Craig Carnelia has a gift for writing lives. His most powerful songs seem to effortlessly capture the essence of a soul's existence, whether it be through a job (like his songs for the Broadway musical Working) or a simple defining action (the breakup song "You Can Keep the TV"). He has been in the musical theatre scene since Working opened in 1978, and had two shows grace Broadway last year. On January 10th, Mr. Carnelia performed songs both old and new in his triumphant return to the cabaret scene, held in the classy and elegant Chase Room of the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark.
Freezing winds blustered through the streets of Newark, but inside NJPAC, the temperature was practically feverish with anticipation. After all, it had been more than seven years since Carnelia had performed his own work in a setting like this, and the audience was eager to see what they'd been missing. There was a tremendous welcoming cheer as Carnelia finally returned to the small stage. Playing quadruple duty of pianist, singer, storyteller, and guitarist, Carnelia gently owned the Chase room with his heartfelt music and the stories behind them. He began with "Cast of Thousands" from Three Postcards, which set up the vivid life-capturing imagery that seems to be Carnelia's speciality. When he played and sang two of his songs from Working, ("The Mason" and "Joe"), the songs perfectly embodied the lives their singers lead.
Time had altered the meanings of some of the songs. For example, he had written the heartbreaking above-mentioned "You Can Keep the TV" before he had to go through such a seperation himself. The ode to the quiet strength of "Cowboys" (from his upcoming musical Actor, Lawyer, Indian Chief) took on new resonance after the world witnessed the quiet heroism of New York City's firemen.
The lovely Lisa Asher took to the mike to sing "Just a Housewife" from Working, and perfectly embodied the frustration the character feels- not at her position, but at the attitude society has towards homemakers. The song was a clear highlight of the evening. She sang the duet "Looking West" with Carnelia, and when her husband Jeff Waxman took to the piano (Carnelia claimed that Waxman played the song better), she sang the beautiful memory piece "The Picture in the Hall".
Carnelia returned to the piano and the microphone to play and sing two songs each from his two most recent Broadway shows, Sweet Smell of Success and Imaginary Friends, with music by Marvin Hamlisch. The titular song from Imaginary Friends, stripped of its clever choreography and second singer, became a bittersweet song of loneliness and solitude, made all the more poignant by the brightness of Hamlisch's music.
Carnelia ended the evening with four personal songs, including one that ought to be the national anthem of composers- "Look For Me in the Songs". His earlier songs captured the essence of other people through what they do or what they feel. This self-portrait of a song captured Mr. Carnelia in three dimensions through his own music.
