The talented and affable Tim Connell, in his cabaret show Here’s the Thing… at Don’t Tell Mama, shares songs and stories about the diversity of life’s moments. An accomplished singer, dancer and actor with Broadway, Off Broadway and National tour credits, Mr. Connell’s creative team includes musical director and pianist James Followell and director Steven Petrillo.
Growing up as one of eleven siblings plus being a twin could have been a recipe for becoming a lost child. But Mr. Connell, who exudes boyish charm and opened the show perfectly with Dan Fogelberg’s “Part of the Plan”, obviously forged a can-do path and achieved his dreams. Like many of us in the audience, an important part of Mr. Connell’s childhood was listening and singing along to AM radio and having a special connection to The Carpenters, songs ideally suited to Mr. Connell’s smooth light tenor voice. “Yesterday Once More” had just the right amount of ache and “Sing, Sing a Song” just a touch of croon, while with “Superstar”, Mr. Connell told a deeply connected story of a lonely heart. Possessing some skillful comic chops, Mr. Connell sang a cabaret favorite, “Way Ahead of My Time” aka “The Caveman’s Song” from The Taxi Cabaret by the superb New York composer/lyricist Peter Mills and told us about his coming out summer performing at Six Flags; his Six Flags big solo number “Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places” (Johnny Lee) was filled with fun and wholesome naiveté. Skillfully playing in a variety of musical styles, Mr. Followell also added some great backup vocals to several of these songs.
A big part of life’s moments include important relationships. Woven into Stephen Sondheim’s beautiful ballad “No One is Alone” are Mr. Connell’s goodbyes to his mother who’s dying of cancer; singing with heartbreaking honesty, his voice shimmers with sadness. The bond with his conservative father is explored in “Father to Son” (William Finn), a dialogue that aptly describes two generations struggling to connect. Matt Alber’s song “End of the World” links Mr. Connell’s adventures in Italy choreographing West Side Story and a heartthrob named Bruno.
Mr. Connell brought home the message of living life fully with “Taking the Wheel” (John Bucchino). Then with a twinkle in his eye and a wee bit of an Irish lilt, Mr. Connell, singing tenderly and melting our hearts with his sweet tenor voice, reminded us to set the course of our journey by following our dreams, ending the show with an intimate and unplugged “Look to the Rainbow” by Yip Harburg and Burton Lane.
