Director: Richard Jay-Alexander
When Broadway star Hugh Panaro invited a selection of performers to sing alongside him in new show Man Without a Mask at the Crazy Coqs, little did he (or the audience) know that alongside first performance co-star Christina Bianco, there would also be Bernadette Peters, Idina Menzel and Julie Andrews singing The Sun Will Come Out Tomorrow from Annie. When Panaro returns to the stage, a duet of Anything But You from the same musical also heralds Cher, Kristine Chenoweth, Judy Garland, Liza Minnelli, Patti LuPone, Ethel Merman, Louis Armstrong and Barbra Streisand in a joyously entertaining number voiced entirely by Bianco and Panaro. Future guest stars Liz Callaway and Lara Pitt-Pulford will have to bring out something pretty special to top that.
And there is a lovely symmetry in Bianco and Panaro’s stage inspiration even though they only met the previous day. Panaro tells a story early in the show about his admiration for Annie and Sweeney Todd, seeing them both as a teenager, encouraging him to give up dreams of becoming a vet and becoming a musical theatre star instead. Bianco was equally inspired, but by Panaro, seeing him perform in Phantom of the Opera and Les Miserables, prompting a wonderful dream come true moment for the guest star in the middle of the show as she finally duets with Panaro on All I Ask of You and A Little Fall of Rain – one of the finest but often overlooked pieces from Les Miserables.
But Man Without a Mask is primarily Panaro’s show, framed as a series of biographical inspirations that tell the audience a great deal about the performer’s career and the shows that have most inspired him. A favourite moment includes meeting Stephen Sondheim in 2002 who bonded over Sweeney Todd with Panaro performing Ah Miss and Johanna as well as his favourite song Not While I’m Around from that show. Panaro showcases the smooth, deep vocal that has carried him through career highs including singing with Streisand in 2007 on a European tour (You Don’t Bring Me Flowers), performing Make Believe and You Are Love from Showboat, which brought him to the UK in 1998, and the soaring Music of the Night from Phantom of the Opera, a big moment in the intimate Crazy Coqs cabaret space.
One of the great advantages of cabaret is that closer connection with the audience and a chance to see behind the theatricality of staging and storytelling, and Panaro proves a warm and very funny host for this 85-minute show, embracing the musical failures as completely as the successes. He performs a song from the Elton John musical Lestat which ran for only 39 performances and notes losing out on a role in Miss Saigon in successive years despite workshopping draft songs with Hal Prince, and here performs Why God, Why? for an audience who definitely think he should have got the part.
Later in Man Without a Mask, a slight confusion arises when the star talks about playing Jean Valjean in Les Miserables and all the artists who inspired the role but, in that moment, performs Empty Chairs at Empty Tables sung by Marius instead, although it is a minor quibble in a well-constructed and thoughtful music selection. Panaro may not be perhaps as well known here as his illustrious career signifies but in the words of his encore number from Hello Dolly!, It Only Takes a Moment at the top of this wonderful show to realise that the UK has been missing out.
Runs until 08 September 2024
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