Review of Had It Only Begun... by Jan Wallman of Applause! Applause!
Volume VI, Issue 6
February, 2001
(Reviewed 11/21/00 at 11:00 p.m.)
Tom Schmid sings as good as he looks...and that's saying a lot. He's drop-dead handsome and has a glorious voice that could fill a Broadway stage, in fact it does. He's currently on Broadway in Annie Get Your Gun playing the role of Mac and understudying the lead, Frank Butler. He's a real leading man type, tall with a genuine personality that is a natural on the cabaret stage. The show is loosely based on his own life, that of a single guy from the Midwest (Minneapolis) looking for love in New York City. He and musical director Fred Tessler (also a Minnesota boy) have woven some stories together with some songs that fit them into a very good show. There are three songs from Annie Get Your Gun including "They Say It's Wonderful" nicely coupled with "It Would have been Wonderful" by Charles Strouse and Martin Charnin form Annie Warbucks. They have put together another smart combination in Tom Waits' "Better Off Without A Wife" and "The Sadder But Wiser Girl", Meredith Willson's adorable spoof from The Music Man. Come to think of it, this guy would make a great Harold Hill. I can just see him as "The Music Man".
Most of the material in his program is top drawer. However, the less said about an utterly tasteless clinker by the late Steve Allen, the better. Allen was one of our most prolific songwriters and sometimes he wrote some really great stuff. Unfortunately, Schmid chose to do one that was unworthy of both the singer and the writer and I hated it. Never mind, it was the only false note in the show and he redeemed himself in my eyes with a lovely turn on Rupert Holmes' plaintive "The People That You Never Get To Love". This is a beautiful piece of special material that hasn't been heard that often lately but was a cabaret standard done by almost everybody ten or twelve years ago and should continue to have a life.
Schmid packed the front room at Mama's, not an easy thing to do at eleven o'clock on a Tuesday night. There was a goodly group of cast members from Annie Get Your Gun including Cheryl Ladd, a number of expatriate Minnesotans and new friends he has made in his four years in New York. He comes over as such a warm, engaging and talented guy that it is easy to see how he has gathered an impressive following who came to see him in his solo cabaret debut. Let's hope we see more of him soon.
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