Albums

BENJAMIN SEARS & BRADFORD CONNER, VALERIE ANASTASIO & TIM HARBOLD

Nöel & Cole—Together With Music

PRODUCER: not listed

Oakton Records 1001

Benjamin Sears and Bradford Conner, who form a popular Boston-based cabaret act, own Oakton Records, which has featured the pair on performances of Irving Berlin (two albums), George and Ira Gershwin (two albums), and E.Y. Harburg (one album). With this release, the duo adds the songs of Noël Coward and Cole Porter to the label's catalog. In their skilled, all-out, in-the-shower manner, with the added pleasures of Valerie Anastasio and Tim Harbold, they take on those two pop masters, with each getting half of the 18-song program. Though many show-music enthusiasts will find most of the repertoire familiar, they'll likely be getting an introduction to a lazy-afternoon, bluesy Porter song, "Pick Me Up And Lay Me Down," a 1931 effort from an unproduced musical, "Star Dust." A charming, enthusiastic pairing of two songwriters whose like, unfortunately, the musical theater will never produce again. Distributed by Original Cast Records.