of a freight locomotive on the Pennsylvania Railroad.

Always cutting straight to the emotional subtext of a lyric and leaving the listener pulsing with excitement, she can sing with the soft blush of a rose or the building throb of a Mardi Gras parade. Whatever she does, I cannot imagine ever being bored by what I hear. That would be like becoming bored by an autumn bonfire, a Malibu sunrise, or the 15 colors of red in a box of 96 crayons.

Joan Ryan and her first recorded CD of hand-picked, clutter-free songs are simply marvelous. Listen and see for yourself. The pleasure is contagious.

-- Rex Reed

Joan Ryan debuts with a fully dimensional CD filled with a terrific assortment of modern material along with a sprinkle of two of show tunes. But this is not your mother’s pop mix. It’s a delicious blend of unusual arrangements (two in particular from Scott Harlan) and unexpected directions.

Taking for example I’m Flying (Peter Pan), Harlan underscores notes from Something’s Coming (West Side Story) as Ryan interprets the lyric as you’ve never heard it before. No longer a child’s fantasy, it’s now about a woman on the verge of a new love giving the song an easy intimacy. It’s this kind of inventive playfulness that makes this CD so unique.

The trick is repeated on Shall We Dance; this one augmented with a sexy sax from Phil Feather. Suddenly what was originally a roaring production number has been transformed in an intimate ballad. Purists may take exception to the jazz undercurrent but Ryan infuses the lyric not only with simple direct honesty but returns with her soaring belt building to a dream finish.

What’s great here is that Ryan has also allowed her heart to show especially on My Brother Lived in San Francisco a touching memorial for a lost sibling penned by Bill Russell and Janet Wood from a British musical called Elegies for Angels, Punks and Raging Queens.

The singer’s emotional tenderness reveals itself on Feels Like Home (Diane Warren), not to be confused with John Bucchino’s song, It Feels Like Home, a cabaret favorite. Ryan sings the delicate love song with a gentle simplicity and heart aching clarity. Bucchino is represented though, along with Lindy Robins, on Strangers Once Again put forth with a straightforward whispered quality.

Not every song is a big tour de force or a ballad. Included here is a great version of Christine Lavin’s humorous ode to sushi, Good Thing He Can’t Read My Mind which is sure to make even the toughest grinch break into a warm smile.

Part of the brilliance of Joan Ryan on disc is the singer’s bursting belt. She starts off with Trust the Wind (David Friedman) and displays it with striking force on the complicated West End Avenue by Stephen Schwartz. On A Clear Day she reaches out like a clarion call across the airwaves in a smooth crest which is simply inspiring!

Joan Ryan sure knows how to put together a CD which is filled with gems. Just the right smattering of familiar tunes with unexpected arrangements lovingly performed alongside new and touching ballads make this debut CD one of the finest discs available. Hats off to Joan Ryan.

-- Lesley Alexander

For the Record
by Andrew Gans
Recordings From Joan Ryan, Sian Phillips and David Hare

Ryan’s hope on her recording for the LML Music label, singer/actress Joan Ryan (left) begins with a heartfelt rendition of David Friedman’s newest inspirational ball, “Trust the Wind.” On a slowed-down version of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Shall We Dance?” that Ryan builds to a climactic finale, the singer demonstrates the full power of her chest tomes. Ryan is at her best while belting full force, but she also scores with the gentle “Strangers Once Again,” bringing depth to this bittersweet story of running into a former lover. Other highlights include “The Moon & the Stars,” a charming song about the love a mother feels for her daughter; “West End Avenue,” Stephen Schwartz’s ode to life in New York City; and the heartbreaking tune “My Brother Lived in San Francisco,” a remembrance of a brother now gone. Ryan also has some fun with Christine Lavin’s “Good Thing He Can’t Read My Mind,” which details the many things one may try for love: going to the opera, trying sushi, skiing. The 13-track recording, simply titled Joan Ryan, concludes with a rousing medley of “Follow Me” and the Alan Jay Lerner and Burton Lane classic, “On a Clear Day You Can See Forever.”

Lane Modena

The star of Ruthless! is back with an album. Joan Ryan’s self-titled solo debut features an eclectic mix of standards and new material. Currently on tour to support the album, she will return to L.A. later in the year with a one-woman recital show, which, judging by this recording, is definitely worth seeing.

Based in L.A., Ryan has played different sides of Hollywood, moving from stage to screen with ease. She had parts in a few musicals including Anyone Can Whistle, and Joseph appeared in The Young And The Restless, Saved By The Bell and sang on a few Broadway recordings. She even owns a voiceover company. Her biggest critical acclaim so far came with her portrayal of Judy Denmark in the production of Ruthless! – a role she originated.

The heart of any die-hard Broadway fan will brighten listening to this record. Ryan’s five-octave apparatus soars seamlessly through a range of emotions, from a breathy recitation to a lion’s roar. Her best moments come when the brilliance of technique, that she is deservedly praised for, merges with the genuineness of feeling. Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Shall We Dance” is, arguably, the top selection on the CD. Her emotional rendition of My Brother Lived in San Francisco would touch any heart. As for the rest, the record is true to the conventions of Broadway: uplifting message, skin-deep lyrics and Disney arrangements. As each song ends, you can’t but expect that obligatory ecstatic moment when lifted by the arms of dancers, the diva takes a pause, hits a high, endless note and with her arms outstretched is carried off-stage.

Joan Ryan starred in the original production of Marvin Laird and Joel Paley’s Ruthless! And has appeared in a number of other shows including Little Shop of Horrors, Joseph and The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Elegies and Anyone Can Whistle. Her self-titled debut album reveals a wonderfully straightforward voice of considerable warmth and strength. Her approach to both pop and show material is none the worse for being slightly old-fashioned in its unadorned directness. It is refreshing to hear these songs just sung, with truth, honesty and obvious enjoyment. Her voice is natural and unaffected, with an easy belt when required, and you can actually hear her smiling with pleasure when something in the lyric or melody takes her fancy.

Ryan’s programme comprises a mixture of familiar modern standards and new material. Her interpretation of Paul Willams’ I Won’t Last A Day Without You is touchingly optimistic - a simple declaration of true love without the note of doubt that the lyric might imply. This sunny yet vulnerable quality is particularly affecting on numbers such as Diane Warren’s Fells Like Home and Bruce Roberts and Carole Bayer Sager’s I’m Coming Home Again where Ryan suggests a poignant certainty that bad times really are a thing of the past.

The album’s closer, a medley of Follow Me and On a Clear Day, recorded at a S.TA.G.E. benefit dedicated to the music of Alan Jay Lerner, Frederick Loewe and Burton Lane, is a flash of pure Broadway, the singer taking delight in her ability to spin out the demanding melody with ease while pouring commitment and passion into the heartfelt lyric.
David Siegel’s arrangements are as fresh and free of affectation as the lady herself. Between them they have produced an album of considerable charm.

There are a lot of young girl singers out there with great voices and fine recordings, so Joan Ryan played it smart and got the terrific John Bowsell to handle keyboards on her first recording and had Lee Lessack take charge in the booth.

Enlisting some fine arrangers and skilled musicians, Ryan delivers a 13-song set. Her alternately delicate and powerful voice is showcased in fine form on selections that dust off some chestnuts and polish them up quite attractively – I’m Flying is sung to an accompaniment of Something’s Coming (and works!), Shall We Dance gets a jazz, blues setting – and revisits some tunes that give Ryan a chance to show her versatility – Feels Like Home, Christine Lavin’s Good Thing He Can’t Read My Mind, West End Avenue. But the highlight of this set is Ryan’s tender reading of My Brother Lived in San Francisco, a sister’s tribute to her brother who died of AIDS. It’s a simply stunning moment that will take your breath away.

A News Journal For The Alternative Community Of Syracuse
Vol. 11, No. 2, Aug/Sept 1999

Show Tunes

Joan Ryan (LML Music # LML CD-107) is the self-titled debut solo album by the singer/actress. Ms Ryan’s choice of songs for this album are eclectic and feature both show tunes and new music. The singer brings a new spirit to I’m Flying from Peter Pan, and belts out a jazzy version of Shall We Dance? From The King and I. A live concert recording of Ms. Ryan singing a medley of Follow Me from Camelot and On A Clear Day You Can See Forever, from the CD Lerner, Loewe, Lane and Friends, is one of the highlights of the show music selections. Ms. Ryan’s voice soars over the orchestra and her five octave range is a marvel. One of the new songs on the CD, My Brother Lived in San Francisco, is a beautiful and loving tribute to all of the gay men who migrated from small towns to the big city in search of happiness, only to die before their time from AIDS related causes. The CD also features Feel Like Home, I won’t Last A Day Without You, Good Thing He Can’t Read My Mind, West End Avenue, and I’m Coming Home Again, among others. A very fine album from a talented young woman. – G.K.

If this were an audition recording – it is decidedly more ready for the marketplace that that – Joan Ryan would be immediately recognized as a vocalist who can travel far and wide: theatrical, cabaret, and contemporary. And this asset is applied to a variety of material demonstrating her wide-ranging skills. There’s Rodgers and Hammerstein, Diane Warren, Bruce Roberts, Carole Bayer Sager, and even a haunting selection by Heitor Villa-Lobos, his well-known “Bachianas Brasileiras.” And for pure fun, Ryan is a riot performing Christine Lavin’s delightful “Good Thing He Can’t Read My Mind,” with a story line about a woman who feels she is forced to keep up with her boyfriend's athletic and cultural tastes. Eclectic, winning performances by a strong talent.